Teachers start indefinite strike
March 18th, 2022A liberal education expert accuses the government of trying to silence teachers who are demanding higher wages and better work conditions. A pro-government pundit dismisses the strike announced just before the election as a campaign stunt.
On Wednesday, teachers’ unions began an indefinite strike. According to the Ministry of Human Resources, the walkout has been joined by 13 per cent of school staff.
In Portfolio, Péter Radó, an education expert at the Central European University Democracy Institute think tank deems it unlikely that the government will bow to the demands of teachers. The liberal pundit suggests that the government has already used up its resources to ‘buy votes’ for the April election, with price caps and other policies, many of which Radó finds wasteful. The reduction of teachers’ workload is not possible either, he adds, since it would require the complete overhaul of the education system. Radó accuses the government of trying to threaten teachers and frighten them away from participating in the strike.
In a Facebook post, pro-government pundit Zsuzsa Máthé acknowledges that teachers are underpaid. Nonetheless, she accuses teachers joining the strike eighteen days before the election of staging a political stunt, and taking part in the election campaign. Máthé suspects that teachers are well aware that the government cannot solve their problems before the election. She concludes by expressing her gratitude to those ‘reasonable’ teachers who do not join the strike.