Teachers’ law passed by Parliament
July 6th, 2023A left-wing commentator accuses the government side of voting against Hungary’s future, while a pro-government columnist asserts that the new law will improve teachers’ working conditions.
On 444, Gergő Plankó suggests that the new law was passed to punish teachers who have demonstrated for better wages and better curricula for years. He reads the law as restricting teachers’ elbow room in what they can teach, curbing their freedom to criticise the system of public education and making it easier for the government to relocate teachers. He believes that thousands of teachers will resign in protest against the law.
In Magyar Nemzet, Ottó Gajdics retorts that the new law prescribes substantial wage hikes for teachers and special bonuses for those whose performance exceeds the average. He dismisses allegations that the government is deliberately destroying public education as ridiculous and an expression of wishful thinking on the part of the opposition. The Left, he writes, encourages teachers’ protests in the hope that the disruption of public education will stir up discontent against the government.