The Sarajevo Canton (KS) Government has found a way to partially meet the demands for a rise in salaries for the teachers who protested in the capital on Wednesday, KS Education Minister Elvir Kazazovic told N1.
Several hundred people gathered to protest for higher salaries for those working in the education sector in the Sarajevo Canton (KS). The teachers want their base pay to be raised from BAM 290 to BAM 330, a 14 percent increase.
The lowest salary for teachers in KS is currently BAM 1,070.
The teachers warned that, should their demand not be met, they will not be available for the first two classes on Monday morning.
Kazazovic said that the KS Government held a meeting after the protest.
‘The demands of all employees in the KS are justified. The Canton managed to secure a rise in the base pay, but not enough,’ he said, adding that talks over by how much exactly the base pay will increase are ongoing. The KS Finance Minister is now to analyse how large of an increase the KS budget can endure, he added.
‘All unions were present at the meeting, we spoke in a positive atmosphere. I hope everything will be solved within the next 10 days,’ he said.
Kazazovic also spoke about the issues children with special needs are facing in KS. Those children did not begin school on September 3, when the official school year began.
Their parents staged a protest last week. They demanded that the KS Government finds a way to fund inclusive education, and they asked for Kazazovic to step down.
The core issue is the lack of funding for educators for the children but a solution for this problem will also come soon, the Minister said, adding that a meeting the issue is to be discussed will take place on Thursday.
‘We secure BAM 10 million yearly on various government levels for this, which portrays that this Government is inclusive and that it showed understanding,’ he said.
He explained that an NGO led the process of educating children with special needs in KS and that it did a good job with it. However, the number of such children keeps growing and so do the requirements, so a new school had to be designated for educating them, he said.
The NGO has to fully take over the process, he said.
‘We want to fund educators, although not all have official diplomas. We are determined to have them be part of the system,’ he said, explaining that the system ‘does not recognise people educated by an NGO’, but that the KS Government wants to include all of those educators who have done quality work in the past.
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