Polish president asks teachers to suspend strike for exams
PR dla Zagranicy
Alicja Baczyńska
09.04.2019 08:30
Polish President Andrzej Duda has called on protesting teachers to suspend their strike for junior high school exams starting on Wednesday, according to a report.
Polish President Andrzej Duda speaks at a meeting with residents in the western town of Sulęcin on Monday. Photo: PAP/Marcin Bielecki
Thousands of schools and kindergartens in Poland have cancelled classes after teachers went on a nationwide strike over pay on Monday morning.
The protest began just before key exams at various levels of education.
"I ask all teachers, my countrymen and women, that they enable young people to take their exams peacefully,” Duda said while in Słubice, a town in the west of the country, on Monday.
At the same time, the president voiced his “solidarity” with teachers and said they had the right to expect “decent remuneration” for their work, Poland’s PAP news agency reported.
Duda said that teachers were hardworking people who strove to “do their job the best they can."
He added that they “should be adequately paid; they have the right to have such an expectation and I stand alongside them in this respect.”
Duda last month appealed to Poland's government and teachers to sit down for talks amid a dispute over pay.
Last-ditch talks on Sunday evening led by Deputy Prime Minister Beata Szydło saw the Solidarity trade union agreeing to government proposals. But the offer was deemed insufficient by two other unions pressing for a 30-percent pay hike.
The government has insisted that school exams will take place regardless of whether industrial action breaks out, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency has reported.
(aba_gs)
Source: PAP, IAR