In 2022, Hungary and the EU agreed on the minimum conditions for a permanent pay raise to make the teaching profession more attractive.Continue reading
Thanks to the wage increase that started in 2022 and will continue this year, the average salary of teachers will reach HUF 844,000 (EUR 2,086) in 2025, said the Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior for Public Education at a press conference in Budapest on Monday. The wage increase will be financed by Hungarian and EU funds: about 10 percent of the increase will be financed by EU money and 90 percent by government funds, with the government earmarking HUF 339 billion (EUR 837.8 million) for this purpose this year.
Katalin Balatoni pointed out that in 2025, the average salary of a teacher reaches HUF 844,000, the salary of a university graduate has reached HUF 653,000 (EUR 1,613), and the salary of the highest-paid head teacher now stands at HUF 1.7 million (EUR 4,200). In addition to these amounts, teachers working in disadvantaged settlements or with disadvantaged children received a further 20 percent increase this year, and those working in shortage areas received a 7 percent increase.
The deputy state secretary also noted that
while in past decades the number of years determined the level of pay rises for teachers, now, with the introduction of performance evaluation, it also depends on the quality of work.
The results are already visible, with an increasing number of teachers in the profession since last year, and the number of teacher training candidates doubling compared to 2022. Last year, 15,000 students started their studies to become teachers, said Katalin Balatoni.
Gabriella Hajnal, President of the Klebelsberg Institution Maintenance Center, highlighted that there was a significant increase in salaries. As an example, she said that
compared to 2010, the salary of a trainee has increased more than fivefold, the average salary of master teachers is over one million forints, and there are school districts where the average salary is over HUF 900,000 due to the many disadvantaged settlements.
According to Péter Horváth, president of the National Teachers Chamber, the wage increase being linked to the average salary of graduates is “reassuring and predictable” and more prestigious than the previous system, when it was linked to the minimum wage. In his opinion, the pay rise will lead to more graduates and fewer drop-outs, and has also greatly improved the “atmosphere” and “institutional climate”.
Via MTI, Featured photo via Pixabay
