Education Budget: Government Promises Teachers an Average Salary of 75,000 Crowns, Economists Are Skeptical

In its policy statement, the Czech government pledged to raise the starting salary for teachers with a university degree to 50,000 crowns, while Education Minister Marian Plaga stated the goal of bringing the average teacher's salary up to 130% of the national average wage. According to him, after the figure fell to 108% under Petr Fiala's ODS-led government, it should rise to 110-111% this year.

Under the Finance Ministry's draft, the Education Ministry's budget for next year is set at 287.9 billion crowns — 1.4% more than this year. However, this sum covers not only teachers' salaries but also spending on science, sport and other areas under the ministry's remit. Back in early September, Plaga said his ministry's draft budget was short by at least six billion crowns, of which around three billion is needed to cover the legally mandated funding of private and church schools.

What Economists Say

According to economists' estimates, simply preventing a real-terms drop in teachers' salaries next year compared to 2026 levels would require adding around 10 billion crowns to the education budget. Reaching the 130%-of-average-wage target, meanwhile, would require roughly 35 billion crowns more.

Economist Daniel Münich from the IDEA think tank at CERGE-EI notes that the Finance Ministry is forecasting overall wage growth in the economy of 6.2% in 2027. He points out that just to maintain the 2026 status quo, the Education Ministry's budget would need to grow by exactly that percentage — rising from the current 284 billion to 303 billion crowns. "The Finance Ministry's proposal is far from the trajectory that would actually lead to the promised average teacher salary of 75,000 crowns in 2029 — and even then, that would only amount to 122%, not the legendary 130%," the expert stressed.

Where the Money Will Go

The total volume of wage-related spending in the state budget is expected to grow by around 36 billion crowns next year, but this money is not earmarked solely for teachers — it also covers salaries across the entire public sector and spending on new staff, including 1,500 soldiers, 1,500 police officers and 285 school psychologists.

The largest share of the Education Ministry's budget goes to regional school education and directly subordinate organizations, which are set to receive around 220.4 billion crowns — 13.4 billion more than currently. Universities will get roughly 35.9 billion crowns, slightly less than this year, though Plaga says funding specifically for universities' educational activities will rise by about a billion crowns.

Education Spending Compared to the OECD

According to OECD data, in 2022 Czechia spent 3.6% of GDP on education from primary school through university, compared with an OECD average of 4%. Including private spending, the figure for Czechia reached 4.2% of GDP, versus an OECD average of 4.7%.

Petr Musil, a member of the National Budget Council, believes it's not worth fixating on the share of GDP, since this indicator doesn't account for the population's age structure. In his view, a fairer measure is per-pupil spending adjusted for purchasing power parity: in secondary education, Czechia is comparable to Finland and New Zealand and ahead of most post-socialist countries. In primary and higher education, however, the country still has room for improvement.

The full picture of the state budget should become clear after Monday, when the government plans to approve it. According to the Finance Ministry's published draft, total state spending next year is set to reach 2.578 trillion crowns, revenues 2.189 trillion crowns, and the deficit 389 billion crowns. However, according to statements from ruling coalition representatives, the deficit could still be reduced by several billion.

Source: novinky.cz