Teacher: Babiš has no vision for education, and school budgets are being cut again

The Czech Republic's draft state budget for 2027 allocates 287.9 billion crowns for school education — even though Education Minister Robert Plaga (ANO) spoke back in late August about a figure of 292 billion. According to Michal Kaderka, head of the Teachers' Platform, the current draft falls short of even covering mandatory expenses by roughly six billion crowns.

Kaderka, who teaches media studies, history and civics at a secondary school and has led the Teachers' Platform (which brings together more than 400 active teachers) since May, says the government is going back on its own election promises. The ANO movement had called education a priority, ruled out cuts, and pledged to bring education spending closer to the OECD or EU average.

Spending share is falling again

According to the expert's calculations, the share of GDP spent on schools will fall again in 2027 — from roughly 3.52% to 3.38% — as the economy and wages grow faster than education funding. The trend of shrinking relative school funding began under the previous government, but teachers had hoped the new cabinet would reverse it.

Kaderka argues that if the authorities genuinely wanted to honor their own commitments and bring Czechia closer to OECD standards, the Education Ministry's 2027 budget should stand at around 334 billion crowns — roughly 46 billion more than the current draft.

The promised 75,000-crown salary in doubt

The expert also cast doubt on the government's pledge to raise the average teacher's salary to 75,000 crowns by 2029. To hit that target within three years, salaries would need to rise by about 12% next year alone — yet the plans call for an increase of only 3–4%. Kaderka points out that experience shows a clear pattern: when salaries rise, interest in the teaching profession grows; when they stagnate or fall, people start leaving the schools.

Under the Finance Ministry's medium-term budget forecast, education spending is actually set to decline gradually — down to 269.6 billion crowns by 2029. Kaderka warned that under this scenario, schools will fall even further behind: there won't be enough money not just for teachers, but for special education staff, psychologists and other specialists, even as the burden on schools keeps growing — from supporting children with special needs to tackling educational inequality.

Constant changes are eroding teachers' trust

Another problem, according to the head of the Teachers' Platform, is chronic uncertainty: schools need to plan years ahead, yet funding for things like school psychologists or targeted support for schools with a high share of disadvantaged students is still not guaranteed.

Kaderka pointed to a string of abrupt decisions by Minister Plaga: postponing the new framework education program, talk of changing the rules on delaying school enrollment, and scrapping and then reinstating preparatory classes. Preparatory classes, for instance, were set to be abolished from 2029 by a parliamentary vote last year — including ANO's own support — yet are now being brought back. The expert believes such constant reversals have bred "extremely deep distrust of the state" among teachers, and the reason lies in the fact that "policy is being made on social media" and boils down to loud statements and TikTok clips.

"Babiš has no vision at all"

Kaderka also commented on a recent proposal from Deputy Finance Minister Petr Macinka (SPD), who claimed that scrapping the ninth grade of primary school could save the state 50 billion crowns a year — an idea publicly backed by Chamber of Deputies Speaker Tomio Okamura and Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, forcing the education minister to personally explain to his colleagues that this simply isn't true.

"Andrej Babiš has absolutely no vision of what education should look like, because he simply isn't interested in it," Kaderka said. He recalled that as finance minister, Babiš had claimed there were too many high school graduates with a school-leaving certificate and that there was no need to prepare children for "Industry 4.0," since he was short of workers at his poultry farm. According to the expert, the prime minister views education through the eyes of an employer who has no use for ambitious employees — and it's extremely dangerous for a system when fields like education, healthcare or security are judged by people whose qualifications have nothing to do with those areas.

Source: novinky.cz