Unacceptable! Most Hungarian teachers live in poverty

Teachers in Hungary are likely to strike, and many of them expressed that they have a problem making ends meet.

In a previous article, Daily News Hungary wrote that the pay gap between foreign guest teachers and Hungarian teachers at the university level was tremendous.

Foreign guest teachers can get as much as 10,000 euros as a stipend at Mathias Corvinus Collegium, while younger educators under the age of 35 may get 5,000 euros. Free travel, health insurance, visa, accommodation, an office, participation at conferences abroad, and some money to spend are included in the stipend. For comparison, it is worth mentioning that Urkom Aleksander, an assistant professor at ELTE, disclosed the information that in Hungary, an assistant teacher with a PhD and obligations to do research and have publications earns as little as 542 euros a month at a university.

“I had to ask myself, why are most of my colleagues in a bad mood? Why are there any drop-outs at all when this [teaching] is already such a ‘glorified’ profession? And why does an assistant professor in Hungary have to take on 3 part-time jobs to be able to make a living at all? Do you think this is the shame of university lecturers or the shame of the country? University education should finally be appreciated!” – he wrote in a Facebook post.

But the stark reality is weighing on educators even more, as 97.4% expressed they have issues with making a living. Teachers’ salaries are low, and educators lose considerable amounts of money, 3-5 million forints (EUR 8,630 − 14,383) per year individually because their wage is set taking into account the minimum wage of the year 2014. Many teachers have a decent living only because their spouse or partner makes more money.

According to the research done by PDSZ, 3.6% is completely satisfied with the wage, 8.5% is rather satisfied with the wage, but 45.2% is completely unsatisfied, referenced portfolio.hu.

Due to the low pay, teaching is not an attractive career, and a shortage of educators willing to take these jobs is going to have a very serious negative impact on education in Hungary. There will not be enough teachers and too many unfilled empty positions in the field.

Someone in the survey wrote in her answer that her husband thinks that a teaching job is a “costly but beautiful hobby”, and other responses show that many teachers do not have the finances to sustain a healthy diet.

40% of respondents chose number 7 (completely true) about the statement that “I have difficulty managing the costs of a healthy diet.” In comparison, only 1.8%, 44 respondents, marked number 1. 54% of those who have children said that it was difficult to manage the finances of raising a child, completely agreeing with the statement, while 86.9% indicated that this statement was rather true.

Source: portfolio.hu, Daily News Hungary