Skopje, 22 August 2024 (MIA) — If anyone wants teachers to have a better standard, it is I, their minister and the government [but] I don't want them to get 3% raises, I want them to get 30% raises as soon as tomorrow if that were possible, Minister of Education and Science Vesna Janevska said Thursday in a response to a reporter's question about increasing teachers' salaries.

According to Minister Janevska, she had "inherited" a Ministry of Education budget that "had been spent in six months instead of one year." She said she faced "a huge budget hole" that included uncertain salaries and textbooks as well as unpaid obligations to students.

"I am asking teachers, as I experience them right now, to be guided by the same passion they had when they enrolled their studies, when they chose their profession. Let's push through this year by sheer will and desire to contribute to the students' knowledge, to contribute to the country's progress," Minister Janevska said, adding that teachers would "receive their due" when the state was able to provide it.

"And I, as government minister, will fight fervently. I will fight with the government and with them [teachers] through negotiations so they can get as much as possible," Janevska said.

She added that the government was open to discussions with the unions and that they had never closed any doors to social partners.

"But at this moment, when our country has been in free fall, and the government is trying to stop that free fall, let me say it again: I am not addressing the unions. Teachers have rights like everyone else. I am addressing teachers to have faith in the government, to have faith in the Minister of Education and to rest assured they will not be forgotten and they will be a priority," Janevska said. mr/