Population drop threatens 7000 teaching jobs
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
18.06.2013 10:58
Minister of Education Krystyna Szumilas has confirmed that about 7000 teachers could lose their jobs in Poland this year, due to fewer children being born in the country.
Minister of Education Krystyna Szumilas. Photo: Polish Radio/W. Kusinski
“These potential dismissals come to a little under 7000,” Szumilas said in an interview with Polish Radio on Tuesday.
Szumilas stressed that since 2005, the number of children in the Polish education system has shrunk by 1 million.
Heads of Polish schools were obliged to warn staff about potential dismissals by the end of last month.
However, Szumilas believes that the numbers will not become clear until September, once it has been established how many children are starting the academic year.
Poland's demographic shift has become a hotly-debated political issue in recent years.
Last year, Donald Tusk's centre-right government raised the retirement age to 67 for both sexes, arguing that the gap between Poland's number of pensioners and workers is closing.
The ratio of Polish workers to pensioners is currently at 3:1, but it has been estimated that by 2040 it may well be 2:1, and by 2060 1:1.
President Bronislaw Komorowski is now fronting a newly-prepared programme named 'A good atmosphere for families', aimed at encouraging Poles to start families in the face of a dramatic demographic drop.
The programme includes some 44 recommendations, including tax breaks, on creating more conducive circumstances for would be parents. (nh)