New funding model lifts average teacher pay, but some cut wages

Teachers’ average full-time monthly pay rose by €118, from €1,449 to €1,567, this school year, but salaries have fallen at some schools, LSM reported, citing data from the Ministry of Education and Science.

The increase was recorded across teachers working with different grade groups. It came mainly after the introduction of a new school funding model, “Program at School”. The first salaries under the model were paid in early October. It provides an additional €45 million for teacher pay in the remaining months of this year and about €90 million a year thereafter.

In Tukums municipality, some schools have cut teacher pay, the head of the municipal education department, Iveta Skrastiņa, told Latvian Radio. She said one reason was falling student numbers, which reduced funding. Teachers at Zemgale Secondary School could be particularly affected: although the school received several thousand euros more per month, money for support staff and administrative salaries was taken from the teacher pay budget.

LSM also reported that school principals’ salaries had not risen everywhere, that some calculations were found to involve bad faith, and that teachers’ workloads still need to be assessed. Teacher salaries have increased in Riga.