8 years of unfulfilled promises: teachers demand fair salaries
5 September 07:46
A new e-petition has been registered on the government portal, calling for an increase in the salaries of education workers. The author of the petition is Julian Beck, chairman of the primary trade union organization of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
The petition was registered on September 2 this year. As of September 5, the petition was signed by 18,211 Ukrainians out of the 25,000 required votes.
Why was the issue of teachers’ salaries raised?
The petition refers to the critical situation with salaries in the education sector. At the beginning of the 2025/26 school year, many educational institutions faced an acute shortage of qualified personnel.
The main reasons are:
- insufficient funding for the sector;
- failure to fulfill legislative guarantees;
- overworked teachers;
- low salaries, almost 50% lower than the national average.
The author emphasizes that the provisions of the Law “On Education” that set minimum salaries for teachers and researchers have not been implemented for eight years in a row.
“The Law of Ukraine “On Education” of September 5, 2017 (Article 61) establishes guarantees for the level of salaries of pedagogical and scientific-pedagogical workers. However, eight years after the adoption of the Law, the relevant provisions remain unimplemented. Moreover, the level of remuneration in the field of education lags far behind the average salary in other sectors of the economy, which, according to official data, exceeds it by almost 50%,” the petition says.
What does the petition propose?
Julian Beck calls on the government to:
- to immediately increase the salaries of teachers;
- ensure stable funding for the sector;
- restore social justice and proper support for educators.
“Such conditions limit the professional development of teachers and pose a threat to the quality of education and the formation of the country’s human resources. Education should not be funded on a residual basis, but as an investment in human capital and national security,” the petition says.
The author emphasizes that preserving the prestige of the teaching profession, quality education and proper motivation of teachers are the basis for Ukraine’s sustainable development.
Previous initiatives
In April 2025, a similar petition with more than 25,000 signatures was considered by the government. Back then, the initiators demanded that teachers’ salaries be raised to UAH 15,000 with further indexation. At the same time, then-Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that the budget did not provide funds for this increase.
