Next Tuesday 28 March, on Teachers’ Day, a large-scale, nationwide demonstration will be taking place to protest against the chronic underfunding of the humanities in Czechia. Academic communities from arts and humanities faculties in Prague, Brno, Olomouc, Ostrava and a number of other cities have declared warning strikes and planned protest marches, as well as a programme of events open to students and the public. I spoke to Mirka Horová from Charles University’s Faculty of Arts in Prague to find out more.
“The point is to try and raise awareness about the conditions that we are working under here and have been for decades. While obviously Teachers’ Day is also celebrating primary and secondary school teachers, and their pay has been amended, rightfully and after a long struggle, our situation is still quite dismal.
“We are working several contracts because the pay we get from our primary job provider is simply not enough to cover basic existential needs, especially at a time like this when prices are soaring. But it’s not just a matter of recent years – it has been like this for decades. There are professors across our disciplines who have to work several contracts – this is unprecedented on an international level.
See the rest here.
Author: Anna Fodor