"Instead of giving teachers additional payments on holidays, it would be more appropriate to increase their salaries."
Education expert Ramin Nurəliyev, commenting on the issue to AzEdu.az, stated that a phased increase in salaries would be more appropriate in the long-term perspective, and in this case, the need for additional bonuses would also decrease.
"On special days and holidays, many institutions provide employees with various bonuses, salary supplements, or special gifts. However, the Ministry's and the overall number of teachers being quite large requires significant financial resources for such rewards. The main reason why teachers fall behind in receiving such bonuses is precisely related to this factor.
In some institutions within the education sector, cases are also observed where employees receive rewards in the form of salary supplements on special days and holidays.
Since the number of teachers is large, the amount to be allocated must also be sufficient. According to him, considering approximately 150,000 teachers, paying 1 manat to each teacher means 150,000 manats, and paying 10 manats means 1,500,000 manats in funds. If each teacher were to receive a bonus of at least 200-300 manats, this would require more than 15-20 million manats, which is a considerably large sum."
The expert believes that it would not be a correct approach to give bonuses to one group of teachers and not to another.
"Precisely for these reasons, the issue of providing holiday bonuses to education workers, especially teachers, is not currently on the agenda. A phased increase in salaries could be a more sustainable and appropriate solution, and in this case, the need for additional bonuses would also decrease."
