- Storm Helene kills 44, threatens more 'catastrophic' flooding
- Boeing strike grinds on as latest talks fail to reach agreement
- Iran 'news' sites, hackers target Trump ahead of US election
- US ports brace for potential dockworkers strike
- Japan's speedy, spotless Shinkansen bullet trains turn 60
- US hurricane deaths rise to 44, fears of more 'catastrophic' flooding
- Global stocks mostly rise, cheering Beijing stimulus
- Europe en route for Moon with new simulator, says astronaut Pesquet
- Fireworks forecast if comet survives risky Sun flypast
- Argentina judge orders dictionary to delete pejorative definition of 'Jewish'
- Global stocks rise on rate hopes, Beijing stimulus
- S.African woman turns 118, among the oldest in the world
- UK clears $4 bn AI partnership between Amazon, Anthropic
- Barca fans barred from Champions League away game over racist banner
- Chinese stocks extend surge, Europe higher on Beijing stimulus
- Pope says Church must 'seek forgiveness' for child sexual abuse
- China caps week of 'bazooka' stimulus for ailing economy with rate cut
- Cuts, cash, credit: China bids to jumpstart flagging economy
- France's debt weighs heavier ahead of budget debate
- Iran treads carefully, backing Hezbollah while avoiding war
- Return to sender: waste stranded at sea stirs toxic dispute
- 'Broken' news industry faces uncertain future
- On remote Greek island, migratory birds offer climate clues
- Taken from mother by nuns, victim seeks answers as pope visits Belgium
- China cuts amount banks hold in reserve to boost lending
- Hong Kong, Shanghai extend surge as China optimism boosts markets
- Vietnam president reiterates support for Cuba during official visit
- Drought reduces Amazon River in Colombia by as much as 90%: report
- Stay or go? Pacific Islanders face climate's grim choice
- Florida bracing for 'unsurvivable' Hurricane Helene
- Poverty rises to over 52 percent in Milei's Argentina
- Chloe's see-through look may not be for Kamala Harris
- Champagne houses abuzz over English sparkling wine
- Macron, Trudeau pledge to work for 'decarbonized' economies
- Hurricanes, storms, typhoons... Is September wetter than usual?
- China stimulus, tech optimism boost stock markets
- 'Unsurvivable' Hurricane Helene races towards Florida
- Macron meets Trudeau in Canada as both face political setbacks
- South Korea surges in UN innovation index
- Chloe's see-through look may not be for Kamala
- Floods threaten Niger's historic 'gateway to the desert'
- China economy hopes boost global equities
- Ubisoft shares sink after 'Assassin's Creed' delay
- German economy to shrink again in 2024: think tanks
- Hong Kong's New World Development replaces CEO Adrian Cheng
- Swiss central bank cuts rate again amid strong franc worries
- Germany's BASF to focus on 'core units' in major overhaul
- China admits economy facing new 'problems', vows to fix property sector
- Stock markets boosted by China hopes, tech rally
- Bangladesh revolution sparks new hopes among Rohingya
Thousand join Hungary teacher rebellion over 'humiliating' pay
Hungary's failing schools are becoming the focus of swelling protests, with pupils and parents backing teachers sacked for rebelling over "humiliating" low pay and years of government neglect.
With supermarket cashiers paid more than most teachers, thousands have joined the protests since the beginning of September, with human chains formed around schools across the country.
Last Friday students burned letters threatening teachers with dismissal near the Interior Ministry, which has been put in charge of education by nationalist premier Viktor Orban, who restricted the right to strike in February.
Another mass protest is planned for Sunday.
Budapest high school teacher Katalin Torley was sacked along with four of her colleagues last month for refusing to teach classes in protest at low pay and severe restrictions on the curriculum, which critics say is biased toward Orban's conservative and nativist agenda.
Torley, who has taught French for 23 years, told AFP her sacking had been "very painful... Teaching is the most important activity of my life. I am very attached to the pupils."
But after years of unsuccessful lobbying for better conditions, "we've had enough... Kicking us out is a message to the others not to dare do the same," she said.
- Tightly controlled -
Hungarian teachers are the lowest paid of any EU member in the OECD at just 60 of other Hungarian university graduates, according to EU figures.
Primary school salaries start around 170,000 forints (410 euros) a month, rising to a maximum of 396,000 (950 euros) for high school teachers -- about the same as what a supermarket cashier earns.
The government acknowledges that pay is too low. But it has tied a planned rise -- to 80 percent of the average graduate salary by 2025 -- to long-awaited EU funding held up over concerns over Hungary's corruption and slipping democratic standards.
But Torley said a pay hike that barely matches inflation "will not be enough" to quell the protests, pointing to "serious structural problems" in education.
Hungary is already in the grip of a chronic teacher shortage, with few young people joining the profession and 40 percent of teachers aged over 50.
According to the EU, the centralised management of schools also leaves school directors with limited autonomy to improve teaching quality, further eroding morale.
As part of sweeping reforms since Orban returned to power in 2010, locally-run schools were nationalised with a central authority controlling textbooks that teachers must strictly follow.
Critics of the hardline anti-immigration Orban say the curriculum is riddled with ideological bias.
- 'System on its knees' -
The lack of a separate education ministry is symbolic of the government's "criminal neglect" of the sector, according to Szabolcs Kincse, of the PDSZ teachers union.
"The Hungarian education system is not falling apart, it is already on its knees," Kincse told reporters Monday.
Underfunding over the last decade has meant that schools regularly have to ask parents for donations towards basic items like chalk and furniture, he said.
And in international comparisons, Hungarian students perform well below the EU average.
"I want my kids to get something out of the education system before it collapses altogether," an IT worker and father-of-two Daniel Fogaras, 43, told AFP at the demonstration outside the Interior Ministry.
For Akos Bozai, a 17-year-old student, the protests "demonstrate our power to tell the teachers, 'We are standing for you, your rights and a better educational system.'"
But he said success would only come "if teachers continue their civil disobedience and strikes."
Y.Jeong--CPN