7000 teachers could lose their jobs in Poland this year, due to fewer children being born in the country, says Minister of Education Krystyna Szumilas. She stressed that since 2005, the number of children in the Polish education system has shrunk by 1 million.
Poland’s demographic shift has become a hotly-debated political issue in recent years. Last year, Donald Tusk’s centre-right government raised the retirement age to 67 for both sexes, arguing that the gap between Poland’s number of pensioners and workers is closing.
President Bronislaw Komorowski is now fronting a newly-prepared programme named ‘A good atmosphere for families’, aimed at encouraging Poles to start families in the face of a dramatic demographic drop.
The programme includes some 44 recommendations, including tax breaks, on creating more conducive circumstances for would be parents.
Source: Polskie Radio - nh
http://www.thenews.pl/1/12/Artykul/138834,Population-drop-threatens-7000-teaching-jobs