“I cannot accept the proposal of the trade union at the moment, I will not resign,” the Minister said in an interview with Latvian Radio.
She acknowledged that she had “received a legacy of an industry with significant challenges” from previous education ministers and will have to talk about the amount of money for teacher pay in the context of next year's state budget.
At the same time, Čakša expects more activity from the union in improving the quality of education, as the results of centralized examinations show that it is necessary to work on it.
"I'm always open to different kinds of talks, but I'm talking about conversations, not manipulation and possibly mobbing in terms of how everyone sees things should be. The Ministry is a policy maker, it is not a granter of wishes," said Čakša, calling on the union to work together to ensure quality education for children.
Čakša told Latvian Television that the trade union has referred to a number of issues that have accumulated in the education system for years in its request of resignation.
“Right now, looking at the things that I have done as a minister, I believe that there is no justification for this. Is what the LIZDA is asking for legally correct? We are talking about strike requirements where there is a requirement for pay increases and load balancing. All decisions related to pay increases and load balancing have been taken. There is a minimum rate increase from early September. This is historically the largest increase,” Čakša said.
