He said the salary of Romanian career-starting teachers is a net €50 more than that of their Hungarian counterparts and they have to teach only 18 hours a week.

The government promises to make the profession more attractive to starting teachers by giving them a 10% pay raise, but Totyik said this is inadequate, as the average salary of career-starting teachers is just 55% of the average salary of career starters with a degree.

Totyik said the power of the private sphere to lure teachers away is considerable, as, for example, nobody will work for a gross monthly salary of Ft 390,000 as an IT teacher, if they can get Ft 1 million at an IT company.

MTI Photo: János Nemes