Education is the foundation of a society and it is socially conditioned. Through it, economic, political, and social capacities are strengthened. Investing in it is always a secure investment. Does this apply to our country? I wouldn’t say so.

"To the wise, a hint is sufficient proof,"

It is known that every country that invests in its education is not coincidentally a wealthy country; for example, Scandinavian countries have some of the best education systems, along with high salaries and a high economic standard. Education and economic growth always go hand in hand.

What are the main prerequisites for a successful education system?

-High salaries for education workers.

With high salaries, teachers are motivated for work, they do not need to take other jobs to survive, and thus they focus on their work to be creative in teaching, to be fully dedicated to their profession, to calmly prepare for the next school day, rather than worrying about how much extra work they will have to do after school hours and coming home exhausted at the end of the day.

Despite all this, our country over the past 34 years has decided to put our education up for total sale or liquidation by completely degrading the teaching profession and putting a cheap price on it. "We increased the salary by 5% in education" Historical increase! No, you didn’t increase the salary; you put education on total sale!

The current salary of education employees does not even reach

figuratively "even for a bag of chips."

Since the formation of this state until today, education salaries should have grown exponentially each year: 22=4, 42=8, 82=16, 162=32. If not exponentially, let it be a linear increase: 2+2=4; 4+2=6; 6+2=8..., because this is the most important social branch. But unfortunately, this did not happen and is not happening. Also, according to many parameters and statistics, investment in science and scientific research and their share in GDP, which is miserable in our country, also places our country in a position of being represented as just a drop in the complete world scientific and research ocean.

On the other hand, in an attempt to justify the miserable salary increases, some laypersons believe teachers’ salaries should be the same and not increased because teachers do not work during summer and winter breaks. This is basic ignorance of learning psychology. Someone invented the breaks so that results from the learning during the school year could be recapped. To rest the brain from learning and to consolidate knowledge.

At the end of the text, you will receive a question that you must ask your child, and if they answer affirmatively, then you may demand teachers to work during the summer and winter periods.

Personally, I believe that even if you increase the salary by 100%, you cannot repay teachers for the fact that your child will be literate, will know how to solve tasks, will know biology, geography, speak foreign languages, be digitally literate, etc.

What is the ideal "utopian salary"?

The salary in education should be, let me throw out a number, 1500 euros net salary, at all levels of education. Only then can you satisfy the economic needs of teachers and have something left for solving housing issues, holidays, recreation, etc. Otherwise, the trend of staff shortages, especially in subject teaching in schools, will continue, which we witness today where you cannot find mathematicians, geographers, chemists, and other similar professions to work in schools.

Where will we find funding for such a salary?!!

The mere increase of salaries for education employees will bring economic growth and development, but of course, high criteria for learning must be set at all educational levels in order for the salary increase to be efficient and effective. It is infantile to seek economic growth and development without increasing investment in science and education. Or to want an increase in the economy with low salaries in education and a weak GDP share in scientific research activity. Natural resources and riches bring the greatest economic growth, and they are most efficiently and effectively utilized through science and investment in scientific activities. A forestry engineer can tell you how to best use cut wood, a geologist can tell you where to find ore or dig a safe and secure tunnel for a highway, a doctor or chemist can tell you the most effective medicinal plants for making medicines, a mechanical engineer can design a line for serial production, etc.

• Higher quality at all levels of education

Higher quality education will produce ready personnel to meet the labor market in all professions, especially we emphasize this for faculties related to teaching and school professions. Universities should sharpen criteria for passing exams, have more practice, better connect theory and practice, applicability of knowledge, etc. I would even go further and more rigorously improve education quality by introducing evaluation or assessment of work solutions in the education sector or audit every 5 years, with the rule that those teachers who do not achieve satisfactory results in evaluations should have their salaries reduced, work licenses revoked for a certain time, etc.

• Better upbringing of children by parents.

A well-raised child is a gift for the teacher. It is easy to work with them.

We witness that half of the school hour is lost in establishing discipline, which results from poor child upbringing by parents.

"The child is mine, I will raise him/her, not you teacher,"

These are hollow statements that parents say only verbally and try to deprive the teacher of the educator role, yet the same parents do not practice these words. Parents, you are the greatest authorities for your child, use that to raise them properly by spending part of your day with them. This is the least you can do to help the education system in our country.

• Work programs

Our education system does not need reinventing the wheel. This especially applies to the countless reforms carried out without seeing their effects and efficiency, such as the introduction of the Cambridge program which according to some teachers does not fit our educational ground. It would be good to bring back the old curricula that produced quality students in the past, "The winning team is not changed." Textbooks which are the link between teacher and students should encourage critical thinking among students and awaken creative spirit among teachers. Taking elements of educational systems from multiple countries without appropriate methodology only results in copy-paste, and success cannot be expected.

Finally, the question you should ask your child:

Would your child sit in school benches while outside hellish heat dominates?!

Written by: Safet Bekiroski - graduate pedagogue