The teachers' Joint National Strike Committee (JNSC) Wednesday drew up a new 18-point offer to the Government for raising teachers' salaries and warned that the strike is getting out of control and is escalating into a civil protest, BTA reports. The teachers from Varna, Rousse, Vratsa, Pernik, Yambol and Dobrich have resigned en masse from the education system by Thursday noon.

At the same time, the trade unions sent letters to all EU ambassadors in Bulgaria, requesting them to help the 130,000-plus strikers with food, medicines and prime necessities.

The trade unions have abandoned their demand for a pay rise of 20 per cent in three steps, proposing concrete figures instead. They want the average gross monthly salary in secondary education to become 532 leva (272 euros) for the teaching personnel and 289 leva (147 euros)for the non-teaching personnel as of November 1, 2007. By July 2008, these figures should become 772 leva (394 euros) and 417 leva (213 euros), or 650 leva (332 euros) on the average for the entire sector respectively. Teachers will thus receive a minimum of 520 (265 euros) and a maximum of 920 leva (470 euros).

According to the government proposal, the average gross salary of teachers should reach 650 leva by the middle of 2008, with starting salaries at 440-450 leva and 785-800 leva for top grade teachers.

Comparing items in the draft agreements put forward by the Council of Ministers and the trade unions, Education and Science Minister Daniel Vulchev said that an additional 200 million leva are needed for the 20 per cent three-step pay rise and that such funds are not available.

Another point in the unions' offer calls for public spending on education of not less than 4.7 per cent of GDP and 1,151 leva in maintenance per pupil in 2008.

These demands are formulated in five points of the JNSC offers, on which the strikers will not concede. The offer is to be discussed with the Government Thursday afternoon.

According to the Education Ministry, at 8 am on Wednesday 48 per cent of all schools in the country were striking, which is 1,407 out of a total of 2,958 schools. Speaking to reporters after meeting with regional education inspectors, Milka Kodjabashieva of the Education and Sciences Ministry said they had discussed various options for making up time lost due to the strike, including the restructuring of material and reducing holidays to increase schooling days.

An opinion poll shows that the public has got tired of the strike, MBMD director Mira Yanova said Wednesday. She was presenting the results of a nationally representative poll on the political attitudes ahead of the local elections, held among 1,208 adult respondent October 19-23. In the MBMD poll, 49 per cent of respondents believe that the strike should end altogether, 22 per cent say it should continue with symbolic protests and 24 per cent say it should continue untill all demands are met. 37 per cent do not support the teachers' actions in the past month and some 59 per cent are supportive.