Teachers protest in front of Education Ministry building

The Polish Teachers' Union (ZNP) held a picket in front of the Education Ministry building in central Warsaw on Saturday, demanding wage increases and improvements in the education system.

ZNP head Slawomir Broniarz criticised the education minister, Przemyslaw Czarnek.

"Speaking about Minister Czarnek's education policy is something absurd," he said. "There is no education policy, just giant chaos."

Broniarz also complained that Czarnek had not come to a makeshift "education town" that the ZNP had installed near the ministry a week before and said ZNP was not involved in politics and instead wanted "to talk about education".

The teachers demand much higher wage indexation than the 7.8-percentage-point hike that the government has suggested in a draft budget law for next year. They complain that the increase will not compensate them for Poland's record-high inflation, which hit 17.2 percent year on year in September