Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Education, Science and Innovation Serhiy Babak says the authorities intend to raise salaries for teachers after the end of the war.

"As for the salaries of teachers. Most of all, I want their salaries to rise, and the president also wants this most of all. Raising the salaries of teachers was planned in the first year of COVID-19. But at that moment they realized that they needed to keep medical workers in the country, so that they do not go abroad, because they were immediately offered very attractive salaries in Eastern Europe. Therefore, there was a need for doctors to urgently raise salaries and agree that next year, at least to the same level, we raise teachers' salaries. Unfortunately, there was a full-scale war that destroyed all plans. But this will be the first thing that will be done after the war – raising teachers' salaries," Babak told Interfax-Ukraine.

When asked whether the authorities were afraid that those teachers who went abroad in connection with the war would not return to Ukraine, including because of low salaries, the head of the committee replied that it was impossible to increase it earlier, since all income of the budget go to the Armed Forces, and social payments are funded by international partners.

"And to tell them that we here during the war decided to raise the salaries of teachers – finance it. Our partners will tell us: 'With all due respect, we are trying to help you, the amounts are measured in tens of billions of dollars, and you want to give us another billion? Well, or borrow. This is the simplest populist way out: to raise salaries now, to borrow money so that our children can give it back later. We cannot afford it and do not want to do this," Babak said.