Teachers across the country will go on an effective strike at the beginning of next week following Friday's failure to reach an agreement with the education ministry on demanded wage hikes.

The teachers' trade unions want double wages starting from October, a demand that has been persistently dismissed as unfeasible by Education Minister Daniel Valchev.

"There are teachers, who will not join the strike and these should not be hampered in their work if we don't want the curriculum to be totally messed up," Minister Valchev commented after several hours of fruitless talks with the unions.

Representatives of the teachers will take their case to the parliamentary education commission on Tuesday to a demand a 100% rise in wages. The ministry's offer is for a 15% rise as of January 1, 2008 and another 15% as of July 1, 2008.

Earlier in June, Valchev promised that teachers wages would rise by 25%, a move that would cost the ministry BGN 200 M.

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