New schools and kindergartens join the strike for higher salaries in the education branch, strike committee said.

According to the committee, 73 schools and kindergartens joined the protest on the fourth day of the strike, September 27 2007.

The strike would continue with tent camps and demonstrations, mediapool.bg said. The teachers already started pitching tents in a garden in the centre of Sofia. There they collect signatures in support of their demands.

Sofia municipality would allow the pitching of three tents until October 16 or until the end of the negotiations with the authorities.

The strike committee said that the regional inspectorates for education deiform for the dimensions of the strikes.

Teachers’ unions accused Education Minister Daniel Vulchev of manipulating the media and depriving society of the right to receive correct information.

False information was of no use to anyone, the unions said. Even if only 40 per cent of the schools went on strike, as authorities claim, that means that some 50 to 60 000 people protest.

Teachers’ unions called on Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev to ask Vulchev to resign.

The teachers demand a 100 per cent gradual increase in the salaries from October 2007, January 1 2008 and July 1 2008.