There have been unrealistic expectations and I don't see what Government could offer beyond the limits of what is possible, Education Minister Daniel Vulchev said on October 31, when asked about negotiations with teachers.

When you lead people, you have to realise where you lead them and offer them realistic goals. Anything else is not responsible, Dnevnik daily reported Vulchev as saying.

Vulchev said dialogue with the teachers would continue, but the question should be what this dialogue would be about, given the fact that the proposed budget for 2008 would be submitted to parliament on October 31.

The budget proposal for 2008 was based on the figures and calculations of the proposed agreement reached on October 26, Vulchev said.

The two largest teachers unions urged protesters to be more modest.

Deputy chairperson of KNSB union Plamen Dimitrov said the limit of what was possible had been reached in the negotiations and from here on teachers who rejected the proposed agreement would be responsible for the outcome of a continued strike.

According to Dimitrov, the threshold of tolerance in society had been reached and strike committees should realise that.

President of KT Podkrepa union, Konstantin Trenchev, said the optimum variant in increasing teachers' salaries had been agreed upon. But the teachers had the right to be unhappy and to continue negotiations, he added.

Representatives of the united national strike committee sent a counter-offer to Government on October 31.

The offer included demands for the support for students to be risen from 933 leva to 1151 leva as of January 2008 and to 1381 leva on July 1 2008, Dnevnik daily said.
 
Unions demand salaries for teachers to go up by 20 per cent as of November 1, not 18 per cent as was the current offer from Government, and for all salaries in the sector to reach 650 leva by July 2008.

By the same date, the start salary for a new teacher would have to be 508 leva, according to the teachers' counter-offer.