The base pay of the teachers working in Chisinau’s suburban schools has been raised by 20 percent. The salary hike was approved this week by unanimous vote of the Chisinau City Council (CMC), Info-Prim Neo reports. At a previous CMC meeting, a number of councillors expressed their indignation at fact that the suburban teachers had been left without a salary hike because of the scarcity of the suburban administrations’ budgets, while their colleagues working in the city had been given a 20 percent raise in January. The Council also promised to consider covering the costs of school meals for the suburban children. The councillors estimated that the salary hike given to the suburban teachers would cost the city’s budget some 6.7 million lei, in addition to 51 million lei earmarked earlier for this purpose. The 2008 city budged provides for expenses of 698.6 million lei for education, which covers about 80 percent of the sector’s needs.