"Colorful", "regular", "difficult question, we'll see" - if you ask employees in education how the new school year could start, you will come across these answers.
The first of September is near, students are busy preparing to pack their backpacks, schools are being cleaned, and in the last days there is talk of purges of principals and teachers, high school graduates call for a protest on the first day of school.
Alluding to the fall of the canopy on November 1 last year and the events that followed, under the slogan "High school students remember - we are all under the canopy" on the first day of school, according to media reports, high school graduates, with the support of parents, part of the teachers, but also students in the blockade, will hold a commemorative walk on the occasion of ten months since the fall of the canopy, and in some schools they asked the principal to make that day non-teaching, i.e. inactive for everything, except for the reception of new students - champions.
And while the Minister of Education, Dejan Vuk Stanković, says that he expects the new school year to start "normally, solemnly" in September, judging that there is no reason for a "ritual strike" at the beginning, because serious work is being done to improve the financial position of educational workers, not all employees in education are sure that everything will be like that.
What kind of beginning of the school does the minister expect, and what do the trade unions say?
"If it's up to the Ministry of Education, the school year should start solemnly, normally, because our idea is to completely return the educational process to school without the admixture of politics," Stanković told Pink television.
According to him, the last school year "was difficult to say the least" and now he "would like to avoid that scenario".
The Ministry of Education, led by former minister Slavica Đukić Dejanović, played a few days earlier than planned, at the end of the first half of last year. The beginning of the second semester, many educators and students welcomed outside the classrooms, often on the streets, fighting for their own demands, but also the demands set by the students in the blockade, and later supported by other parts of society.
According to Dušan Kokot, president of the Independent Union of Educational Workers of Serbia, the new school year will start "colorfully".
"Smoldering conflicts, especially in schools where there is retaliation that we are now witnessing, that principals who were supportive of colleagues are being dismissed by force, that people who have been on work stoppages, and workers have been on indefinite contracts for years, do not get contract extensions, as is the case in the Fifth Belgrade High School. And certainly in such places, rebellions will break out and we as a union will do everything to strengthen and massify those rebellions. And every hour this type of rebellion, those smaller hotspots can turn into a mass protest again", says Kokot for "Vreme".
Photo: Milica Vuckovic/FoNetProtests by educators
Aleksandar Markov from the Edu Forum, professor of history at the Eighth Belgrade High School, says that the difficult question is what kind of start to the year is expected.
"It is difficult at this moment to assess what awaits us. We have seen in the media that high school students have already announced a protest or a boycott of classes on September 1. I do not know at this moment what will become of all that, but actually if we exclude that, my assumption is that classes will start normally. How the situation in schools will develop will probably depend to a large extent on how the situation will develop in society," Markov told "Vreme".
As he adds, during the previous school year, that is, since the socio-political crisis began, everything that happened in society was inevitably reflected on what happened in schools.
In the Union of Educators of Serbia, they expect a normal start of classes.
"We expect the school year to start regularly and I really hope that it will stay that way for several reasons, primarily because of our students. The working atmosphere for students is disrupted, especially in the second semester. We hope that this year there will be no reason for such things at all," Mirjana Gašić from the Union of Educators of Serbia told "Vreme".
As he adds, everything that happens will dictate their moves.
"We insist that in our society we should introduce the responsibility of everyone who is engaged in their work and in accordance with their responsibilities and powers, if everyone would perform their work tasks, we would not have any problem. If everything was conducted according to the legal procedure and in the scope that implies the given work engagement, we would never even consider the issue of any problem," says Gašić.
Source: FoNet/BeoinfoIllustration
Educators at the forefront of the rebellion
At the beginning of the second semester, part of the educational workers found themselves at the head of the rebellion along with the students. They were looking for the fulfillment of the guild demands, but also the demands set by the students in the blockade.
As Dušan Kokot explains, we should not forget that educators were in the front lines, when they suspended their work.
"We have already broken through the Thessaloniki front, and now we see the wounds of that breakthrough. I am a million percent sure that educators are ready to stop work again, but we want to see other parts of society as well. This is why we were in rebellion last school year and everything that is happening now, is not a trade union fight, it is not a fight for a higher salary, but for a normal society, and that normal society is also needed by journalists and professors and doctors and locksmiths and carpenters. Everyone needs a normal society and clear rules the game that we are all the same before the law", explains Kokot.
Photo: Photo: Tanjug/ Strahinja AćimovićIllustration
Announcement again - the more you work, the more you earn
In the meantime, the salaries of the teachers who were on strike were reduced because of this, and in the end only a few of them remained outside the classrooms. Some were fired, some were charged with a misdemeanor, and teacher from Lazarevac, Olivera Ljubojević, was denied several wages because she persisted.
As she previously clarified for "Vreme", due to her decision not to give up, in the last months, with full 26 years of work in education, she has only several thousand dinars per month - between six and 11.000 twice a month. She received her last full salary in February, for the month of January.
The Minister of Education reiterated that he advocates the position that there is no income without work, adding that every teacher, professor and associate at any level of education has signed a contract with the institution where he works.
"This is a market economy, anyone who doesn't want to work can always quit and look for a better job," he said and added that the Ministry can only appeal in the media, because apart from inspections there are no other mechanisms to prevent the education process from being politicized.
"The teaching process must run independently of what kind of political stance one has," said Stanković.
Mirjana Gašić emphasizes for "Vreme" that almost all the agreements that some of the trade unions made with the Government of Serbia have been fulfilled.
According to her, the January and March increases in salary coefficients have arrived, a new one is expected in October, and a new collective agreement has been signed.
"What has not been done is the agreement regarding the increase of the coefficients or salary supplement for the colleagues who deal with the electronic diary", explains Gašić.
In the meantime, he adds, work has been done with the Government of Serbia on the amendment of the legislation regarding the points of the law that conflict with other by-laws. That process, he explains, is not over.
Support from other sectors
In addition to broader social problems, educators also face problems related exclusively to their work.
Referring to the current situation in some schools where teachers are fired, Kokot says that "those smoldering conflicts can turn into serious dissatisfaction at any moment".
On the other hand, as he adds, he expects the support of parents and society as a whole, as well as other professions.
"I emphasize once again, these are not trade union struggles, they are not just struggles for the position and status of education and its employees, but they are a cry for necessary social democratic changes because this cannot happen anymore," concludes Kokot.
Aleksandar Markov expects that unlike the beginning of the summer semester last school year, the number of teachers who are ready to suspend classes could be smaller.
"In the second half of the last school year, everything kind of broke down for the teachers without some wider support in society. Everyone expected the teachers to be the ones who would bear the biggest burden and when the teachers started to slowly return to classes, I have the impression that a certain number of people condemned them, they simply did not support them in that, that is, they condemned them then because they felt that in some way they betrayed the students and everything that is happening", says Markov.
For these reasons, he believes that to a large extent the energy of teachers has been spent, and whether it will be renewed will depend primarily on society, he adds.
"As responsible members of society, we must take a serious look at the causes and reasons for the dissatisfaction that clearly exists and find the best possible way to solve the crisis we are in through dialogue or in some other political way. This way, if everyone pulls to their side, first of all we will fall apart as a society, that is, the very future of this society becomes, becomes uncertain, and then it becomes quite irrelevant whether the school year is regular or not, if we disappear as a society," concludes Markov.
