Minister of Education Slavica Đukić Dejanović, who took over the post afterwards tragedies in elementary school "Vladislav Ribnikar" she said that this tragic event made us all think and do everything so that it never happens again.
"The Ministry of Education planned the beginning of the school year in a different way. It started with educational methodology in relation to children, since schools are educational institutions. Greater attention was paid to the segment of creating a child's personality, that the child respects other children, the older one, that he respects diversity, that he has the desired value system," the Minister of RTS.
When asked if it was determined how it happened that it was recently in the same school a student brought a knife, Slavica Đukić Dejanović said that the MUP authorities have taken all actions and that this is particularly sensitive data because it concerns minors.
"We from education still don't have any information about it. "It is probably still being determined what is happening and the Ministry of Internal Affairs is doing its job within its powers and procedures," says the minister.
According to her, special measures of psychological work are with the boy whose backpack was found with a knife, his friends, his parents and those who reported suspicion that a knife was in one of the backpacks.
There are 2.600 pedagogues and psychologists working in Serbia
"The fact is that we failed somewhere in the educational component and that it must be given incomparably greater attention." And that is only possible if all participants in the school, including parents and teachers and children, work on that problem and strengthening the educational function," says the minister.
As reasons for the collapse of the educational component, he sees the value system of adults who are models for children, the influence of the media, probably due to aggression that is promoted as a lifestyle.
"It is certain that the whole society sends models to children for identification with their messages," she stressed.
There are 2.600 pedagogues and psychologists working in Serbia. According to official data, there are 3.210 elementary schools in our country.
The minister says that after the events in Ribnikar, regardless if the school is small, it must have a psychologist and a pedagogue if the personnel potential of that environment allows it.
"We have another problem. A small number of people opt for teaching professions," says Slavica Đukić Dejanović.
When asked how the reputation of educators can be restored, the minister said that parents, educators, children, the government must all help restore their reputation.
"It is common for us to expect a child to come to school with a decent level of knowledge and upbringing from his family. Unfortunately, there are many dysfunctional families, not only here in Serbia, but in general. "These modern trends and the speed of life we have, the professional obligations parents have, often lead children to periods of solitude that last for several hours," she noted.
Parents bring in lawyers to fix their children's grades
Recently, a physical education teacher went public and said that he received a list of students with whom he is not allowed to have physical contact in class, which is always a good thing when you are doing a difficult exercise, and on the other hand, we have examples where parents bring lawyers and thus correct the children grades.
The minister says that she has been informed about all these cases and that in November they brought legal amendments and amendments related to the content of work in schools.
As she said, the obligation of the Ministry is, when the National Assembly passes the law, to pass regulations within six months that will specify the legal norms and create procedures for implementing those laws.
"Regulations are what is quite topical these days because one of the regulations concerning violence entered into force on February 22 and it has caused some controversy. Controversy in the sense that some people thought it was good that Article 50 of the Rulebook states that if XNUMX percent of the parents of a class think that a teacher is not doing his job in accordance with the rules and expected behaviors, they can contact the school and ask the school to check it. , pointed out Đukić Dejanović.
After that, as she clarified, the director and the professional council analyze the parent's objection that arrived and evaluate whether it is founded or not, if it is unfounded, they reject it and inform the parent about it, and if it is founded, they react.
About mental health
The minister emphasized that in order to bring the competence of a school's teachers to the desired level, we have to be a little bit of control to each other.
"Control is first of all the internal supervision of the school, then external supervision, then the inspection services, but parents can also have the opportunity to possibly submit their objections to the school, and the school should take care of the analysis, first of all, of everything that may be written in that objection, especially if more than 50 percent of the parents of a class have the same objection," the minister said.
"Knowledge about mental health and the stability of mental health, recognizing someone who has a psychological problem is the responsibility of every person. Bringing a greater level of knowledge about mental health into schools is by no means a substitute for lessons in maths, geography or any subject. On the contrary, it is an additional activity in which work is done especially after crisis situations, traumatic situations, and in prevention to strengthen the mental health of all actors of education. It is something that is simply one step forward", says Slavica Đukić Dejanović.
