The increase of the minimum fine for parents of violent students from 30.000 to 40.000 dinars is one of the novelties brought by the amendments to the Law on the Basics of the Education System (ZOSOV). The law entered the parliamentary procedure, and deputies should vote on it in the fall.
An increase in the fine is provided for parents if their child violates the articles of the law that define the prohibition of violence, abuse and neglect, as well as the prohibition of behavior that offends reputation, honor and dignity.
The minimum fine has also been increased from 5.000 to 10.000 dinars, if a parent violates the article of the law that regulates parental responsibility. This refers to the child's enrollment in preschool and elementary school, the obligation to attend classes regularly, but also for the parent to justify the student's absences, to take an active part in all forms of educational work with the student at the invitation of the school, and more.
The increase refers to minimum fines, while the maximum in both cases can be up to 100.000 dinars.
Education or draconian punishments
The spokeswoman for the Branch Union of Educational Workers Nezavisnost (GSPRS), Vesna Vojvodić Mitrović, told the "Vremena" portal that for the first time there was talk of increasing fines for parents after the incident at the Trstenice school. At the end of last year at the Technical School, students slipped the English teacher's chair, recorded everything on their phones and posted it on social networks.
"During the December meetings of the working group for the prevention of violence on the occasion of the Trestne events, the proposal of the then minister Branko Ružić and his associates was also related to increasing the fines for parents.
At that time, I was of the opinion that such punishments do not have to be favorable for the school and social context. Because draconian punishments in this political system are used as a demonstrative example, and they cannot be more significant than the educational work that a young person experiences as a significant punishment if it is adequately implemented", says Vojvodić Mitrović.
After the event in Trstenik, measures were defined that must be implemented in order to better protect students and teachers in schools. However, violence among children and young people got out of control after two mass murders at a school in Vračar and the surroundings of Mladenovac.
Fines endanger the whole family
"Punishment is not an incentive if it will threaten the existence of the child and his family. In this way, the child will not understand that his behavior is socially unacceptable. Especially in relation to what has become acceptable in public discourse and on the political scene.
I think that such punishments will not hit the target, in the sense that there may be other children in that family who will be endangered by it. The punishment that the family suffers will not reshape the bully, but will cause a greater motivation to re-direct their frustration towards the school", says Vojvodić Mitrović.
Novelties in ZOSOV include the possibility of increased educational work with students who commit violence or exhibit problematic behavior outside of school, as well as the possibility of socially useful work and engagement of students within the framework of increased educational work, shortened deadlines for initiating and conducting disciplinary proceedings in more serious cases violations of student obligations.
A student, against whom disciplinary proceedings are being conducted, will no longer be able to withdraw from the school while disciplinary proceedings are being conducted. The law also stipulated the obligation of more intensive cooperation and communication of all institutions dealing with protection against violence - schools, MUP, Centers for Social Work, local communities.
"The proposals of the working group would certainly be more effective, but they were not respected. If a student who committed a serious violation of his obligations is suspended for five days, the teacher is obliged to send him teaching materials. That's the punishment for the teacher then.
Our idea was that such a student, in peer cooperation, could access the teaching materials he missed during the suspension. Through social networks, meeting with friends, to show how he has progressed with their help.
The child, together with his peers and social contacts, comes to the conclusion that, as young people would say, it is not cool to be a bully", explains Vojvodić Mitrović.
As our interlocutor says, this type of insistence on increasing the fine has a more significant political than social dimension.
"It has no close connection or effectiveness in real life, we only have the impression that something has been done," she adds.
Grade in government from the second grade of elementary school
The novelty brought by the changes and additions to the ZOSOV is the numerical evaluation of governance from the second grade of elementary school. So far, the numerical evaluation has been carried out from the sixth grade. Governance will be assessed in the first and second semesters.
The proposal also states that the school is obliged to prescribe the use of mobile phones and other electronic devices by a general act, and that guidelines for the use of mobile phones, electronic devices and other means are issued by the Institute for Evaluation of the Quality of Education.
For any form of peer violence (physical, verbal, sexual, digital), the school is obliged to conduct an educational and disciplinary procedure of which it informs the parent or other legal representative of the student.
Disciplinary proceedings are initiated by the school principal, who informs the parents of the students. The director leads the procedure and ends it with a decision. In the educational and disciplinary procedure, the student, with the presence of parents or other legal representative, as well as all other participants and witnesses must be heard and give a written statement.
Sanja Zrnić
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