The Government and the National Assembly did not comply demands of the white strike until October 13, and the members of the Independent Union of Educators of Serbia (NSPRS) started its second phase on Monday, October 14 - by writing an "excellent 5" grade to each student.
That five, if the demands of the white strike are not adopted even by the end of the semester, will be the basis for concluding the "excellent 5" grades, regardless of all other grades that will be given according to objective criteria, in the usual ways.
The president of NSPRS, Dušan Kokot, tells "Vreme" that they submitted three requests to the state back in December 2022, when the students escaped the teachers' chair in Trstenik.
"Therefore, the amendment of the Criminal Code should protect us from adults, not from children." Second, there must be the possibility of suspending the student from the class. He can urinate in class, the law does not allow you to remove him. And thirdly, educational inspections cannot act on anonymous reports. Because of this, teachers work under incredible pressure. All this does not require a single dinar, only political will", says Kokot.
The interlocutor of "Vremen" says that, unfortunately, we have not heard anything since the tragedy in "Ribinikar" and that the sea system is fundamentally changing.
"Look what we got by changing the Criminal Code?" The state seized the opportunity to do a bunch of evil things, and supposedly the law is being changed because of the educators", says Kokot.
Case: "Do you know who I am"?
He also reminds of the case of the mother who beat up the teacher in June biology at "Jovan Dučić" elementary school.
"Does anyone care what happened to the mother of 'You know who I am'?" She was in custody for three days, until the teacher came out of the hospital, so they could listen to her. The child is registered, enrolled in another school and we move on. Is that the way we are going to solve problems?" asks Kokot.
"Give the teacher back the right to be a teacher in class," he says.
"We're not going to bayonet bare-chested for 2500 dinars."
From NSPRS, they expect understanding and support from colleagues, students and parents, although there is still no common agreement with the four representative unions, which were also in September started their kind of strike.
"We teamed up with the representative unions last year and went out together into the streets. This time we did not support the protests because the demands are meaningless. They don't solve any pressing problems. The essence of that strike is that educators receive about 2500 dinars more than what the state offers," says Kokot.
"I'm sorry, that's not something you go for bare-chested with a bayonet," he adds.
He reminds that NSPRS made a systemic proposal for salary last year.
"To solve it as it is in other activities such as the army, police and public companies." There are no strikes there, because the base is calculated as the lowest minimum wage", says Kokot.
As he explains, in this way no one can have a minimum wage and there is a difference in salary between each coefficient.
"We don't have that today. We are in a situation where people with primary school who do physical work and people with high school who do administrative work have the same salary in dinars. It can't be fixed. That cake is rotten. You can't just add new whipped cream," says Kokot.
What do systemic changes mean?
Systemic change means, he adds, that it is necessary to set up a completely new and different way of calculating salary.
"Today, the salary is the product of the base and the coefficient. The base is 5000 dinars, and the coefficient is about 17 dinars. Sorry why does it have to be so complicated? The bottom line is that the base should be the minimum wage, and then the coefficients are agreed from 32 to 1 percent, which can be negotiated. But that would solve the salaries in education systemically, and we wouldn't be chasing our own tails every three months", says Kokot.
He emphasizes that the question for the representative trade unions is why they did not support that proposal, but are chasing 2800 dinars?
"I can be in solidarity, but not if we jump from the tenth floor onto our heads." They use the anger and accumulated dissatisfaction of educators, which exist de facto. And that is completely justified, but it should be used for systemic changes. We can no longer support the wrong policies, because that is exactly what has brought us here in the last twenty years", says Kokot.
Only education without a safe minimum
He reminds that the result of a fifteen-year-old wrong policy is that in 2009, educators earned three times more than the minimum wage. Today, compared to that, after 15 years, they lost, as he says, about 60-70.000 dinars every month.
"Why does it only happen in education?" That ninety percent of people work for less than the minimum wage. So they are brought up to the minimum wage. How can the state contract someone with a salary below the minimum?" asks Kokot.
In this way, he says, tomorrow the state can reduce the base to five dinars and everyone will be on the minimum wage, and everything is in accordance with the law.
"That is unacceptable." "Without a base equal to the minimum wage, there is no progress or systemic solution," says Kokot.
Therefore, he adds, there must be no compromise.
