Divide and Conquer: Why Don't We Help Educators?

IT professionals, private companies, foundations and citizens managed to collect 137 million dinars in a few months to help employees in education who do not receive a salary. The government punished them because they stood up to fight for student requirements.

A little more than a million euros collected was enough for 8.220 assistants and associates, those who registered as socially vulnerable, to receive a symbolic amount of 10 or 20.000 dinars. He is among them there were mostly sick educators, as well as families where both parents work in teaching.

If this figure is compared with a total of 75.000 teachers in primary and secondary schools, many of whom were on full or partial strike, and did not receive one, two or more salaries, and add 7.000 employees, as many as only the University of Belgrade counts - the number needed for these people to survive without a salary is endless.

The payment is getting smaller.

"There is a noticeable trend of decreasing payments made by the society through the Foundation," Alek Kavčić from the Foundation told "Vreme". "We receive approximately 100 donations a day worth around one million dinars. With that, which at the moment is a slightly larger inflow of funds from the diaspora than from the residents of Serbia."

They also add that the scattered Assembly, which is made up of former students of Serbian faculties, who went to study abroad or moved there, had campaigns in cities where there are activists, so that also gave results.

Although the amount required is fabulous, However, Serbia cannot boast of being a nation of solidarity, at least when it comes to people who are full of protest and support students.

What is it about? are we either misers or we simply don't have any money?

Do we have it?

Fight against time

Economist Saša Đogović tells "Vreme" that, from a financial point of view, people employed in the best-paid sectors could help the most. The list of the most lucrative occupations includes IT, the financial sector, aviation and energy.

"We saw that individuals and groups from those areas paid money, at first. Now, we can't expect that giving to last forever, and it's not even large groups of people."

He says that they were "simply overcome by the struggle with time and waiting for that plug of ignoring the authorities to break", and that the election is inevitable". Only that all this costs people who make sacrifices.

The biggest financial burden of the society that is fighting for student demands and a better and more orderly tomorrow in Serbia is placed on educators and students.

"Now some Solomonic solution is being offered, for students to continue the blockades, and for professors to switch to online classes and thus keep the form for receiving a salary. The question is whether it will pass because the regime is aware that financial exhaustion is very effective," adds Đogović.

The fate of the middle class

Another theory is given by sociologist Slobodan Cvejić, himself a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, who also does not receive a salary.

"The story of solidarity with students revolves around the middle class, which is not economically strong," explains the specific Serbian situation.

The fact is that, for decades now, the middle class, if we measure it by education, that is, people who have completed high school or college and work in a "white-collar" job somewhere in an office, are often financially worse off than "blue-collar workers", i.e. citizens with completed elementary or high school who work as craftsmen or engage in similar occupations.

As the middle class in Serbia mostly supports the student protests, Cvejić thinks that she can no longer support herself, let alone help someone else.

Who do you think funded the students?

Cvejić also adds that people are largely unaware of how much education workers financed students.

"The tabloids wrote that the protests were financed by foreign governments, but in fact they were financed by us, the educators and citizens who brought money for months. Now they have taken away our salary, so we don't even have to help the students anymore, and the people who brought money and food for months, certainly helped, have dried up themselves," he says.

Since the government has cut off the main channel for students and the flow of money coming from education, it is very important that the opposition now combines all its actions only in the fight - for the elections.

"There is no time to maintain this kind of resistance system," says Cvejić. "Unless some big donation comes in from the private sector, which hasn't happened to date."