Education workers throughout Sbia are on strike. Classes in some schools in Serbia last 30 minutes.
"Legal zoning strike" means first of all the reduction of classes in schools in Belgrade and Požarevac, and then every following week in other school administrations.
"The state is ready to reduce our salaries now, for the 15 minutes we are not in the classroom." That's why we decided that each school administration would go on strike for five days, so that this imposition on our wages, which are none anyway, would be as small as possible", the President of the Union of Trade Unions of Belgrade Schools, Snežana Romandić Petrović, told "Vreme".
If the state will be appeased by reducing our daily wages, he adds, because we stood up and said "don't do it like this", then we have to ask the public to protect schools.
"Or there really won't be any more," says Romandić Petrović.
"It definitely can't be like this anymore"
Since when the Government of Serbia gave educators final offer, there is no more word about education from the authorities.
"Their arrogance has literally forced us that this time we can neither give up nor agree to the blackmailing attitude that the Government has towards school employees." We are a large and responsible industry. And we were very patient. Since 2020, when there was a corona pandemic, we have been waiting for the moment when the problem of working conditions and the financial position of employees in schools would be solved systematically", says Romandić Petrović.
And it's not just about salaries, but about the state of schools in general.
"It seems that the tragedy in the 'Pond' froze everything in the moment. At that time, we expected that the authorities would understand the importance of schools, first of all state schools, but the state turned around and left us with empty protocols, procedures and little earnings. Which culminated once quite by an indecent offer from the Government", says Romandić Petrović.
The trade unions demand that the government fulfills the agreed terms of the Protocol that they signed with the Government in October last year, among which is the equalization of the starting salary of teachers in schools with the average salary at the national level.
"Those games of percentages, the formulation of numbers, the populism with which the state approaches such a responsible issue is what brought us all to a state of anger, to say 'it definitely can't be like this anymore,'" says Romandić Petrović.
That difficult word "responsibility"
The word "responsibility" these days brings us inexorably back to demolition of the canopy at the railway station in Novi Sad on November 1, which crushed 14 lives, while three seriously injured are still fighting to survive.
On that occasion, the Novi Sad opposition called for protest in Novi Sad, on Tuesday, November 5. They also demand the resignation of Novi Sad Mayor Milan Đurić and Prime Minister Miloš Vučević, as well as the arrest of those responsible for the accident in Novi Sad.
The interlocutor of "Vremena" says that there was no official invitation for teachers for the aforementioned meeting, but that she is quite sure that there will be a large number of colleagues from Novi Sad and the surrounding area, because they feel bad as citizens of this country.
When asked if this has anything to do with politics, Romandić Petrović emphasizes that educators run away from daily politics, into which they are regularly pushed, for their entire working life.
"It doesn't mean that basically the trade unions don't deal with politics, on a broader level yes, that is, with the question of what this country needs." We believe that the tragedies that are happening in this society are the result of the fact that things are not systematically solved in the foundation. And education is certainly the foundation of every society", says Romandić Petrović.
They soiled the word "politics", he adds, so everyone avoids it.
"It is running away from the essence, that the state takes care of schools because they are its own." Or are private schools more important now, I don't know. In the last few years, it has been easier to work in the private sector. Because state work is a huge administrative mess".
He believes that the consequences of such actions are not only tragic, but there is no end in sight.
"People who work in schools warn that higher education has no price, and is not recognized in a society where the fact that anyone can do anything is too easily approached. And that school is not important. No upbringing, no education. We will become, if we haven't already, a society inclined to relativize everything and in which everything can be put into the sentence 'so what'", says Romandić Petrović.
He adds that teachers struggle hard and persistently to overcome that "so what", because there is no place for schools in such a society.
What are the forecasts for educators?
When it comes to the results they will achieve with the strike, Romandić Petrović says that from the beginning they are ready for a marathon, not a short sprint.
"We don't have the option to give up, because that means giving up on our own calling and ourselves."
They are not surrendering, he says, even though they are under great pressure from political branches.
"We are running away from politics, and politics is chasing us," says Romadić Petrović.
School managers, he adds, are mostly political delegates.
"They forbid us to leave class after 30 minutes. They appeal that we have to take care of the children. They ask us for lists, which are sent to the local authorities. They try to scare us in every possible way. And I think that we have been afraid for so long that we can no longer remember what we are afraid of", says Romandić Petrović.
Tragedies show that the system does not work
Trust, he says, has been completely lost when it comes to authorities talking to school employees.
"They even refuse to talk." We didn't even have any conversations, because that implies two-way communication. We mostly have monologues, where some small percentages, small coins are thrown at our feet, according to the principle of 'here and now silence,'" says Romandić Petrović.
He explains to "Vreme" that they are even twisting all the demands, as if they were negotiating for two or three percent.
"We are not talking about it, we are asking for a complete reform of the education system," she says.
Educators also agree that the system, as it is, is leading this society to an even bigger sidetrack than the one we are on.
"Everyone is unhappy in the schools. Both children and parents and teachers. Only the authorities are satisfied. Because from a distance it looks like a functioning system", concludes Romandić Petrović. "And if it is not so, they show us the tragedies that this society is going through".
