While preparing amendments to the Criminal Code so that attacks on educators could be the most severely sanctioned, teachers are attacked by public officials.
That is why some teachers in Serbia will stop work for one hour on Friday. This was announced by the Independent Union of Educators, while the four representative unions did not announce themselves on this issue.
Solidarity, by the way, is the union's weak point who have not been able to find a common language for a long time.
NSPRS president Dušan Kokot told "Vreme" earlier that the main problem is that no systemic changes are required. Since the beginning of the year, NSPRS has been on a "white strike", which means "giving out high fives" in order to protect teachers from increasingly frequent attacks by students and parents.
Representatives of the representative unions did not comment on the actions of their colleagues from the other union.
Legal strike still without results
Mirjana Glišić, spokeswoman for the Union of Education Workers' Union of Serbia, tells "Vreme" that they continue with the legal "zonal strike". The teachers decided on this type of strike because the government was ready to drastically reduce their salaries in the event of a complete work stoppage. As they are also on strike because of low wages, the levy on their wages is thus lower. Union representatives announced a strike until the demands are met, and possible radicalization if the Government does not relent.
The silent revolt of the teachers has entered its second month and so far no results.
Gašić tells "Vreme" that negotiations regarding the amendment of the collective agreement are ongoing, as well as that there are indications that the Government may agree to harmonize the teacher's salary with the average, but at the six-month level. However, official confirmations of these negotiations are not in sight, and they are not a guarantee either, because the Government last year signed the Protocol in which it is guaranteed that the starting salary of teachers will be equal to the average salary in the state from January 1, 2025, so it was abandoned.
The final offer of the Government, which included an 11 percent salary increase for teaching and non-teaching staff, was evaluated by educators. "unworthy". However, the budget with the given "raise" for education was adopted.
The union's request, sent to the President of the Province of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, for their representatives to attend the parliamentary session on the 2025 budget, was rejected.
"The message sent by the fact that educators cannot speak in parliament is incredible. In the meantime, we will see if it is possible to reach a parliamentary session by legal means," Mirjana Gašić told "Vreme" earlier.
It turned out that this was not possible either.
Hello postponed
In the midst of negotiations about the teacher's salary, a new task arrived on the table. Namely, the introduction of an information system "Health" it was supposed to monitor students' motor abilities from the third grade of elementary school to the end of high school. Because of this, parents became suspicious and began to wonder what was being done with their children's personal data. Then they sued the teachers, who, under pressure from the principal, started entering information about the children. The Ministry then postponed the start of this project.
"Acknowledging the concerns of a certain number of parents, the misunderstanding of part of the public, misinterpretations, interpretations and misinformation about what the purpose is, what data is entered and how it is stored in the information system 'Zdravitas', the Ministry of Education postpones the launch of the user part of this portal, which is was planned for December 2 this year," the Ministry of Education announced on November 29.
In a letter, the Education Board informed schools and students' parents that they will "redefine the planned dynamics of activities", i.e. that "the release of the user portal is being postponed". The opponents of "Zdravitas" are not very clear about what this means, nor when the project will start.
The Ministry announced that "in the coming period, more attention will be paid to informing parents, resolving doubts and demolishing misconceptions and conspiracy theories." The next steps will be aimed at more clearly arguing the utility value of digitization and security, as well as the protection of personal data, primarily towards the target groups of teachers and parents of students".
How to proceed and for how long?
Since the beginning of the school year, teachers across Serbia have repeatedly taken to the streets. The last time they went out on November 29 was a protest walk in Niš. Vladan Ćirić, a representative of the Union of Education Workers' Union of Serbia, tells "Vreme" that the Ministry of Education and the Government of Serbia persistently ignore them, but that they will not give up on all those demands that they defined in the protocol.
In the meantime, the Prime Minister Milos Vucevic lashed out at the teachers of the "Jovan Jovanović Zmaj" Gymnasium in Novi Sad that they had "driven" his younger son, a student of that school, out into the street "in order to supposedly pay his respects to those killed in the accident in Novi Sad".
The director and president of the school board of that high school apologized to Vučević in an urgent announcement.
That's why former and current students of the "Jovan Jovanović Zmaj" high school in Novi Sad gathered on Monday, December 2, to defend the dignity of the school and its teachers. The student parliament emphasized that the announcement of the school board, made on behalf of the professors, was made without their agreement and consent, and that they consider it invalid.
The former students demanded a public apology from the director of the Jovin High School and the withdrawal of what they say was a shameful announcement.
As of the writing of this text, this has not yet happened. Of course, there was an apology. But none are addressed to teachers.
