The Independent Union of Educational Workers of Serbia (NSPRS) announced that on September 2nd it will start a "white strike" with which it wants to put pressure on the competent state authorities to finally take appropriate measures in order to suppression of violence in schools.
NSPRS President Dušan Kokot tells "Vreme" that the previous two school years ended with violence in schools across Serbia, and despite promises to implement various measures to change that, the current government did not take any action this summer either.
"The only thing we are trying to do is let oblivion do its thing," says Kokot.
Grades are the most common cause of verbal and physical violence against employees in education, so the NSPRS says that they will "abolish" them until educators are protected by accepting the demands they made in 2022 after the violence against a female colleague in Trstenik.
"We did it six months before 'Ribnikar,'" says Kokot.
Since then, we have been seeking the definition of new criminal offenses and sanctions related to school violence, the introduction of the possibility of immediate suspension of violent students from classes, and the abolition of anonymous reports to educational inspectorates, the press release reminds.
NSPRS says that they will not enter grades in the E-diary until October 11.
"If our demands are not adopted by then, all students will receive an excellent 5, which will be the only and final grades for the semester. At least no one beats the teachers who give out high fives", says Kokot.
Teachers without protection
The interlocutor of "Vremena" emphasizes that teachers' hands are tied in many situations.
"I believe that many people do not know that teachers must not remove a student from class." Why is there so much waiting for the amendment of the Criminal Code? We saw when we had extraordinary elections how it was possible for laws to be written in 24 hours and passed by the Government and the Assembly and started to be implemented", recalls Kokot.
He adds that the problem is also anonymous reports to educational inspections, which have become a model of violent behavior towards educational workers.
"In 99 percent of cases, these are complaints about grades." If someone keeps coming to check on you, who is protecting you? And what can the teacher do in the end? To rate more. Consider that the photo-robot of the educator is a lady of about 50 years old", says Kokot.
If the state does not do anything, the teachers have no choice but to give away their grades.
"We now have five times more wolves than twenty years ago." And the results do not tell us that our students are much better. We're lying to ourselves, and I don't know what it's for," says Kokot.
He adds that the adoption and implementation of their demands does not cost a single dinar. All that is needed, he says, is political will.
Without the support of representative trade unions
They expect the understanding and support of colleagues, students and parents from NSPRS, although for now they do not have the support of representative trade unions for their venture.
"We invite them to join us in this fight for schools where everyone who works seriously and responsibly will be adequately assessed, paid and systematically protected from violence." If this is not the desire of this society - let everyone be distinguished, because safety is priceless", concludes NSPRS.
"We do not belong to the group of four representative unions, but I would like to mention that the representativeness has not been checked for twenty years", says Kokot, and that they submitted the last request for review of the union's representativeness in April, but have not received any response so far.
The Branch Union of Educational Workers of Serbia Nezavisnnost (GSPRSN) told "Vreme" that they do not participate in these plans.
They soon expect a meeting with the Government, where the Minister of Finance will also be present, in order to discuss the increase in the salary of employees in education. Last month, the meeting was postponed due to the commitments of the Cabinet and the Minister of Finance.
If the Government of Serbia does not respect the Protocol that it signed with the four representative trade unions, it is announced that they will all be involved in various forms of trade union struggle.
