In order to quell the rebellion, work stoppage and strike, the Ministry of Education decided to pay the employees of school institutions according to their performance. Thus, in February and March, amounts of often only a few thousand dinars were deposited into the accounts of employees in primary and secondary schools in Serbia. How do teachers live with reduced salaries and whether the reduction will be compensated
"It's not easy. The reduction earnings was one of the reasons why a large number educational workers and returned to classes even before the students returned. For us, two whole salaries and another half were reduced, and that very differently", this is how Ana Dimitrijević, a teacher in a grammar school in Belgrade and a member of the Forum of Belgrade Grammar Schools, describes the new situation for "Vreme".
A number of primary and secondary school teachers decided in January to postpone the start of the second semester due to the rebellion they started and students in November last year.
Education employees were the most persistent in their own demands and support for students. They did not hold classes, they protested, they held together, but in the end they gave in and most of them returned to the classrooms.
Their earnings for the months when they were on suspension or legal strike were reduced, and many only had a few thousand dinars in their accounts in February, March and April.
"For some, the reduction was 50 percent, for some 80 percent, and some got nothing. In that sense, it was quite difficult for people to survive, regardless of all the private lessons if they were given, and their spouses, it's just a big blow to the budget," says Dimitrijević, a teacher who was on suspension.
As he adds, he does not know how the wages are calculated.
"The suspension of classes is not defined by the law, and then the punishment for it is not defined either. They reduced our earnings by calculating some effective working hours. We did not hold classes, but we were at school all the time, we spent more time at school than we spend when we have classes. We had forums, workshops, when the buildings were blocked, we slept with the students in the school, so that they would not be alone. We practically lived in the schools, and we received a much lower salary." than when we teach," says the "Vremena" interviewee.
As he explains, the salaries that were paid to them for the time spent in the suspension of classes were received by the teachers without a solution.
"It's also a violation of the law, because you have to get a signed salary decision, which the lawyers didn't want to sign, because it's not legally correct. We got salaries that the directors signed, and they somehow calculated how much someone would get," says Dimitrijević.
Stringency criterion
And while she does not know how wages are legally calculated, Dimitrijević says that directors who wanted to be strict and punish employees for suspension, left them without any income.
"Someone who wanted to be as fair as possible calculated half the salary, and someone simply calculated something that came from the ministry, calculated about five to 10 effective hours. That's a minimum of the minimum, and that's how we got it."
The Alek Kavčić Foundation and the IT community came to the aid of teachers who lost their wages.
However, this aid could not compensate for the money they were left without.
"People received 15.000, 20.000, 30.000 dinars, it doesn't matter, and for example, 70.000 was taken from them on a monthly basis. So, simply, it could not compensate for what was taken away", says the interviewee of "Vremena".
As he clarifies, when it comes to help from the IT community, compensations are paid out in relation to the reduction per payslip.
"Let's register, submit a payslip on which it says how much was taken from us, we have a delegate at the school who takes care of it. And then individuals begin to pay us money, unknown individuals from Serbia, who have applied to be donors, one thousand, five thousand, it depends on where and how to whom. And how much you accumulate", explains Dimitrijevć.
When it comes to help from Alek Kavčić Foundation's word, the system is different.
"We received a one-time aid of 18.700 dinars, for which you can apply only once in all this time, because it is actually the largest non-taxable amount that can be paid into the account of one person. There is a very high tax for everything else, which means that a very large amount of money paid would actually go to tax," explains Dimitrijević.
As he adds, all this help is very welcome.
The classes will be compensated, but will they earn?
The Ministry of Education has prepared amendments to the rulebook on the Educational Work Calendar, which foresee that the 2024/25 school year. year can be extended by a maximum of five teaching days for primary schools, 20 days for secondary schools and 25 teaching days for gymnasiums.
The changes to the Calendar provide that in elementary schools that, due to the suspension of work, did not fully implement educational work and do not have enough time to make up lessons and evaluate students, the second semester can be completed no later than Friday, June 6 for students in the eighth grade, that is, for students from the first to the seventh grade, by Friday, June 20.
In high schools that, due to the suspension of work, did not fully implement educational work and do not have enough time to make up lessons and evaluate students, the second semester can be completed no later than July 18 for students of all grades, i.e. by June 27 for students in the final grades of high school and for students in the third grade of three-year and fourth grade of four-year vocational schools.
In this way, the wages that were taken away from educators should also be compensated.
"No one mentions money, only compensation for teaching days is mentioned. So I believe that a large number of educators, if not all, if they find out that they will not be paid, that large number of people will refuse to work again and will not do it. Because, simply, why would we do something, why was our money taken away, and now it will not be returned to us. We are waiting to see how it will be paid to us," says Dimitrijević.
Form, above all
The interlocutor of "Vremena" is of the opinion that the only important thing for the ministry and the authorities, as well as for the directors, is for the school year to end, for the children to be evaluated, for them to receive certificates.
"The essence has always been in the form, not in the content. The essence is that only this form is important, here, this school year has ended, it's good, that's it," explains Dimitrijević.
What, he says, is important for educators is knowledge.
"We focused on summarizing the material and making up for the children what is most important from the part they missed. On the other hand, regardless of the fact that it is two or three months of not going to school, compared to 12 years of schooling, it is not such a tragedy," explains Dimitrijević.
It also recalls cases from previous years when the school year was interrupted, without compensation.
"We had both the bombing and the Covid-19, when the online teaching was of very poor quality, so what they lost is not so crucial for their lifelong knowledge, how crucial is everything that is happening around them and in which they got involved as conscientious citizens. They shortened the school year because of the tragedy in Ribnikar, no one raised the question of any compensation."
The fight is not over.
In addition to salary reduction, "disobedient" teachers suffered pressure.
"There were threats, there was blackmail, it was also not pleasant, name-calling on the networks, in the media. The pressures have stopped now, but our fight is not over. We still support the students and their demands, we still go to protests with our students, go out for silence in the middle of the school day, because that's what we can do at the moment," says Dimitrijević.
Commenting on the new student request - the calling of extraordinary parliamentary elections - he says that he is waiting to see what will happen with it.
"We are waiting to see what will actually happen with the studio's request to call elections, and that way we can express our dissatisfaction with the system we live in, against which we fight all the time, because we believe that the education system will change for the better and better for us with some new setup", added the "Vremena" interviewee.
As he explains, whoever comes to power, teachers will continue to demand what they have been up to now, regardless of which political option it is.
"Whether it's someone I don't vote for or I vote for, is completely irrelevant in relation to what we expect from the state as an educational system of a country. And that's what's most important. Until things improve, we're not giving up," says Dimitrijević.
New strike?
As he adds, teachers also have the option of going on a legal strike.
"That legal strike at the end of the school year would mean that we don't have to finalize grades for the younger classes. Graduates will definitely have their grades finalized, they go to another institution and we simply won't prevent them from doing that, we won't be in their way. But the fact is that we can fight that way as well. The school year lasts until August 31 and we have the option to finalize grades by then. But that hasn't been decided yet and we're kind of waiting now to see what happens with this student request." explains Dimitrijević.
Based on that, he says, the teachers will know if they will have to react again and if they will wait until September and continue the fight.
"We do not want our struggle to endanger the students. We promised that they would not be collateral victims of our suspension, and we did so. The majority of us returned to the classrooms. Some students remained in the suspension, which is completely legitimate. We do not influence them in any way. We did not tell them to join the blockades, we did not tell them to get out of those blockades either," concludes Dimitrijević.
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