Educators who are in the suspension of classes and are still under the fierce attack of the Ministry of Education, which wants to deny the reality in every way student rebellions.
The interlocutors of "Vreman" emphasize that the Ministry of Education is only interested in how to completely suppress any kind of rebellion with pressure and that the school year ends, and the educators go on vacation, so that the students lose an important ally.
License at risk
Siniša Avramov, an English teacher at Bečej Technical High School, has been suspended from his job due to the suspension of classes and is facing serious charges that could result in him losing his license and thus the possibility of ever being employed in education again.
He has been under continuous suspension since February 7, and last week he received a message from the Viber school principal to come to the school, where he was handed a decision to initiate disciplinary proceedings, which was already dated the previous day.
Disciplinary proceedings had actually already been initiated, and he received a decision that he accepted, with the director telling him to read the decision at home and consider whether he wanted to continue with the suspension. The same evening, a new message arrived from the director asking him to come to her office again the next day.
"She asked me ultimatum if I planned to return to classes that day, and when I answered that I planned to return to classes, but not that day, she handed me a decision on disciplinary proceedings, which entails an immediate suspension from work," Avramov told "Vreme".
He states that despite the ultimatum, the director left room not to initiate disciplinary proceedings against him.
"So, if I agreed to return to teaching that day, all the lawsuits you accuse me of fall into the water, are invalid, which calls into question the very decision to initiate disciplinary proceedings: either I committed what you accuse me of or it suddenly becomes irrelevant, so the lawsuits don't make any sense either," says Avramov.
He is charged with a more serious breach of duty due to the suspension of classes, but also with much more serious matters.
"I am accused of violating the ban, which implies exclusion and neglect of students, practical discrimination and abuse of students. This is a very serious charge that entails the revocation of the work license. We are no longer talking about dismissal, but the impossibility of further employment in education," says Avramov.
Asked if this means that everything would have been forgotten if he had obeyed the will of the director, Avramov says that it is unknown.
"That could mean who knows what, that the disciplinary proceedings are suspended, but it could also mean that it is not suspended, it could mean who knows what, that all of this remains over my head like a blade. If I started the suspension from February 7, then I allegedly started breaking the law then. Why then did the director wait three months to initiate the proceedings? All of this should be seen in the context of what has been happening to us in the past few months. We are in a kind of state of siege," he says.
Threats from the Ministry of Education
While under suspension, he will receive a third of his salary, but since the salaries of many educators are being reduced, he does not know whether he will receive a third of his regular salary or a reduced salary.
"That's why colleagues reluctantly decide to suspend work, and if they were already suspended, they return to teaching. The issue is the blackmail of the Ministry of Education, which they used to break people with threats, reducing wages and endangering their livelihoods. At the same time, the entire system is locked because the school principal initiates and leads and decides on the disciplinary procedure. Everything is in the hands of the principal. Because of this, the room for maneuver of educators is very small, which is why it is difficult for them to decide to suspend classes, and a legal strike is a diluted version protest. Educators are not protesting because they love slavery, but because they are simply in a subordinate position," says Avramov.
He states that his collective has decided to boycott calls for a strike, and that the director is a "party official" and that she was appointed with only one goal - to control the collective.
"Party recruitment followed, the party let its tentacles into the school, and the school did not even have the legally stipulated reduction of classes to 30 minutes. This is the ultimate ignoring of reality, the situation on the ground and the absence of solidarity, and colleagues seem to function in a parallel universe," Avramov assesses.
He states that because of everything he was exposed to unpleasant scenes and situations, name-calling and being ignored.
"The director very skillfully presented the demands for the suspension of work as a kind of attack on the reputation of the school, because by calling for a strike, we 'undermined teaching' and the future existence of our high school graduates, as if the high school graduates exist in a bubble of their own that has nothing to do with the situation in the country," concludes Avramov.
Attempted intimidation
Nela Spasojević, a mathematics teacher at the Trsetnik Technical School, has been under blockade since January 27, and disciplinary proceedings have been initiated against her for "illegal work or omission of actions, which prevented or prevented the exercise of the rights of a child, student or other employee."
She says that the principal of the school "tried to intimidate her" with that disciplinary action, but that instead two other colleagues went into suspension of classes.
However, in one office, they hold consultations for students and prepare them for entrance exams, explaining that they do not deprive children of the opportunity to be educated, but only support students.
Although the disciplinary proceedings against her have been going on for several months, Spasojević has no information about it. She thinks that the process is being kept open so that at some point, when it comes time to conclude the grades, it will serve to pressure her to abandon the suspension of classes.
Spasojević emphasizes that nowhere in the law does it say how many classes should be held in extraordinary circumstances, that nowhere does it say that the grades must be concluded at the end of the semester and that three grades are enough to conclude the grade.
"Ninety percent of the schools that concluded the grades in the semester did so because the Ministry of Education exerted pressure to break the law. The grades in the diaries were only concluded at the beginning of the second semester and the dates were falsified. Also, according to the law, the grade must be concluded in front of the class, with an explanation, and not a single child was present in those classes," says Spasojevic.
Blackmailing high school graduates
She emphasizes that her colleague Avramov from Bečej was illegally suspended, because a suspension would only make sense in the case of physical or psychological abuse of children, while Avramov is only suspended from work.
"Our work stoppage was initiated according to the international strike law signed by the state, which is not harmonized with the domestic strike law," says Spasojević.
She states that one class of high school graduates from her school was locked out for five weeks, but that they were "blackmailed that they will not finish the fourth grade if they do not return to class."
"Certain colleagues are starting to pay attention to them and require them to answer the material they didn't listen to, because there was no class. Those colleagues with us who are on suspension generally don't communicate, and they look at us with suspicion. However, the three of us who are on suspension have noticed that children we didn't teach come to us in the corridors with a kind of sparkle in their eyes and a message that they support us and a request that we understand that they have to go to school," says Spasojević
She points out that by suspending classes, teachers are showing students that they stand behind their words and that she understands that many teachers and professors have returned to teaching.
"In schools in Serbia, 80 percent of women work, and it is very easy to scare women who are not like that. On the other hand, many educators do not know what they have the right to do under the law. The past months have shown that knowledge is not important. The latest letter from the Ministry of Education gives us a free hand to conclude grades for students in any way, because it tells them to end the school year, to conclude grades and thus weaken students, so that they no longer have the support of any part of society. Children are aware that the Ministry of Education does not think about knowledge, but only about grades," concludes Spasojević.
