After three full months, teachers in some schools that were in the blockade are back at work, but the students have decided not to enter them.
After the "extended vacation" due to the suspension of classes in primary and secondary schools, many teachers decided to return to the classrooms. It was preceded by "backbreaking": threats of layoffs and reduction or abolition of wages. The principals of numerous schools informed the students that classes will start on Monday, March 24.
However, not all high school students responded to that call, nor did teachers who decided to continue the suspension of classes.
It is difficult to determine the number of teachers and students who still do not enter the classrooms.
Kragujevac revolted
Students and citizens of Kragujevac protested in front of high schools, because the principals informed the students that classes will continue from Monday (March 24), even though the plenum of high school graduates made a decision to continue the blockades.
A large number of students, parents and citizens responded to the meeting.
Sofia, a student of the Second Kragujevac High School, told N1 that they did not expect such a large number of citizens, parents, and students who came to support them. He points out that their plan remains the same, which is to remain in a complete blockade until further notice.
"We support students and we do this for them," she said.
Aleksandar from the First Kragujevac High School states that all high school graduates from Kragujevac are in a blockade together and that they yearn for a better life.
And the majority of the staff of the Second Kragujevac High School supported the graduates of that school.
The students of the "Laza Kostić" high school in Novi Sad invited parents, teachers and everyone who supports them in the blockade of the school, which started nine weeks ago, to a rally that started on Monday morning.
The students said that the school is theirs and they will not allow it to be, as they said, "stolen".
At first, their request to get the key to that institution was refused at the school, but later a policeman came out from another building and brought them the school key, after which the students announced that the student blockade had begun.
The students of the third and fourth year of the high school in Požarevac confirmed to "Vreme" that they remain in the blockade.
"Blockages are not the cause, but the consequences of a corrupt system"
The mother of a child who attends the first grade of the Second Grammar School in Kragujevac says that they received a letter from the principal of the school in which it is written that the students should start school from today, and that from Wednesday students and professors in the blockade will be registered, and that these lists should be submitted to the MUP or the ministry, "which is unacceptable for us".
"The blockades are not the cause, but the consequence of a bad, corrupt system. We all want our children to go to school, but for it to be a normal situation. Conditions in the country are neither stable nor normal, and that must change in order for children to go to school," she told N1.
Educators have supported the students and their demands from the beginning and are the only branch that is on a work stoppage and a legal strike that has been with the students since the beginning.
Which of the teachers remains suspended?
The number of teachers persisting in their strike this week has decreased.
Nela Spasojević, a mathematics teacher at the Technical School in Trstenik, along with two other colleagues, has been on a complete suspension of work since the first week and is not giving up. In her school, no one currently knows which of the 71 employees works for half an hour, and who gives a 45-minute lesson.
The number of teachers in total suspension, he says, increases occasionally when associations call for a total suspension of several days.
"Before we got into this, we thought carefully about how we should teach the children. We don't think that we have given our children less knowledge. All three of us who are on suspension have given a schedule to the students. We have suspended classes, but we have not suspended work. For us, the children who are preparing for entrance exams, come to practice with us", says Spasojević, who walked from Trstenik to Čačak for the large protest of educational workers there.
Many educators in Čačak and Užice, who were considered to be all under blockade, are in classrooms today.
As Spasojević adds, the school where she is employed has a common wall with the gymnasium in Trstenik and their team tries to be unified.
"They vote to suspend classes occasionally when a general strike is called. The gymnasium was blocked by students this morning," Spasojević told "Vreme".
The government only affects education.
She asked the colleagues who returned to the classrooms on Monday, if they tell the students "for three months we beat you, we didn't work, and now we decided to work, and nothing has changed in the meantime, except that the state of the country is even worse." She didn't get an answer.
The interlocutor of "Vremena" believes that the "general strike" in any branch, except for education, does not affect the government.
"He (Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić) only cares about education, because we are the only ones who influence future generations, we produce batinistas or Nobel laureates and we are connected with all other branches, because parents are the ones who send children to school", she says, adding that the "general strike" would only be effective if everything stopped completely.
Education, she says, is not united because many people are employed along political lines, not because they have qualities.
"In the past, the best people who graduated from pedagogic schools used to come to education, but now they come unprepared," concludes Spasojević.
In the meantime, disciplinary proceedings were initiated against her due to the suspension of classes.
There is no giving up
Educators are not giving up on the suspension of classes and the struggle to meet students' demands, said Ana Dimitrijević, president of the Forum of Belgrade Grammar Schools, Dušan Kokot, president of the Independent Union of Educators of Serbia (NSPRS), and Zorana Matićević, professor of sociology at the Third Belgrade Grammar School, as guests on the "Impression of the Week" show.
They called on other sectors in the country to join them in the fight for a better society. They appealed that change can only happen if the burden is redistributed, but they also noted that they understand people who suffer from various pressures.
Protest in front of the Ministry
Under the slogan "Healthy and safe education" on Monday (March 24), a protest was held by the United Education Association, the United Parents of Serbia and students in a blockade in front of the Ministry of Education.
Parents called for this protest, first of all, as a form of special support for educational workers.
Symbolically, the protest began at 11.15:XNUMX a.m. by turning its back on the Ministry of Education, that is, the idea is to "lock down" the Ministry until it starts working in the interest of students, pupils and the entire public, primarily educators.
Everyone gathered in Nemanjna turned their backs for five minutes, and the idea is to create a kind of "mirror", to point out to the Ministry of Education how it has been behaving towards the public lately.
Then came the addresses of the parents, and at 11.52:16 there was XNUMX minutes of silence, followed by seven minutes of loud noise.
The parents presented their four demands.
Tamara Bradić addressed the crowd and emphasized that "the interests of children will always come first."
"Our main goal is to stick together until all the demands are fulfilled. The first demand of the united parents who are under the umbrella of the United Education Association, which includes 21 other informal organizations, is to fulfill the student demands. We must return to the time when both parents and educators respect each other, that is the key to everything," she said.
Another important requirement, she pointed out, concerns the safety of children.
Parents demand from the Ministry to explain to them on what basis they started the second semester, if the end of the first semester ended with the argument that the conditions in the schools are unsafe.
The first semester in all schools in Serbia ended earlier
The third requirement refers to digitization in education.
The fourth, still informal request of the united parents, is the abolition of the junior high school graduation and the passing of the final exam at this time, due to the social and political crisis.
Source: Vreme/N1
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