REPRISAL IN EDUCATION: Authorities Retaliate Against Professors and Teachers Who Supported Students, 100 of Them Ended Up On The Street!

Educational workers have paid the highest price for supporting students from November until today. According to data from professional union networks, more than 100 employees in schools have already lost their jobs or contract extensions, while over 100 disciplinary proceedings have been initiated in high schools and elementary schools.

Tatjana Vasović Novosel was the director of “Banović Strahinja” Elementary School in Banovo Brdo until the end of the previous school year. Then she was relieved of her duties.

“They were obviously angered by the fact that I supported the student protests and stood by the collective that decided to halt work, and then my dismissal followed at the beginning of July, making me the first director in Belgrade to be relieved of her duties,” says Tatjana Vasović Novosel, the dismissed director of “Banović Strahinja” Elementary School.

The first, but not the only one in Belgrade and Serbia. The “black list” of the Ministry of Education included collectives or directors who supported decisions made by vote that related to the educational workers’ strike.

How the authorities “disciplined” educational workers: More than 100 employees in schools lost their jobs, over 110 disciplinary proceedings, 25 school directors dismissed, 75 school directors resigned, criminal charges and interrogations of rectors and pro-rectors.

The reprisal against educational workers began before the start of the new school year, and some teachers received information that their contracts would not be extended on the eve of September 1st. The Minister of Education has a different view on everything.

“There are a total of 1,860 elementary and secondary schools in Serbia, and as many directors of those schools. Four percent of directors resigned, and only 1.3 percent were relieved of their duties. Therefore, the Ministry of Education has not taken any massive repressive steps,” said Minister of Education Dejan Vuk Stanković.

UŽASNA TRAGEDIJA NA SVADBI: Žena poginula ispred crkve kada ju je pogodila signalna raketa!

The biggest pressures in schools were exerted through disciplinary proceedings. The proceedings were most often related to the suspension of classes and support for student protests, and in many cases, they were initiated rapidly and with serious suspicions of violation of legal procedures.

The dismissed director from the beginning of the story has returned to teaching and now works as a teacher. She is waiting, she says, for better times.

“We all, in a way, experienced it as a reward and great pride that they were the ones who dismissed us because it means we were on the right side, fighting for the reputation and dignity of educational workers,” says Vasović Novosel.

They are continuing their defense with appeals filed to the Administrative Court because they believe the dismissals were unfounded.