At the “Petar Leković” elementary school, located on the border between the villages of Kalenići and Zaselje near Požega, there is only one student attending classes. The teacher and janitor maintain the school — just for him. And when Nikola finishes fourth grade in June, the school will close.
One school, one teacher, and one lone student. Student Nikola Vujić stands in front of the blackboard, and teacher Radivoje asks him: “If it tells you ‘how many,’ do you know how many?” N1 reports.
Nikola: “No.”
Radivoje: “Then what do we put?”
Nikola: “X.”
Radivoje: “Yes, bravo, master.”
The math is very simple, because in the fourth grade of “Petar Leković” Elementary School near Požega, only Nikola, a boy from Kalenići, is enrolled. Mathematics is his favorite subject. When asked what a school day looks like when he is the only student in the classroom, Nikola shyly answers:
“Looks good. My favorite subject is math. I like Nature and Society the least.”
N1: “Why?”
Nikola: “I don’t know, it’s hard for me.”
It is not, however, difficult for Nikola to walk two kilometers every morning from his home to the top of the hill where the school is located.
“Nikola gets up in the morning, gets ready, packs his own books, walks two kilometers to school, and is accompanied by the dog, and somewhat by me — so he’s not entirely alone in this cold,” says Nikola’s mother, Milica Vujić.
Even though there are no other children, he is certainly not completely alone. When Nikola arrives at school, his teacher Radivoje is there at the podium every day. The two of them, the teacher explains jokingly, sit there “alone like two fools.”
“He and the teacher get along; Nikola somehow likes to work one-on-one — on one hand, it can be boring because he has no peers during recess or gym, but on the other hand, when a teacher and a student work alone, it’s like private lessons every day. His learning goes well, and I also help him a little at home, which shows he works well with the teacher,” says Milica Vujić.
This is also reflected in the fact that teacher Radivoje has been teaching children for over three decades. He also taught Nikola’s father, Vladan, at the same school, recalling what it was like back then.
“There were many more children, and we also walked to school, just like Nikola does now. It was better then, there were friends, you had someone to go with. Nikola decided to come here himself; he could have gone to Požega, but he chose this school, he loves his teacher,” says Nikola’s father, Vladan Vujić.
Even though that was not Nikola’s original decision, he will eventually have to attend the main school in Požega from fifth through eighth grade.
The “Petar Leković” Elementary School sits on the border between two villages — connecting Zaselje and Kalenići. Until last year, six students attended. Today, there is only one — Nikola. And when he finishes fourth grade in June, the school will close.
And this, Nikola’s parents say, is the saddest part of all…
“There are, for example, three or four children who could have started first grade, but parents somehow choose to send their children to the city, not to the village — why, I don’t know. Unfortunately,” says Milica Vujić.
“I feel really sad, I could cry — that the school is closing, it’s really sad. We all… This teacher taught me as well, just like he teaches Nikola now. I’m really sad,” adds Vladan Vujić.
They hope, however, that when Nikola starts at the new school, he will be the best-prepared fifth grader because he completed fourth grade entirely individually with his teacher Radivoje.
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Source: N1, Foto: Printscreen N1