The education inspectorate carried out an extraordinary inspection this morning at the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš, reports Južne vesti.
Dean Natalija Jovanović expects the inspectors to order a return to teaching and announces a legal battle because she does not want the blockade to end until the conditions set by the students are met, and adds that she sees the inspection as pressure on the academic community.
An education inspector spent just over an hour in the Dean’s Office and other premises of the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš. He did not give statements to the media because, as he said, he is not authorized to do so. For all questions, he refers to the Ministry, writes Južne vesti.
Dean Jovanović, on the other hand, states that the visit was correct and that everyone was at their workplaces, as usual during blockades, and that numerous students were in the building.
“The students are working here, they are not wasting time. Everyone is involved in some activities, all teachers are at their workplaces, as they have been so far. We submitted all the documents requested by the inspector, and he really expressed satisfaction, as he has done before during inspections, because we are a responsible faculty,” she emphasizes.
However, she expects the inspection to issue measures ordering a return to teaching, but says that in that case, she will take legal action, because she does not want the blockade to end until the conditions demanded by the students are met.
“According to what was said, it is quite expected that the measures will be for the students to return to teaching. Further steps will be to legally protect ourselves as much as possible. It is important that the academic community remains in solidarity because we all understand very well the situation we are in, and no one is comfortable, no one is infinitely happy about it, but sometimes the fight for justice and the right to a normal state requires some sacrifices. Here, I am making them personally. I understand very well what the students want. We want that too, and that is why we stand behind them,” Jovanović states.
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Dean Jovanović sees the inspection supervisions at universities in Serbia as pressure on the academic community and says that the Ministry “does not understand” that the students in the blockade have learned many lessons, but also that the employees have learned a lot from them.
“I think it is high time that the entire education system changes, as is the case in Finland. There is a whole movement there for problem-based learning, which is teaching where it is not important which scientific field you are from, it is necessary to explain a problem. For example, the problem of a terrorist attack. Children live in a dynamic world and face life problems. It is necessary for the concept of school, finally, after many centuries, to change, not to be class-subject teaching, but problem-based. In addition to all this bringing some changes in the field of human freedoms, this is also a cry from the entire education system for a conceptual change in education,” the Dean states.
She said over the weekend that the European Union Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, sent her a letter of support and that she and the Rector of the University of Belgrade, Vladan Đokić, will have a conversation with her.
“Since Marta Kos is a fighter for human and women’s rights and understands our reality very well, I expect support in what we in the academic community are fighting for, and that is the right to free and critical thinking, to freedom of expression. These are some elementary freedoms, and I am completely sure that Ms. Kos will understand what we will explain about the situation here. These pressures on us who are targeted by the authorities are not without reason. They come from those who do not understand how the university functions because the adoption of the Decree that drastically reduces the time for science nullifies what the university is in its essence,” the Dean says.
That conversation was announced for today, but some media reported that it was postponed. However, Jovanović believes that it will certainly be held and that Kos will support the academic community in Serbia. The reasons for the postponement of the meeting are not known, and the Dean did not state them either.
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Source: Nedeljnik, Photo: ATA Images