Grin, Bear and Study

Serbia's Education Minister Dragoslav Mladenovic on Sunday, January 28 told the teachers that there was no reason for a general strike scheduled for February 1 because the Government, he said, had fulfilled what the union had asked for. He also mentioned that of the 2,000 schools in Serbia, only 17 were on strike.

Split between those who gave them the jobs (and are giving them delayed salaries which hardly cover the basic needs) and the union, most of the 120,000 school-teachers are trying to hear and weigh the promises of the Government and the union.

In the spring of 1995, Minister Mladenovic promised the teachers higher and regular salaries and decent heating in the schools. None of it has come true. In the first nine months of 1995, primary school teachers were paid 420 dinars a month, high-school teachers - 565 and university professors 837. Of Serbia's 12-billion-dinars budget, three billion are for education. The sum has already been dipped into for the payment of the first part of December salaries. The second part has not arrived yet. In the past, when there were rumours of a general strike, Minister Mladenovic asked the teachers to be patient: "You have been patient for five years. Be patient for two more weeks and things will get better because that is when the Law on Salaries takes effect..."

He tried to show his alleged solidarity by saying: "If things don't get better, I shall go on strike myself." Which of his promises he has kept and how much teachers trust him could best be seen at the Primary School Teachers' Meeting held in Belgrade in January; as soon as he entered the hall, the teachers booed and hooted.

A teacher from Valjevo, who wished to remain anonymous, describes what is happening: "There is no heating, there are no salaries, no one asks us anything, they only threaten: You have three options, our headmaster told us - either to work, or to resign, or to be dismissed. We are dissatisfied, humiliated and yet we are working even though we don't get paid. It's not much of a choice. The only teaching aid we get from the Ministry is chalk. Children, the poorer ones, don't even have notebooks."

Teachers are leaving schools, changing professions or applying for early retirement. Posts in Belgrade schools are filled in by refugees and even they do not stay long - only until they find better paid jobs. Serbia's schools do not have enough teachers of English, Physics, Music, Computer Science... The Serbian Parliament has allowed additional three million dinars from the budget to be spent for the education of the students in colleges of education.

Perhaps it would be cheaper to encourage those who have already graduated and have invaluable experience to return to classrooms. This will not be easy. For a long time, the state has been fiddling with education. Everything in the schools has already been seen: unsuccessful reforms, mass dismissals of headmasters (last year, for example), teachers who were beaten up because of bad marks and no heating in schools, showdowns, etc.

The schools have become a copy of what is happening in the society. Vesna Fila, the headmaster of Belgrade primary school "Vladislav Ribnikar," explains: "Pedagogy relies on parents, school and the community. Material values have become the most important ones for children today, first of all because of the social stratification. The respect of teachers' authority has been shattered and yet teachers are expected to work as if nothing was happening. How can they when they are neither materially nor socially rewarded. The teacher is so humiliated that he can hardly face his forty pupils, most of whom wear expensive track shoes. How can the teacher not think of his own children whom he can buy absolutely nothing.

The history of teachers's strikes is not exactly glorious. Although they announce they would go on strike four times a year, only once have they really organized themselves. Over 1,000 schools from 68 towns in Serbia took part in a strike in the spring of 1992. All that the teachers have remembered about that strike outside the Serbian Parliament was a fight with Vojislav Seselj and his body-guards and that they were left in the lurch by the union leaders who reached an agreement with the Government, which was of no use to the teachers.

That was when the "Independence" union was formed out in the street. The strike ended with a law which forbade strikes and according to which teachers had to hold 30-minute classes even when they were on strike, otherwise they could lose their jobs.

It is difficult to obtain information on what the schools throughout Serbia intend to do about the strike. The union has switched on the answering machine and school telephones are monopolized by headmasters. They do not like to talk about the strike. According to the partial information we have obtained, secondary schools in Uzice, Cacak, Valjevo, Nis are on strike. Provincial schools hope that Belgrade would do something. Our source in Cacak, where two schools have not worked normally since November 15, has told us: "If the capital does not do something, we are in trouble." Belgrade teachers have various opinions about the strike. There is great discontent, but there is no action. People do not trust the union, especially the republican one. Vesna Fila believes the strike is only a trap: "The law is very strict. We have no right to go on strike. All this will go on until we make a strong union to suit the teachers and our profession and not individual wishes and ambitions."

The Case of Miladin Pavlovic, Latin Teacher

Miladin Pavlovic, Latin teacher in Obrenovac High School, was eventually suspended from work, by the headmaster's decree and the decision of the discipline board. According to the official explanation, Pavlovic on December 28, 1995 left his class and disrupted the work of the teaching-staff conference.

"I did leave the class two days before the end of the first semester. I did so after a firecracker exploded at the door of my classroom. I went to the headmaster and asked him to ensure normal teaching circumstances," Pavlovic said. Problems in the Latin class have been going on for a while. According to the suspended teacher, tear-gas was released in the classroom, there were times when there were no vacant classrooms, so he and his colleague had to hold classes in the headmaster's office. "Strangers came into the classroom and disrupted work. During a test, a man came into the classroom carrying welding equipment with fire directed toward the students. The students started screaming, they didn't do the test. Students skipped classes very often. I kept on warning the headmaster that he should do something because problems continued. Nothing was done."

"I have been making critical remarks for years, among the teachers in the staff room. I did so during this strike, too. I said that if we didn't get the money we should go on strike. We had all signed that we wanted the strike, the headmaster, too. When the headmaster returned from a meeting at the Ministry and told us that there was no money, teachers withdrew their signatures. My comment was: 'How could there be any money when there's more police in this country than teachers.' The headmaster said I was again discussing politics at the school," said Pavlovic.

Charges are being brought against Pavlovic at the Third Municipal Court because he participated in the July 1993 demonstrations demanding that Vuk and Danica Draskovic be released from prison. "The process has taken far too long and they have added quite a few things. I was arrested and beaten. None of my colleagues stood up to defend me. On the contrary, they objected that my political activity was leading the students astray," Pavlovic said.