Bandić: Minister, your unlimited supervision threatens the legal order and education workers

Written by: Muamer Bandić, representative in the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton and member of the Presidency of SBiH

The President of the Independent Union of Education, Mr. Sivro, invited representatives, and especially me, to attend the expert supervision announced for September 22, 2025, at the Public Elementary School "Aleksa Šantić" in Sarajevo by the Institute for the Development of Pre-University Education of the Sarajevo Canton.

I believe that every supervision must be legally grounded with a clearly defined basis, scope, and limits. The Ministry prescribed the types of supervision through its Rulebook, but then expanded its competencies beyond the legal framework, granting itself the authority to intervene even in situations that are not regulated or foreseen.

Namely, Article 4 of the Rulebook prescribes the types of supervision, and paragraph (4) of the same article, outside the established scope, stipulates that the Ministry may also conduct supervision in situations not covered by paragraphs (1) and (2) of this article. By acting in this manner, the Ministry has placed itself above the law, which represents a serious precedent in administrative procedure and thereby threatens the legal order, and especially the position of education workers.

Supervision of school operations exclusively implies oversight of the institution's procedures and acts, not of individual teachers or the principal. The School Board and the principal have clearly prescribed competencies, and the Ministry cannot directly manage their work. If the Ministry were to have such influence, the purpose of the existence of management and leadership bodies in schools would be rendered meaningless.

Furthermore, the Institute's report is not an administrative act and cannot be subject to appeal, which means that employees are denied the right to objection or appeal. I do not know whether individuals understand this situation, but in a legal sense, education workers have been placed at the mercy of politics and de facto disenfranchised.

I call on Minister Hota-Muminović to return the Ministry's activities within the framework of the Decision on the Establishment of the Institute, which did not at all regulate supervision over school operations, to conduct procedures publicly, transparently, and fairly, and to cease practices that create pressure and stress for education workers, which certainly do not contribute to the improvement of the educational system.

Education workers and all employees in education must be relieved of every form of pressure that distracts them from their key mission - the upbringing and education of students. "Supervisions" of this kind only create additional pressure on education workers, and in such circumstances, it is unrealistic to expect that teachers can give their full contribution to the upbringing and education of children.

As a representative and a legalist lawyer, I have been publicly warning for some time that the arrival in schools of anyone other than the competent inspection authorities and persons authorized to provide legal assistance is legally unfounded. Given that supervision affects the initiation of procedures for determining responsibility, it is necessary for education workers to exercise their right and engage lawyers to protect their human and labor rights. In this, they must be helped by the Union, which is its primary purpose of existence, as well as by representatives who will use all legal instruments to prevent actions that place anyone outside the legal framework.

No one is above the law, and no one has the right to 'settle' political-clientelist interests on the backs of education workers. That is a bad and arbitrary practice, contrary to all postulates of a democratic, law-based society.

It is sad that in the 21st century we have fallen to such a low level that those who manage ministries need to be explained the basic rules of democracy. What has long been known in the civilized world is apparently not understood by the people sitting in ministerial chairs here.