Educators in Sarajevo face verbal attacks, violence, threats, Ministry is inert

(Patria) - The Independent Union of Primary Education and Upbringing of FBiH - Cantonal Board of Sarajevo Canton issued a statement expressing concern about the state of education and the system for the protection of educators.  

"After the tragic shooting in a Belgrade elementary school this week, alarms have been sounded in all countries of the region, but apparently not sufficiently in Sarajevo Canton. It is only a matter of time before the Belgrade scenario is transferred and something similar happens in Sarajevo, because it is clear that we do not have a sufficiently strong defense mechanism, not only in education but in society in general, to prevent and stop all the scourges of the modern age from happening.

Our schools have no solutions, and the system provides no protection for educators. The public does not know that verbal attacks and harassment, violence, and threats directed at school workers in Sarajevo occur almost daily. Workers remain silent out of fear, principals do not speak publicly for the sake of their positions, and the Ministry of Education and Upbringing of Sarajevo Canton knows everything and, of course, as usual, does not undertake adequate activities within its jurisdiction, in plain language, they are not doing their job, and schools are left to themselves. Individuals, most often parents of students, who cause problems in schools are, as usual, not removed from schools, nor are they permanently banned from access, nor are they punished. And children in schools watch all of this, and then the Belgrade, American, or some other scenario is to be expected around us, in our vicinity. Because children are, after all, just children and they copy what adults do.

Due to the inertia of the Ministry of Education and Upbringing of Sarajevo Canton, educators feel extremely insecure, which gives us the right to demand once again that educators be granted the status of an official person.

Upbringing has long been a theoretical concept in schools because teachers and educators spend their energy, on the orders of the Ministry headed by a minister whose morality is a fluid category and an institute where employment was done by phone, on instant and quasi-reforms, becoming scribes, less and less teachers, and they used to be, above all, educators and pedagogues, and only then workers in education.

Our problems in schools will not be eradicated by learning outcomes and formative assessment, public procurement and tenders for metal detectors, hiring social workers and psychologists in election years, engaging armed security services, seeking the best grading system, etc., while our education system is such that we have school for grades, not for knowledge.

An interdisciplinary approach of all actors in education when creating legal solutions and joint action in practice, especially against those who do not behave in accordance with the law, as well as directing energy in school and in the family primarily towards upbringing and only then towards education, is the only way to improve the situation in education and restore the trust of educators in the system and generally improve the situation in society.

Poor upbringing at home and the difficult social, political, economic, and social reality in the country generate and produce problems on the street and in school. And what can we expect from the Ministry of Education and Upbringing and the Government of Sarajevo Canton when they are unable to solve problems and prevent the reign of terror of one man, general lawlessness, blockades, and anarchy that is happening in the Public Institution Elementary School "Aneks" Sarajevo due to a simple director's chair?!

Nihad Uk, the decisions of your Government are not being implemented, you are silent, you do not respond to correspondence, you do nothing, and you only pose for photos like a mannequin, and that's why you are sitting (1)! Naida Hota-Muminović, you are clearly incorrigible, and it is unlikely that any mobile expert team will help in your case, and instead of doing your job and gathering all interested parties in the system around you so that we can all improve the situation together as a team, you undermine those who can help you the most and at the same time you are not doing your job, so you are also sitting (1)!

As long as the fish stinks from the head and as long as that head does not understand its job and does not start doing its job, things will be as they are, and probably worse," the statement from the Union, headed by Saudin Sivro, reads.