Sivro: We will welcome May 1st in tents in front of the KS Government building

(Patria) - Education has been in trouble since the moment we introduced nine-year education and started with certain reforms, said the president of SSOOiO KS Saudin Sivro, a guest on Federal Television's Morning Program.

Sivro reminds that education in BiH is divided into 10 cantons, two entities, Brčko District, meaning we do not have a single educational policy at the state level, and it cannot be conducted at the level of one canton, one small region without respecting basic principles.

He believes that we have gone far from the framework law, adopted about 20 years ago, which was an attempt to establish a fairly uniform educational system, while respecting all the specifics, needs of citizens and peoples after the aggression against BiH.

- We have been living the reform for more than 20 years. Specifically in the Canton of Sarajevo, but also in the whole of BiH, to a lesser extent, and intensively in the last three years, we have been trying to somehow survive this quasi-reform that we have in primary education - adds Sivro.

When it comes to the Canton of Sarajevo, Sivro believes that the way and manner in which pedagogical standards are adopted is completely wrong.

- Those who are listening and watching this should know that in the Canton of Sarajevo there is no strategy. We don't know what is desired for 5, 10, 15, 20 years.

The law has been in the process of being adopted for three years, it has not been adopted, and pedagogical standards have now been adopted, and then the law and bylaws will be adopted. So, a complete chaos in terms of logic, legal logic, every other logic, educational logic.

The Government of the Canton of Sarajevo adopted the standards on March 5th. They did not adopt them at a regular session, but at a telephone session under the pressure of the minister. Still, after our statements and what we are saying, no one has denied it because it is true.

Therefore, in the Canton of Sarajevo, we do not have a Government of the Canton of Sarajevo, but a collection of ministries, and these pedagogical standards were adopted in such a way that the minister conducted a so-called public debate, consulted everyone. She is now embellishing the situation in such a way that you simply cannot implement these standards in schools.

The union had a meeting where we stated what would happen, we were not listened to, and now we have reached the phase of boycotts, protests, and strikes. More than twenty things that are wrong with the pedagogical standards were sent by us exactly on February 14th.

We sent what was wrong with these standards. We clearly highlighted them for the Prime Minister and others in the Government so they would know what was wrong with these pedagogical standards, and none of it was taken into account. Because of this, we will have protests, strikes, boycotts, and camping in front of the KS Government - emphasizes Sivro.

He pointed out the incompetence of the relevant minister, Naida Hota-Muminović, who, as he stated, should resign, not only because of this but also because of everything she has done.

- From getting vaccinated with the desired vaccine during the corona pandemic in her office or upstairs in the Government's office, where she said that morality is a fluid category, to attempting to condense the Bosnian language into an electoral unit when it comes to elementary school.

Then, for example, this SAFER, and other things, lead us to a situation where we clearly state that the Government, a year and a half ago, hired social workers in large Sarajevo schools according to the norms and standards that were valid before, only for the same Government to now declare the same people, whom it hired through public competitions based on the Government's program, as redundant.

This is unacceptable. Therefore, it is unacceptable that mathematics teachers, according to these standards, have higher workloads than other teachers, and mathematics teachers and mathematics as a subject are among the most important subjects that children should have in primary school.

A teaching hour is no longer counted as 60 minutes, 40 hours in a working week, it is no longer counted as 60 minutes, but as 45 minutes. The bonuses that teachers had are gone.

Correction of written assignments, homework, and so on are not paid, so now, according to these standards, our children will simply no longer have written assignments. We will have semi-literate children, and the situation will be worse than it is now.

We can list many things in the standards that are not good. We will articulate these things and present them to the public.

Teaching workloads are seemingly better, but they are worse because they are now trying to tell us - we didn't work with children before, we didn't have an educational component, overtime work doesn't exist, people will work the same for less money, and we had a salary increase.

Because of this, we will demand, if these standards are implemented, an even higher salary. Therefore, if the Government insists on these standards being as they are, we will demand much higher salaries in education to attract young people, because under these conditions, young people will not want to work - added Sivro.

Finally, he spoke about the activities that the Union he leads will undertake in the coming period.

- We planned to start the strike on April 17th, two teaching hours every day in the first and second shifts, and between shifts. On May 1st, symbolically on Labor Day, many will go barbecuing, and we will set up tents in front of the KS Government building and form a camp for educators and strike until our demands are met.

Our demands are to return the pedagogical standards, for the minister to leave, to stop administrative reforms, and to carry out an education reform in a way that is in the interest of children, with better curricula and programs, better textbooks, and fewer mandatory hours and subjects so that our children are happy and satisfied, and employers get quality workforce after completing high school - concluded Sivro.