ALL ON THE PROMENADE: Walk for Better Education on October 5, Reforms Have Not Benefited Students or Education Workers

(Patria) - On the occasion of International Teachers' Day, the Union of Secondary and Higher Education, Upbringing and Culture of Bosnia and Herzegovina – SSVOONKBiH, Cantonal Committee of Sarajevo Canton, on Sunday, October 5, starting at 11:55, is organizing a walk along Wilson's Promenade, from the Third Gymnasium to the plateau near the National Museum, under the slogan – "Walk for Better Education".

"In the past few years in Sarajevo Canton, through the moves of the competent Ministry of Education, numerous changes have occurred in the education system which, in the opinion of the Union, have significantly derogated the education system. We want to believe that the competent Ministry had the best intentions in the reform processes it carried out (and is still carrying out), but the ways in which this was done, as well as the effects in many segments, have either significantly reduced the quality of education or have not yielded the expected results.

The public has witnessed, many times over the years, the attempts of the Union, as well as the wider social community, through constructive proposals and suggestions and attempts at dialogue with responsible persons in the Government of Sarajevo Canton and the competent Ministry, to help and influence the reform(s) to go in the right direction and for its effects to be qualitatively measurable and better compared to the period before the implementation of the reform. Unfortunately for all of us, primarily students and their parents, but also teachers and the entire community – those responsible ignored the voice of the profession and implemented the reform(s) as we see them today," they pointed out from the Union.

The essence of the reform rendered meaningless

At this moment, they add, we are still witnessing numerous problems brought by the new Law on Upbringing and Education in Primary and Secondary Schools and its accompanying by-laws and rulebooks.

"We ask, did the new Law bring a reduction of violence in schools? No! Is safety in schools better? No! Did the long-announced and nearly ten-year-prepared curricular reform produce the effects that were so pompously announced? No, and it will not, because the way it was implemented completely rendered the very essence of this reform meaningless! Here it would be interesting to ask the Ministry how much all this cost and who paid for it? What is the purpose of such bureaucratization of education? Is it not perhaps the goal that, in some narrower expert supervision carried out by the Institute, at any moment they can tell a teacher: 'You are missing one paper?!' What is the need for such over-regulation, pressure and stress that such actions produce in schools? We ask ourselves why we are so (overly) often told by the Ministry that we do not take care of 'the best interest of the child'?! And we only ask that care be taken 'of the best interest of every child,'" they emphasize from the Union.

Incredible intention of the Ministry

They add that the Ministry's intention to illegally entrust the process of managing workers whose need for work has partially or completely ceased to a 'machine' – software, in the future possibly even artificial intelligence (sic!) is almost incredible.

"The piloting of that process showed that the software did not work properly, so, it is quite obvious, those responsible in the Ministry decided to, bypassing the competent Commission, assign workers themselves without any rational criteria, which caused a wave of dissatisfaction, insecurity, concern among the mentioned workers, but also among persons waiting for competitions. The public must know that there are no competitions due to disorganization, not to say negligence of the competent ministry regarding this piloting. And about that, more or less everything is already known, and here we only want to note that, due to such conduct, the Union filed a criminal complaint against the Minister and unknown persons for abuse of official position," they stated.

All of the above, but also other numerous problems, they add, are the reason why this year's teachers' holiday is being marked with a kind of protest walk.

"After this walk from the Third Gymnasium to the National Museum, the Union has prepared a one-hour program aimed at sending a warning about the numerous problems we face in schools," states the announcement signed by the President of the Union, Admir Šuvalić.