Why is the election of the primary school principal in Velika Kladuša attracting so much attention?

By: A. Aljović

The commission of the Ministry of Education in the Government of the Una-Sana Canton is expected to conduct final interviews on Wednesday with candidates who applied for the position of principal of the First Primary School in Velika Kladuša, one of the 49 primary schools in the Una-Sana Canton.

Why is the appointment of the principal of this particular primary school so politically and media interesting?

A certain Hamza Čarkadžić also applied for the position of principal of this school. He is a former and long-time principal of the First Primary School, who has not been in education for ten years. Some parents and teachers are apprehensive and have already announced a boycott of classes if Čarkadžić is reappointed as the school principal, due to his problematic past. On the other hand, parents might receive political support for Čarkadžić, primarily from ASDA, so parents' opinions in that case might not have a significant impact on the choice of the school principal, even though their children attend the school and parents finance it through taxes.

Čarkadžić, however, has a different opinion on the whole case. He explains to Patria that he refuses to accept that he does not deserve the principal position in the school after so many years of experience, and that not even the smallest offense can be attributed to him for a whole decade.

A source from the Government of the USK, who follows primary education, explained the whole case as follows: "The Minister of Education, Damir Omerdić, is under pressure from two sides. On one side, he has a group of teachers and parents with their demands regarding the appointment of the school principal, and on the other side, he must follow political decisions. If politics dictates that Čarkadžić should be the new principal, then he must either remain consistent and reject such a request, which could be problematic for him in terms of his position, or accept political instructions and disregard the parents' demands, leading the school to a situation where students boycott it."

The current government in USK consists of A-SDA, the "Pomak" coalition, SDP, Naša stranka, Nezavisni blok, and SBB. They have a narrow majority with 16 votes in the Assembly out of a total of 30 deputies. According to this source, it is enough for Hajrudin Halilović from A-SDA, the 16th vote of the narrow majority in the USK Assembly, to condition the parliamentary majority on the appointment of Čarkadžić to head the First Primary School, and you would already have a problem.

The office of Prime Minister Ružnić does not wish to comment on this topic.

The First Primary School was previously shaken by a scandal after one of the teachers sent his explicit photos via social media, for which the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office is investigating this case.

Prime Minister Mustafa Ružnić recently warned about the alarming situation in the educational system of USK. The Cantonal Budget Inspection, by order of the Government, conducted inspections in the Ministry of Education of USK, as well as in all primary and secondary schools and kindergartens. Prime Minister Ružnić stated to the media that special working groups have been formed which have analyzed each school in the USK area and prepared reports that reveal violations of laws and pedagogical standards in schools in the USK area.

According to government analyses, as of the 2019/2020 school year, as many as 39 primary schools will be closed in USK, mostly rural ones, and 229 teachers will lose their jobs. Parents are demanding that someone from the teaching staff who will lose their jobs starting this school year be appointed as the principal of the First Primary School.