Proposed Legal Changes to ‘Limit Rights’ Send Chill Through Serbian Schools

As president of the Forum of Belgrade Gymnasiums, which represents grammar school employees in the Serbian capital, Ana Dimitrijevic attended a ‘public debate’ on August 5 at which Serbia’s education ministry opened discussion on a string of amendments that it wants to make to the Law on the Foundation of the Education System. The ministry officials portrayed the amendments as “cosmetic”, Dimitrijevic recalled. They were anything but. “They mostly underestimated our intelligence by explaining basic things we all know very well and pretended they didn’t understand why the fuss, when the amendments are cosmetic and not so important,” Dimitrijevic told BIRN. “When we asked for precise definitions of some of the amendments, they said ‘It goes without saying’, even though we all know it doesn’t.” After more than 18 months of open confrontation between Serbia’s government and its educational institutions, from secondary schools to universities, the education ministry chose the summer holiday period to unveil legal changes that education workers fear will limit the ability of staff, pupils and parents to take a stand against social injustice. They will broaden the grounds for teaching licences to be revoked, limit children’s right to assembly in school and reduce parental participation in the education system. Subscribe to Balkan Insight Premium to read the full article. Please login to your account below if you are already a Premium Subscriber. Buy Premium Subscription Our Premium Service gives you full access to all content published on BalkanInsight.com, including analyses, investigations, comments, interviews and more. Choose your subscription today and get unparalleled in-depth coverage of the Southern and Eastern Europe. Buy Premium Subscription If you have trouble logging in or any other questions regarding you account, please contact us