| |
Education
system in tatters under sanctions in Youguslavia
By Vesna Peric Zimonjic |
| |
 BELGRADE,
10 March (IPS) - For years teachers in primary and high schools
all over the country have complained that chalk and blackboards
are all they have at their disposal -- even motivation appears
to be out of stock. |
| |
| The
collapse of the education system is part of the overall state
of impoverishment faced by the country which began with the
wars of former Yugoslavia in 1991 followed by two rounds of
economic sanctions. |
| |
| The
first was the United Nations sanctions between 1992-1995, and
since 1999, the European Union (EU) has imposed its own embargo
-- both were intended to punish Belgrade for its role in the
Bosnia and Kosovo wars. |
| |
|
With
the economy at a standstill, budget allocations have shrunk
to levels not seen since 1992, and education, being almost
totally dependent on state funds, has been directly affected..
|
| |
| Teachers'
salaries are never higher than 50 dollars a month. The education
system employs some 100,000 people in a country of 7.5 million
people. |
| |
| State
funds have been deployed by the regime of Slobodan Milosevic,
president of Serbia until 1997 and now president of Yugoslavia,
on funding the police and security rather than on health and
education. |
| |
| Lack
of money has destroyed the education system, according to the
coordinator of the four trade unions that represent Serbia's
elementary and high schools. |
| |
|
''This situation has resulted in a visible drop in the quality
of teaching and this is turn has had a truly negative impact
on entire generations of children who have been attending school
during the last years,'' says Radovan Pavlocia, the coordinator.
|
| |
| Since
1991, teachers in Serbia have struck work three times demanding
higher salaries. The government has cracked down on protests
by increasing the winter vacations to six to eight weeks from
the previous two weeks to prevent further unrest. |
| |
|
Officially the winter break has been extended because
of the lack of heating, as a result of the oil embargo. |
| |
| Since
Jan. 24, 900 of the 1,618 elementary and high schools in Serbia
have been on strike. Teachers are demanding a 20 percent salary
increase paid with retrospective effect. However the government
is only agreeing to a 10 percent rise. |
| |
| Education
Minister Jovo Todorovic has repeatedly urged the country's teachers
to show ''solidarity with the economic hardships of the country''.
|
| |
| Now
striking teachers are facing the real risk of losing their jobs.
They are being replaced with undergraduate students who are
eager to get jobs. Serbia has an unemployment rate of over 40
percent. |
| |
| ''Taking
on unfinished students as teachers was unimaginable 10 years
ago!'' exclaims Pavlovic. ''What is the knowledge they can give?
Besides, our students have huge gaps in their knowledge due
to the situation (disrupted academic sessions in 1999).'' |
| |
|
On Mar. 24 last year, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation,
NATO, launched a series of air raids against Serbia, forcing
the closure of schools. The year ended without the syllabus
being finished, and no final examinations were held. |
| |
| This
year the school year began on time in September but since then
students have been running to make up lost ground. ''This is
not education, it's patching up pieces of knowledge,'' says
Gordana Nikolic, psychologist at the Belgrade Fifth High School.
|
| |
| Educationists
warn the problems of illiteracy are serious. According to the
most recent figures, 9.5 percent of people have never been to
school while 25 percent dropped out of elementary school. |
| |
| While
an acute shortage of funds has halted all adult literacy programmes,
only some 5.5 percent of the population are now university graduates.. |
| |
| Universities
in Serbia are also in trouble. The new Law on University, endorsed
by the Serbian Parliament in October 1998, has practically abrogated
the autonomy of the university, and enabled the government to
appoint the rectors and deans. |
| |
| ''This
was not the case even after the communists came to power in
1945 (after World War II) and demanded loyalty to their 'new
order','' says Dr Vladeta Jankovic, professor of literature.
''They (communists) saw that they needed educated people to
teach at the university and quietly let things continue as they
were.'' |
| |
| The
law was enacted after pressure was applied by the government's
coalition partners, the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party
(SRS) of Vojislav Seselj and Yugoslav Left (JUL), the party
of Milosevic's wife Mira Markovic. |
| |
| More
than 60 Belgrade University professors of independent views
lost their jobs in 1998. |
| |
| ''The
university is slowly dying. This regime has destroyed both high
schools and universities. When you do that, you need 20 to 30
years to put things back in order,'' says Petar Grujic, a former
university professor of physics. |
| |
| This
article is free of copyright restrictions and can be reproduced
provided that Inter Press Service is credited. |
| |
