Instead of the necessary reform, educational institutions remain the prey of the authorities, the non-governmental organization (NGO) Center for Civic Education (CGO) announced today.
"We believe that the latest examples of chaotic situations in educational institutions prove how ill-conceived and inapplicable the norm from the General Law on Education was, which, after its entry into force, has to carry out the election of directors in all public institutions within 30 days, and on on the basis of which the competent Ministry started corresponding actions. And when adopting this provision, which shortened the earlier deadline for the selection of heads of educational institutions from six months to 30 days, the CGE indicated that it was too ambitious and unrealistic, as well as introducing legal uncertainty and confusion, and what practice now confirms to us on a daily basis," states the statement of the CGE signed by Snežana Kaluđerović, senior legal advisor.
CGO states that in the entire text of the new law, there is nowhere a provision that the mandate of all directors in educational institutions ends with the entry into force of the law, so as they claim, any interpretation of the Ministry that it is necessary to elect all directors is arbitrary and illegal.
"Therefore, not all principals can be replaced just because some other structure is in power that did not elect them, but the work of each individual must be evaluated individually and according to clear criteria. whose proposals to dismiss the principals were not acted upon by previous ministers protecting those principals for various reasons. Also, the same ministers ignored numerous complaints from teaching staff. The new education authorities had to first act on those findings and complaints, and then where they felt there were problems, send Educational inspection or apply other mechanisms to determine the situation and prosecute those responsible. It is illegal to dismiss directors who have begun their mandates and who conscientiously and dedicatedly perform their work. This may be a reason for many of them to initiate legal proceedings for compensation, and here the citizens of Montenegro will pay for the damage," says the announcement of the CGE.
The NGO added that even the elementary procedure for electing new directors was not followed, because as they add, "we did not have public competitions announced by school boards or further evaluation of candidates by the Ministry's Commission, which was supposed to follow the opinion of the teachers' councils on the determined candidates".
"Of particular concern are the publicly stated allegations of those employed in education that directorships are distributed according to established party quotas of the parties in power. CGE notes with regret that the earlier practice of controversial and partisan appointments of directors of educational institutions threatens to develop even more drastically instead of being suppressed and that a transparent, competitive and legal procedure for the selection of managers of these institutions was started. And all this, it is worth pointing out, contrary to pre-election promises, as well as the announcements of the competent minister herself that she will change bad practices and that she will decentralize and depoliticize the education system. "Ultimately, this approach cannot be an incentive for the necessary improvement of the quality of education, nor for the development of critical awareness among teaching staff and students, and it introduces a new discord among the teaching collectives," concludes the statement of the CGE.
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