Several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) appealed to the deputies to ask the representatives of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports to dedicate that department to one of the key segments of society, preparing for the new school year and building a non-partitocratic system, which will be able to implement quality changes.
The appeal to parliamentarians, which refers to the state of the education system, was sent by the Association of Parents, the Educational Community of Montenegro, Action for Human Rights, Center for Child Rights, Juventas, the Association of Youth with Handicaps, Forum MNE, the Union of Secondary School Students and the Association of Special Education Teachers.
They also requested the initiation of changes to the General Law on Education, which will regulate the selection of directors in the future in a way that will guarantee transparency, professionalization and depoliticization, based on the proposals of educators, the professional community and NGOs.
"We ask that you do everything in your power and ask the representative of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports to oblige that department to dedicate itself to one of the key segments of society, and first of all to prepare for the new school year and build a non-partitocratic system that will be able to designs and implements quality changes", the appeal states.
The NGOs, which sent the appeal, assessed that the Montenegrin education system has been facing numerous challenges for a long time and that, unfortunately, it has not managed to cope with a significant part of those challenges.
Instead, as they believe, it has been additionally burdened in recent months.
"We know the weak points and mistakes that have been part of the education system until now, which is why we have to dedicate ourselves to overcoming them, and not to continue a similar practice as before," the appeal reads.
The NGOs told the MPs that lack of commitment to changes, which could finally bring progress, knowledge and commitment to children, educators and parents, calls for an urgent reaction.
"Is it possible that after the most complex school year ever, and a month before the start of the new one, we are dealing with the continuation of the politicization of employment in educational institutions? Are we unaware of how bad political employment has brought us in education so far", asked the NGO.
As they stated, fair laws were not passed even in previous years, which should have enabled school administrations to be elected based on professional qualifications and to implement an educational reform that will provide quantitative and qualitative results.
"You did not react adequately when our children and educators and parents functioned in experimental conditions and never greater social and educational differences during the last school year", it is written in the appeal addressed to the deputies.
The NGO told the MPs that they have to act now because, as they said, it must not be allowed to continue experiments on children, who should return to school in about a month, and no one knows how.
They said that there is no plan and that no goal has been set and, as they stated, if there are any, the public is not familiar with them because the Ministry communicates with the public sparingly.
The appeal states that it seems that neither Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić nor Deputy Prime Minister Dritan Abazović, who is also the president of the Council for the Rights of the Child, have time to deal with it, even though they were primarily appealed to in time.
"Instead of an answer, their services informed the public about the collective vacation of the entire Government and its departments in August, which further fueled the uncertainty that has not been missing since the beginning of the epidemic," the NGO said.
The NGO said that due to all of the above, they are asking the MPs to ask the relevant Ministry in the Parliament for answers to the questions - which and what models of teaching organization have been foreseen for the next school year, whether there is a Protocol on how to deal with crisis situations and whether they are insured conditions for it to be applicable as such.
They appealed to the deputies to ask the representatives of the Ministry whether funds will be provided for work and compliance with epidemiological measures, whether schools will have available the resources necessary for the organization of classes, whether all children will receive free textbooks.
In the appeal, the MPs were asked to ask the Ministry in what way and how the educational model for children with developmental disabilities and disabilities will be changed during online classes, and compared to the previous school year, whether the budget for education will be transparently distributed, and determined funding priorities in order to create the basic conditions for children and teachers to work in the IT era, especially during online classes.
Deputies should also ask for an answer to the questions whether it is planned to start the process of cooperation of the relevant Ministry with teachers/students and schools/kindergartens and in what way, whether and how the autonomy in the work of educators who are directly participants in the teaching process and provide them with an existence in accordance with the role they play in society.
"As well as when the Law on the Education of Children with Special Educational Needs will be amended in order to ensure the employment of teaching assistants on the basis of employment contracts for an indefinite period of time, instead of, as is the case so far, on the basis of contracts valid for "at most the end of the school year," the appeal states.
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