The Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports violates the law when it appoints educators from secondary schools, who teach subjects that are not studied in primary schools, as acting principals of elementary schools, according to "Vijesti" interlocutors.
This has happened so far in at least two primary schools in Podgorica, and the most vivid example is the decision of the department of Vesna Bratić to appoint Zoran Đukić, a teacher of the mechanical group of subjects, as the acting principal of the Elementary School "Savo Pejanović" in Podgorica.
Đukić taught at the "Ivan Uskoković" Secondary Vocational School in Podgorica, and was appointed to replace the current director, Biljana Krivokapić.
The Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports did not respond to the question of "Vijesti" whether the appointment of Đukić is in accordance with the law.
According to the Law, a person who has at least VII1 level of the national qualification framework and meets the requirements for a classroom teacher, i.e. a teacher of a compulsory subject or a professional associate (psychologist, pedagogue...) can be elected as the principal of a primary school.
In the explanation of the decision signed by the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, it is stated that Krivokapić was dismissed "because she does not perform her work tasks, that is, she violates her work obligations." According to the explanation, Krivokapić allegedly did not act in accordance with the amendments to the General Law on Education, and did not initiate the amendment of the school board, which would later amend school acts, in order to create legal conditions for fulfilling new legal obligations.
This is a typical decision of the Ministry of Education that almost all dismissed directors received by mail, and most of them announced that they will seek justice from the competent authorities, given that the General Law stipulates that "if the school board is not constituted within 30 days after the end of the mandate, the minister can appoint a new school board at the proposal of the director or competent inspection".
According to the new regulation, the school board has, among other members, two representatives of the ministry, for which consent is given by that department.
The new acting head of "Savo Pejanović" Primary School, Zoran Đukić, is, as stated in Minister Bratić's decision, a teacher of the mechanical group of subjects. According to his profile on Linkedin, Đukić is a professor of the mechanical and traffic group of subjects at the Mechanical School in Podgorica.
Will we have specialist doctors at the head of primary schools?
Damir Suljević, a program associate at the Center for Vocational Education (VET), points out that the decision of the Ministry, which foresees the appointment of Đukić as the acting director of the elementary school "Savo Pejanović", "apparently, was not made in accordance with the provisions of the General Law on Education and Training". .
"The law clearly specifies the conditions for the selection of principals of elementary schools, which are also mandatory for acting principals. The law stipulates that the director, or acting director, in addition to the conditions related to the license to work in educational institutions and mandatory work experience in teaching of at least five years, must possess at least VII-1 level of the national qualification framework, i.e. meet the requirements for a teacher class, a teacher of a compulsory subject or a professional associate (pedagogue, psychologist or defectologist). Given that Đukić taught professional subjects closely related to the mechanical profession at SSŠ 'Ivan Uskoković', which corresponds to his professional qualification, it cannot be said with certainty that he is a person who meets the requirements for appointment to the position Acting Principal of Primary School, because these subjects do not correspond to, nor are studied in primary schools. The Ministry, unless it was a deliberate omission, had to know that. Also, if Đukić has fulfilled the necessary conditions to teach one of the compulsory subjects from elementary school, such as mathematics, physics or informatics, the Ministry should announce this. Otherwise, this move, for example, opens up the possibility that soon a specialist doctor who has taught the medical group of subjects at the Secondary School of Medicine, or an economist or lawyer who is at the Secondary School of Economics, will soon be appointed as the acting director of a primary school. taught classes in the economic or legal group of subjects. The general law foresees these restrictions for a reason, because it is the most responsible position in the elementary school and it is necessary to appoint persons to those positions who are significantly closer to working with the younger population than is the case here," said Suljević.
According to him, the appointment of Đukić as the acting director of that school, apart from being questionable from the aspect of legality, "is also questionable for the reason that it reflects the carelessness persistently demonstrated by the Ministry".
"The decision by which the previous director of that school was dismissed was prepared in a standard form, which was also applied to other cases of dismissal of directors in Montenegro. This should not be a practice and it indicates the lack of attention that the Ministry had to have in looking at the personal scope in the work of each of the dismissed school directors. This also confirms that the work of the dismissed directors was not worthy of an adequate explanation and appropriate argumentation, which creates indications that the issues surrounding the largest number of these cases will also be opened before the competent courts, as the CGO has previously warned about," he concluded. .
Savović: The postman always rings twice
Commenting on this appointment, the president of the Podgorica City Board of the Education Union, Slobodan Savović, told "Vijesta" that "his personal position regarding the changes of school principals has been publicly explained several times to the minister herself and her associates".
He also said that the case of the elementary school "Savo Pejanović" is not an isolated one, at least not in Podgorica.
"Political release of schools cannot be done by decrees from various cabinets and advisory clubs. To me, it all looks like revolutionary justice in the name of disenfranchised educators, and that is dangerous. It is very dangerous and illegal to appoint colleagues from secondary schools, who teach subjects that are not studied in primary schools, as acting principals of primary schools. In addition to being illegal, such behavior of the Ministry renders the entire process of healing the management staff meaningless, if that was their intention," Savović said.
According to him, the mass dismissal of the principal in July has already threatened the start of the new school year.
"Now the question is whether autumn will bring us lawsuits and new divisions? The revolution never brought anything good to anyone. Instead of analyzes and new projects, we got postmen who always ring twice," said Savović.
The Agency for the Prevention of Corruption recently published an opinion according to which the latest amendments to the General Law on Education, which were voted by the deputies at the end of May, contain inaccuracies and vagueness of norms that open up the possibility of violating transparency and integrity in the field of education. ASK invited the Department of Education to change the procedure for the election of principals during the preparation of a new legal text in that area, so that they are not appointed by the minister, but that the competence of electing and dismissing principals is one of the competences of the school, i.e., the board of directors.
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