Only four champions were registered in Šavnik

The municipality of Šavnik records a decreasing number of students year after year, and an increasing number of empty desks and closed regional departments.

This year, the Elementary School "Jovan Ćorović" in Gornja Bukovica will have only one student, while the regional department (PO) of that school in Slatina will have no students. The Education Center in Šavnik cannot boast of the number of champions either - this year there will be only four, three in the parent center and one in the regional department in the village of Duži. As for the elementary school "Bogdan Kotlica" in Boan, it, like the regional department in Bara, will be without a champion - the school in Boan will have 25 students, and PO Bare six.

"There should be 62 founders this year, of which four are champions. The parent of a student who completed the fifth grade in Slatina, in the regional department of the 'Jovan Ćorović' school, announced that he will continue his education here, as did one student from Nikšić. As for the high school, two students applied in the first enrollment period for enrollment in the first grade, one of which does not have the minimum number of points of 48 to enroll in four-year schools. Two students are expected in the second grade, 11 in the third and three in the fourth," the director of the Education Center told "Vijesta" Bajo Zorić.

Last year, the Educational Center, including regional departments in the villages of Bijela, Duži and Dubrovsko, had 58 students in primary school and 21 in high school.

"Savnik, like most of the municipalities in the north of Montenegro, is following a constant decrease in the number of residents and therefore students. In 1998, when I got a job in the regional department in the village of Godijelja, in what was then Elementary School '25. maj', the number of students in eight classes, with regional classes, was 227. In the meantime, in 2003, the primary school in Bijela became a regional class of our institution, from which 17 students now attend classes. The school in Bijela is from the school year 1963/64. numbered 212 students", said Zorić.

Acting director of the school in Gornja Bukovica Milija Zeković, even though the situation in that school is not favorable, even though the number of educators has been greater than the number of students for years, he hopes for better times.

"This year, we have only one student in the home school and that is in the eighth grade, while there will be no students in Slatina. We have several returnees, so it is to be expected that the number of students will increase by five or six next year. I would not like the school to close, because I am afraid that its closure would negatively affect the survival of the village, as it happened in other villages", said Zeković.

The problem of smaller schools is that teaching in certain subjects is not professionally represented. The Šavnica Educational Center is no exception to this, so the classes were not professionally represented in mathematics, physics, informatics, art and music education. As for the schools in Boan and Gornja Bukovica, except for the principal, all educators come from Nikšić.

Zorić hopes that the school bell in the Šavnica region will not fall silent, nor will the children's cries stop, even though the high school is in danger of being closed.

"The number of students enrolled in secondary education follows the number of students who complete primary education. The number of semi-graduates in the next school year in our institution is eight, so it is to be expected that more students will enroll in secondary education from our school as well as from the surrounding area. An interesting fact is that in our institution, 11 students from three young rural families attend elementary school from one house (ie building under the same roof), said the director of the Education Center.

Schooling in the Šavnica region has a tradition of 152 years, and Zorić points out that the regional departments of today's Education Center (the former Elementary School "25. Maj") gradually closed down. The department in Grabovica was closed in 1985, in the village of Mokro in 1998, and in Komarnica three years later. The regional department in Pošćenje ceased operations in 2007, and in the village of Godijelja in 2019, while the school in Bijela (former Elementary School "Milisav Mile Šćepanović") became a regional department in 2003.

"The school building in Miloševići has been in ruins for decades, since there have been no classes. The building was demolished during natural disasters," Zorić said.

14 babies were born, only two marriages were concluded

In Šavnik, the smallest municipality in Montenegro by population, 14 babies were born last year, six the year before, and ten in 2019. Last year, Šavnik not only had an infamous record for the number of babies born, but also for the number of marriages - only two, while the year before, the registrar in that municipality had no job.

In order to encourage the birth rate, the local administration made a decision last year to increase the one-time financial aid for the birth of a child, so instead of the previous amount of 300 euros, parents receive 500 euros for the first child, 1.500 for the second, and every subsequent one (twins) , triplets, quadruplets...) as much as XNUMX per child.

In the municipality of Šavnik, there were only 2011 inhabitants in the 2.070 census, which is almost 5.500 fewer than in 1948 (7.512), or 900 fewer than in the 2003 census (2.974).

Last year there were 13 preschoolers, next year there won't be any

In the Education Center, Zorić points out, there are four levels of education - pre-school, primary, secondary and accommodation of students in a boarding school.

"A total of 13 children of preschool age stayed in the kindergarten last year, although not all of them attended classes regularly. The school, in cooperation with UNICEF and the Ministry of Education, opened three interactive points in Bijela, Duži and Bari, where eight children of preschool age are enrolled. In the next school year, we have no children enrolled in pre-school education", said Zorić.

In the boarding school, which is located in the same building as the kindergarten, there were ten students from Pljevlje, Bijelo Polje and Nikšić.