Protest due to the reduction in the number of assistants

The Council of Parents of Podgorica Primary School "Savo Pejanović" wrote to the Ministry of Education, pointing out that the department, by reducing the number of teaching assistants, neglected the needs of children with special educational needs and the solutions by which these students are referred to inclusion, instead of to the resource center.

Due to the reduction in the number of assistants and teachers in classes, that is, the Ministry of Education's move to not accept that those with fixed-term contracts should be included in the proposals for systematization acts, protests are also being considered.

According to "Vijesti" information, some assistants, as well as disgruntled parents, will organize protests in the coming days to express their dissatisfaction with the reduction in the number of teaching assistants, as well as teachers in day care centers.

The Ministry announced yesterday that "they are not responsible for individual managers of educational institutions who hired or employed teaching assistants contrary to regulations".

"With the unnecessary, irrational, and even illegal accumulation of assistants, we end up in a situation where funds from the budget are being spent inappropriately, without helping children who have a real need for this type of support...", said the department.

From the Council of Parents of the Podgorica School in a letter to the Minister Miomir Vojinović they clarified that 16 children of different ages and types of limitations attend classes in that institution, 11 of whom have the solution that they need a teaching assistant in their work in order to overcome technical limitations, taking into account the needs of each of them individually. The Ministry of Education previously estimated that seven teaching assistants in that institution were redundant.

"...We draw attention to the fact that, according to the received solutions, there are six children in one shift who need to work with an assistant, so the question of organization... and their involvement in helping other children who have been approved for education with an assistant, will be with a reduced number of executors, meet all inclusion standards, as well as overtime work, bearing in mind that assistants work full-time 40 hours a week, and by applying the decision of the Ministry, they will be forced to work in more shifts with more children and thus more hours than the regular eight" , pointed out from the Council of Parents of Elementary School "Savo Pejanović".

They said that the aspect that this is a vulnerable category, children who are tied to their assistants and some of them do not react positively to the changes that will occur due to the reduction in the number of perpetrators, has been neglected.

"On the other hand, the disputed decision penalizes parents additionally, because they will be forced to participate directly in classes in order to avoid missing out," they pointed out.