The educational community announced that it proposes that the Minister of Education Miomir Vojinović and other decision-makers reconsider their position on the postponement and that the second semester in schools begin as planned in the calendar, with the urgent procurement of energy sources where they are lacking.
"Students who want to go on winter break certainly have the right to be absent from classes for five working days. However, due to the difficult economic situation of most families, we believe that a small number of them will organize themselves and go on winter break next week," adds the Education Community in a statement.
They state that no one has consulted them regarding the current topic of postponing the start of the second semester, so they feel obliged to react as the most numerous professional association of educators.
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We transmit their announcement in full...
"In fact, we were unpleasantly surprised by the media writing about postponing the second half of the year for several reasons:
1. Making a decision at the last moment, when the children and parents have already returned from the trip, and most schools have completed preparatory work for the beginning of the semester, such as meetings of teachers' councils and meetings of professional assets.
2. Changing the decision in just a few hours, from one extreme to the other. First, in the morning program, the minister announced the start of the second half of the year on January 23, and just a few hours later, at the Government session, a decision was made to start the half of the year on January 30. Isn't it frivolous for the Government to consider this issue right before the end of the holidays, even though it had three weeks to deal with this issue?!
3. Uncertainty when it comes to working five working days, Saturdays or extending the school year. Minister Vojinović's claim, which he made several times, is inappropriate, namely that he is sure that the teaching process will not suffer, while he did not ask for the opinion of teachers and schools for his decisions, but the teachers and school principals found out about this decision when the rest of the public did.
4. Reasoning that in this way the tourism economy of Montenegro is met, without any assessment and calculation being given as to how much this decision will increase the state's income through tourism, i.e. whether the beginning of the half-year from January 23 would disrupt anything in that regard. question. This behavior gives priority to tourism over education. We fear that the consequences for education will be much more disastrous.
5. Organization within families, disruption of students' free time and their leisure and sports activities that take place on weekends, as well as parents' time that they could dedicate to their children.
6. Nonchalant management of the teacher's free time if the missed time is done on Saturdays. Reliance on online teaching even though computer equipment is still not provided for schools and teachers.
These are just some of the most common reactions of educators to this announcement in the media, because writing in the media has become a regular channel of communication between the Ministry, the Government and schools.
We believe that it is unnecessary, wrong and, for educators, humiliating, to give primacy to any branch of the economy to the detriment of education. Because of this sudden decision, we doubt the good intentions of the decision makers in Montenegro, especially because we know that there are big problems with heating in schools and that the solution to this problem is only being postponed.
We suggest that the minister and other decision-makers reconsider their position on the postponement and that the second semester in schools begin as planned in the calendar, with the urgent procurement of energy sources where they are lacking.
Students who want to go on a winter break certainly have the right to be absent from classes for five working days. However, due to the difficult economic situation of most families, we believe that a small number of them will organize themselves and go on a winter vacation next week.
In any case, education must not suffer because tourism organizations have not done their part properly. It is unacceptable that every year the beginning and end of the winter vacation depends on whether it will snow in December or February, whether the classrooms are heated, or whether someone sends emails with false information. All this shows how much education is on the margins in our society, how important all other areas are, how much we don't have valid representatives who will fight for a better status of education in Montenegro.
Finally, questions for the Minister of Tourism, the Prime Minister and the Government, what is the expected profit for the tourism of Montenegro by postponing the start of the semester? That is, how much damage would we cause to the economy by starting school on January 23? We hope that all these decision-makers are serious and that they will introduce us to the analysis of the winter tourist season, where we would get answers to all questions and doubts," reads the statement of the Educational Association.
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