A group of teachers from Podgorica Primary School "Pavle Rovinski" warns for months Ministry of Education and the Educational Inspectorate to numerous illegalities that accompany the formation of the School Board (ŠO), but for now, as they claim, there is no adequate reaction from the authorities.
They told the "News", but also provided evidence (correspondence, inspection decisions, minutes from the sessions of the Teachers' Council) that the acting director Nataša Popović was preventing them from electing their representatives in the School of Education, so that they would be elected "eligible".
According to amendments to the General Law on Education, the Schools of Education of all institutions are responsible, among other things, for the selection of school principals.
While the teachers warn that during the acting mandate Popović suffered educational work, but also that she sabotaged their constitutional right to vote and be elected, the Ministry of Education claims that the School of Education has been in full force since the end of last week, and that they have been informed in detail with events in the school in Podgorica.
"Vijesti" was not able to make contact with Popović, but the school administration claims that everything was done in accordance with the laws and the Statute of the institution.
"Representatives of the employees in ŠO are elected by secret ballot, and there are no detailed procedures. More than half of the teachers, members of the Teachers' Council, asked for the election to be held in two rounds, so that one representative would be elected in one, and another in the second. All possible procedures related to voting have been followed", said the administration of "Pavle Rovinski" elementary school.
The teachers, on the other hand, claim that the election of employee representatives from two days ago is also illegal.
Pressures, illegalities, secrets...
In a letter to "Vijesta", a group of teachers states that the new way of electing principals, which is decided by school boards, "was due to pressure and a series of illegal actions of the line ministry".
They remind that the competition from October 5 last year was not implemented, but that Minister Miomir Vojinović, without explanation, decided to appoint Popović as acting director for a period of six months.
The teachers also claim that, with the help of part of Vojinović's cabinet, Popović tried to win a full mandate before the start of the application of the innovated General Law on Education, that is, before May 1.
"...At the same time, the acting director of the school exerts similar pressure on the president of the School of Education from among the teachers. Although the pressures on the members of the SC committee to announce the competition were persistent and fierce, the SC was unanimous in its decision that the competition should be announced in accordance with the law on the duration of the acting mandate, as well as in accordance with the legal deadlines related to the announcement of presidential elections and make a decision on the announcement of the competition on May 3, 2023. This is evidenced by the minutes from the meeting of the Board of Education, the e-mails submitted by the Ministry, as well as the official notes of the president of the Board of Education," the teachers say.
Correspondence and notes are available to "Vijesta".
They remind that in the fall of last year, all members of the SC resigned, because the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption declared them to be public officials.
"New members were elected in November. At the then session of the Teachers' Council, only two members were proposed, because no one else wanted to accept the candidacy due to their obligations to KAS. There was no secret ballot because the election was unanimous - there was not a single vote against the proposed two candidates, and there were no abstentions either. Because of this, and according to an anonymous report, the educational inspector indicated that the irregularity regarding the public voting should be removed", the teachers state.
Constitutional law or legal violence?
According to the signatories of the letter, the new election of two members of the Board of Education from the ranks of teachers represents "legal violence", because the acting director and the secretary insist that only one candidate can be selected on the ballot.
"Although the General Law says that two representatives are elected from among the Teachers' Council. Therefore, according to the directive of the acting director, one is voted for, and two candidates are elected. V. d. the director was adamant that any ballot with two candidates circled would be cancelled. The members of the Teachers' Council protested at the session, because their constitutional right to vote and be elected was challenged...This was followed by a report by a group of teachers to the Education Inspectorate on the account of the imposition of an illegal procedure by the acting director", says the letter to "Vijesta".
According to the teachers, the educational inspector Boško Lazarevic ordered that the vote be repeated.
"At the new session, there was also new pressure to vote for the decision whether to round up one or two representatives before voting for the representatives in the Council of Ministers. And that was imposed by the acting director, considering the fact that there was no such recommendation in the Record of the Education Inspector. Until the session, the members of the Teaching Council were not informed about the minutes of the Educational Inspection, although they requested it on several occasions, about which there are official notes filed in the School's Directory", the teachers state, adding that a good part of the members of the Teaching Council were misled, because they were not informed. that there are two records after the same inspector's visit - one related to control supervision, and the other related to the submitted initiative.
New session - new report to the inspection
Teachers state that all this produces employee dissatisfaction.
"...Who are forced to obtain information and claim their rights through competent institutions. Additional employee dissatisfaction is caused by the non-interference of the acting director in the educational process, distancing herself from all ongoing issues at expert council sessions", the teachers emphasize. Because of all this, they submit a report to the Education Inspectorate on May 12, and they also request the exemption of the acting inspector.
"Regardless of the request, he again performs control, not deciding on several points that were highlighted in the application, and makes a decision only after 18 days, about which he does not inform the applicants. According to that decision, according to our knowledge, a re-election procedure of the members of the Teaching Council in ŠO was ordered, and acting director Nataša Popović was given clear and precise instructions to vote for two members, which is a right guaranteed by the Constitution, and which she did not act on, but requested from the Teaching Council to vote on the method of voting, which resulted in repeating the voting procedure for one member, which contradicts the written and verbal orders she received. With such a voting method, one 'eligible' member of the Board of Education was elected, and the other candidates did not get the chance to be elected, because there were many invalid ballots, which is a consequence of the prepared strategy", the teachers say.
On Thursday, the vote was taken again, and according to the teachers, the election was illegal.
"We appealed to the educational inspector again," the teachers say.
Ministry: The school board is complete and can make decisions
The Ministry told "Vijesta" that, as far as they were concerned, the SO was completed on Thursday.
"The Ministry of Education has been informed in detail about the events in the 'Pavle Rovinski' Elementary School in connection with the formation and functioning of the School Board. After certain irregularities, which were pointed out by the educational inspector, a new session of the Teaching Council was held, and with the election of both candidates, representatives of the employees, the School of Education of that institution was completed. The school board can fully decide on all issues within its competence".
From that department, however, they did not answer all the questions of "Vijesti".
Thus, the question remains unanswered whether the education department is aware of the objections of a part of the Teachers' Council that they are persistently asked that, during the voting, one member of the Council round up one candidate for the representative in the School of Education, even though they should delegate two.
The Ministry did not answer the question whether they were aware of the alleged pressures of the acting director regarding the vote, nor how they would react to it.
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