Member of the Main Board of the Civic Movement URA, Božena Jelušić, commenting on the Proposal for Amendments to the Law on General Education Movement Europe, said that the education system should be led by the best teaching staff, not parties and their apparatchiks.
"It is incredible to what extent this regime has been annoyed by even the small possibility of realizing the autonomy of schools and school boards when it comes to the election of principals. The leading argument of the proponents of the Amendment to the Law on General Education is that school boards are 'fit for principals'. The following is that the Ministry bears responsibility for the work of the principal, and that in some cases, when the educational inspection found deficiencies in the work of the principal, there was no way to replace them by the school boards In case of documented bad findings of the educational inspection, the Ministry can undertake, i.e. specification of criteria for specific cases," said Jelušić.
He states that the first "argument" about the "suitability of the board of directors" should only be placed in the context of the general partitocracy, from the top to the bottom of the system and individual institutions.
"I guess we haven't forgotten how much only the principals had to be 'worthy of the minister', that is, the party that 'gets' their school. But that's fine. It's not fine if someone from 'below' dares to influence decision-making. In other words, those who would once again introduce a 'Trojan horse' into the education system are once again asking citizens to 'trust them, not their eyes'".
Jelušić said that such a proposed solution is a kind of confirmation that there is no political will to really change the education system in the direction of quality. She recalled that decisive party influence in the election of school principals was detected as one of the leading reasons for the decline in the quality of education at the beginning of the last decade.
"As a reminder, the DPS started to introduce the centralization of the election of principals back in 2009, after the protest of Cetinje grammar school students due to the election of the then principal of the grammar school and the unresolved status of the external matriculation exam. It was only three years after the referendum on the restoration of independence and there was still serious disagreement among the citizens hope that the school system will be decentralized, as was outlined in the 'Book of Changes.' That year, high school students from Cetinje "answered" the EU questionnaire and confirmed the democratic potential of the state. - in the form of the decreasing will and desire of teachers to work well and implement reform goals. It was only a year ago that the powers of the school boards were returned, but this regime decided to return things to the 'party joint' and thereby abolish the last atom of hope that in this country, any government essentially cares about the education system, not exclusively about the reservoir of votes".
In most European countries, as Jelušić added, school boards are key actors in the process of selecting school principals, while ministers and ministries set criteria, confirm board decisions and intervene in case of appeals.
"This is the case in the Scandinavian countries and in Great Britain, and in Germany the system is even more decentralized. In neighboring Serbia, school boards also play a key role in the process of electing principals. We can also recall American films with a school theme and their strong school boards. In Montenegro , which started in 2006 with a lot of faith in the European future and the establishment of democratic practices, it is much more honest to admit that they have deceived us and that they have continued to deceive us. That is why there is no political will to change the system qualitatively changes, why not legislate a solution with party quotas and the number of votes that the new directors have to 'soak' for the parties they represent. It's a bit painful when it's said directly like this, but at least it's fair."
Commenting on the abolition of the trimesters, Jelušić said that it should be pointed out that the trimesters were a kind of forced way to force teachers to do their work, that is, to evaluate in a timely manner.
"Undoubtedly, this created pressure on students and teachers, and now this pressure will malignantly double at the end of the semester and at the end of the year. There are a lot of experiments in our education, so let's try this one. But it will not succeed either until The teacher's call will be decided by the worse students (now also with the purchased diplomas). It will not work until the end users, namely male and female students (at lower school levels and parents) do not get the opportunity to evaluate the teacher's work for a long time. the ministry must find another place in the system for those who are not up to the task of teaching. The best 'coaches' should lead and prepare the 'representation' of Montenegro, not parties and their apparatchiks," concluded Jelušić.
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