From an educator’s point of view: Why don’t I look forward to September 1? – Personal attitudes

We are now entering the new school year, not to help students achieve planned educational outcomes, but to beat every country in the region.

That crazy race for the title of leader in the region spilled over from the top of the government and spread to the ministries. Mladen Šarčević also joined him, turning the preparation for the beginning of the school year into his personal campaign for re-election as Minister of Education. Not at their own expense, of course, but at the expense of teachers, students, and their parents.

Spring classes were marked by urgent daily letters from the Ministry of Education, inaccurate and unclear. The end of August was marked by the television appearances of the candidate Šarčević, inaccurate and unclear.

The candidate assures that everything is clear for all schools, and that he did not receive a request for clarification from any school, not knowing that the schools are also run by candidates, but for reelection for the position of director, who is not crazy about exposing his incomprehension.

Teachers ask principals, school principals and school administrations to answer succinctly: follow the instructions. When making decisions about teaching models, nobody asked the educators anything, as usual, and we will take care of everything. A model was chosen that does not protect either pedagogical or health principles. School “a little like this, a little like that” cannot function and it is impossible to force students to distance themselves during the holidays and around school.

During that time, candidate Šarčević says from the screen that everyone in the region is waiting to see how Serbia will fare, so they can take on our model. Educators hope that at least countries in the region will get answers from Šarčević that we don’t.

For example, what does it mean to “just put an assignment on the platform” or “put your e-learning students online”?

This is what a painter who painted the school could say. Sarcevic shouldn’t! Class preparation serves the teacher and is not written for students. The “tasks” are established after the material is explained.

The learning model according to which half the classes change every week is acceptable only in the case that the didactic units are repeated, that is, instead of a week, two jobs. It is only correct for students. One cannot get an explanation from the teacher in the classroom and the other cannot get an assignment and preparation for the class.

So Šarčević’s fascination with the educational television program is also problematic (they cannot be classes, because the class is interactive by nature).

When the pandemic was declared, Croatia announced that television lessons were being recorded. Less than two days passed, they started filming in our country as well. Šarčević spoke of them all the time as the mainstay of education during the pandemic. Actually, those classes brought problems that could have been avoided.

They were inconsistent with the plans of the vast majority of teachers, and the television program was requested to be entered in the newspaper. The students had to watch both the television program and the classes organized by their teachers.

And there were colleagues who, thanks to those classes, reduced their work to “read the lesson on that page and do the first three tasks.” There was no educational program for many subjects, directions, educational profiles, so the teachers did everything themselves. Aside from the ones that aren’t, we all have a bad reputation for them, and parents are asking for our salary.

It is still unknown if the extended stay will work at full capacity, if it will receive a group that enters the classroom on the second shift in the morning.

It is not known how internships in vocational secondary schools will be organized, what teachers working in two, three or even four schools will do, why those who teach electives can only work online and others cannot, why it is not offered that opportunity teachers who belong to risk groups for health (and it is feasible), why the material has not been reduced, the prescribed number of notes per semester has been reduced, etc., so as not to enter “small intestine”, as Šarčević would say.

Epidemiological measures are a special story.

In the offices of the Ministry of Schools in Serbia, they work under ideal conditions, which has allowed them the same ideal local autonomous governments.

The offices do not know that there are mayors who do not cooperate, that there are principals who cannot have the opportunity to announce the needs of the schools.

It is true that there are brilliant examples, there are directors who have already purchased masks and visors for all employees, sufficient funds to disinfect the school in a few months, they place dispensers with disinfectants in all classrooms. Are schools allowed to be so different?

When it comes to masks, the crisis staff sent mixed messages: I can do all the masks, I can only wear three layers, but I can make any, they can be worn all the time, not all the time, they can be removed while sitting in a bank, but it is safer they do not take off in any way …

And then the parents came to all of that, rallied around the idea that we would take their children into isolation at school, where they would be secretly vaccinated, mistreated and some of them taken in an unknown direction by “people in spacesuits. “.

They call the masks muzzles, under which their children will faint, because they will not have enough air. Non-contact thermometers are considered inadmissible because they emit infrared rays directly into the pineal gland.

They consider themselves the last bulwark to defend the lives of their children, which we, the educators, want to endanger. These parents meet on social media, in groups of several thousand members.

They refer to a documentary that I do not want to advertise, adrenochrome, satanists, and we who agree to wear protective masks are servants of the new world order.

Why did I write this too?

These parents are very scared and worried, the phenomenon has become massive and no one is dealing with it. She was completely ignored. No one is trying to calm them down, to explain that our schools are a safe place for them and our children.

Due to all of the above, this is not the September 1 that I am looking forward to. For the first time in 26 years of operation.

The Serbian education system is not ready to start working under such conditions. A model has been chosen that will jeopardize both health and education. Only the candidate will not be in danger.

The author is an Arandjelovac English teacher and the author of the blog Klotfrket

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