Democrats Demand Release of Draft Education Law
The Democratic Party's education committee says the Education Ministry is amending the schools law without a published draft, and gave teachers' unions just two days to respond.
No draft of the proposed education law changes has been made public, and representative unions were given only two days to respond, according to the education committee of the Democratic Party. The statement was released on August 3, in the middle of the summer school break.
The law in question is the Law on the Fundamentals of the Education System, which governs the entire school system and directly determines the rights, obligations and standing of students, parents and school staff. The Democratic Party says the Education Ministry, headed by Dejan Vuk Stankovic, has disclosed neither the makeup of the working group drafting the changes nor the names of those behind specific proposals.
“Cowardly attempts to push through, in the middle of the summer holidays and by the back door, changes that restrict and diminish the rights of students, staff and parents,” the Democratic Party’s education committee said in its statement.
In the same statement, the party called on teachers, parents and the public not to accept changes that, as it put it, have so far only been the subject of speculation. It named two points as contentious: limits on students’ right to organize and associate, and an attempt to control parents’ councils by cutting their membership, though it did not cite specific provisions.
Two Days in the Middle of Summer Break
The deadline the Democratic Party put front and center concerns the unions. The DS asked representative education unions to publicly say whether they had seen the full text of the draft, whether their membership had been briefed on the proposed changes, and whether they intend to accept the ministry’s proposals. The response window, the party says, was two days, at a time when most union members are on vacation.
A similar account, with a slightly different figure, came from Pedja Mitrovic, a lawmaker with the Party of Freedom and Justice. He said the draft changes were sent only to select unions, which were given 48 hours to respond.
“During the summer recess, without public debate, and with an unofficial announcement that it will be adopted right before the start of the school year,” Mitrovic said, describing the conditions under which the draft is being prepared.
The Education Ministry has not yet responded to these claims, and the draft has not been published anywhere official.
What Does the Draft Reportedly Change?
The specific provisions being discussed do not come from the Democratic Party’s statement. They were listed by the Green-Left Front, citing reporting by the portal Zelena ucionica, which was picked up by Masina. According to those accounts, the draft would:
- strip students of the general right to organize on their own initiative outside the student parliament, meaning no debate clubs, sections or grassroots initiatives
- cap parents’ councils at eight members, regardless of how many classes a school has
- narrow that body’s authority over school curricula, finances and textbook selection
- introduce the possibility of revoking a teacher’s license for failing to carry out educational duties
- set new conditions for removing school board members and introduce forced transfer of students as a disciplinary measure
None of these figures or measures appear in the reports covering the Democratic Party’s statement. The distinction matters, since in a public debate over a document no one has seen, it is easy to conflate what the party said with what someone else read.
The Green-Left Front is the most pointed on the subject of parents’ councils.
“The scope of this body will be reduced, and principals will be given the power to decide who ultimately makes it up. From its current active role in deciding on school curricula, finances and textbook selection, this body and the parents who make it up will, under the new changes, be transformed into mere decoration of the education system,” the party said in its statement.
Srpske Novine has previously reported on the narrowing of parents’ councils’ authority over textbooks and school funds, and even then no answer emerged on how eight people would be chosen in place of the current class representatives. That question still stands.
An Arithmetic That’s Easy to Check
Under the current law, a parents’ council consists of one representative per class, elected by a majority vote of that class’s parents. If the cap were set at eight, every school with more than eight classes would end up with a smaller council than it has now, and the gap would grow with the size of the school. In large city schools, that would not be a correction, it would be a change in who holds the decision-making power.
How those eight people would be chosen is not spelled out in the draft, according to the Green-Left Front. That is precisely where the party’s objection takes hold, that the composition of the council would effectively be left to the principal to decide.
The calendar is what gives this story its weight. Less than a month remains until the new school year begins on September 1, and parents’ councils are formed at the start of the school year. If the changes are adopted before that date, the first councils under the new rules will be elected immediately, before any parent has had the chance to read the law under which they are being chosen.
The Democratic Party is asking for one concrete thing: publication of the draft. Until that happens, the education law is being debated through intermediaries, and the two day clock keeps running.
