School Law Hearing Held With Phones Locked in a Box

The public hearing on the school law, formally the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on the Foundations of the Education System, took place on August 5 in the Great Hall of the Constitutional Court on Nemanjina Street 22 to 26 in Belgrade. The Ministry of Education organized the gathering, which lasted about five hours. Alongside the minister, the hall held state secretaries Vesna Nedeljkovic, Borko Petrovic and Jasmin Hodzic, as well as assistant ministers Danka Nesovic and Ivan Cilerdzic.

The first reports out of the meeting had nothing to do with the substance of the draft. They were about the conditions for getting into the hall. Participants were asked to leave their mobile phones outside, on the grounds that the devices could be misused. Some of those invited refused, and after a brief standoff at the door a compromise was reached: phones were allowed into the hall but placed in a box in front of the participants, in plain sight.

Phones in a Box, Reporters Left at the Door

Ana Dimitrijevic, president of the Forum of Belgrade Grammar Schools, attended the hearing and described how that part played out.

“There was a small argument right in front of the hall, because we were asked to leave our mobile phones outside, and we did not agree to that. In the end we reached a compromise: the phones would be brought into the hall and placed in a box in front of us, so we could see that no one would touch our phones.”

Dimitrijevic says the hall ultimately was not even full, even though many of her colleagues had received rejection emails for their applications. Journalists were not allowed in at first and were kept outside the building on Nemanjina Street. After a short back and forth some were let in, though not all of them.

Nikola Curcin, deputy president of the Independent Union of Education Workers of Serbia, walked away from the entrance with a group rather than accept those conditions. He told the portal Masina:

“This is one example of an attempt to obstruct the public hearing.”

Curcin also explained why he believes access was restricted. The sign up call opened on Monday, and by Tuesday morning there were already no spots left. He said he got no answer when he asked whether hearings would also be held in Nis, Kragujevac and Novi Sad, as is usually the practice. He was told the draft would instead be discussed in the National Assembly and at a session of the parliamentary Committee on Education, Science, Technological Development and the Information Society.

The calendar explains why the pressure on this single date was so high. The whole public hearing period runs from August 3 to 23, and our outlet previously reported on the Democratic Party’s demand that the draft be published. Dimitrijevic claims the text of the draft was posted online only after the invitations had already gone out, and that the public backlash is what actually produced this gathering.

What Does the Draft Change?

During the hearing, the ministry explained that the draft changes the provisions on the responsibility of students and parents, defines more strictly what counts as a serious breach of a student’s obligations, strengthens the school’s educational work in cooperation with parents and social welfare centers, and changes how a student’s schooling continues at another school. It also proposes changes to how parent councils operate, while insisting their role is not being reduced. The composition of the school board stays the same.

The union side reads the same text differently. Curcin describes the proposed changes as repressive measures against students and teachers and as a way of pushing parents out of school life, while noting that a public hearing is a legal obligation, not a favor granted by the minister. Dimitrijevic speaks of narrower authority and of license revocations, and argues the provisions in the draft are vague rather than precise.

Minister on Opportunity, Union on Reality TV

Education Minister Dejan Vuk Stankovic said this was the first in a series of hearings and that the draft is not discriminatory and does not reduce anyone’s rights.

“We do not see the public hearing as some kind of political battlefield, but as an opportunity.”

The minister also signaled the direction of the changes:

“We will try to reaffirm the school’s educational role in a big way.”

“The new law will bring a more efficient, more responsible, and above all more open approach to the education process.”

Stankovic called the debate lively and democratic, saying opposing views were voiced but everything stayed within the bounds of decency. Dimitrijevic remembers the same meeting differently. She says there were accusations that teachers were blockaders who support anarchy in schools, and that the minister said this to her directly.

The education workers’ union called the whole event a reality show, while noting that the ministry did commit to reviewing the objections that were submitted.

The Deadline Is August 23

Objections, proposals and suggestions on the draft can be submitted to the ministry until that date. Only after that will the Government of Serbia move to adopt the draft, which then goes to the relevant parliamentary committee. The minister said he expects a completed bill in time for the next session of the Assembly.

That remaining period will be decisive in judging whether this was truly a public hearing or a closed expert gathering. If no session is held outside Belgrade before August 23, the dispute over the phone box will remain the clearest evidence of just how open this hearing actually was.