Jovina Gymnasium Novi Sad: Five Teachers Fired, Boycott
Students at Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj Gymnasium in Novi Sad boycotted the first day of school and gathered outside Mechanical School, after five teachers lost their jobs a day before the year began.
The first day of the new school year in Novi Sad played out on the street, not in the classroom, for a large number of students at Jovan Jovanovic Zmaj Gymnasium. Students and parents gathered on September 1 at 1:30 p.m. outside the Mechanical Engineering School, one of three institutions where Jovina Gymnasium is temporarily holding classes, in a show of support for five teachers who learned the day before that they had no teaching load for the new school year.
Who lost their jobs
According to information from a teachers’ council meeting held on the eve of the new school year, five teachers were let go: Biljana Prlina, the school’s union president who had worked there for 14 years on a fixed-term contract, Dragan Alanov (10 years at the school), Atila Jakubec (5 years), Natasa Katic, a Serbian language and literature teacher, and Rajna Stamenov.
One of the suspended colleagues, Marija Vasic, told N1 how the decision was announced.
“Among them is our Biljana Prlina, the union president, who was suspended and had worked 14 years on a fixed-term contract at our school. Dragan Alanov (10 years), Atila Jakubec (5 years), Natasa Katic and Rajna Stamenov were also let go.”
Vasic is herself among five teachers who were suspended toward the end of the previous school year. Four of them, Marija Vasic, Rima Grujic, Jovan Travica and Dragan Vulic, have since been reinstated by court order, though they still have not received the school’s formal decision confirming their return. The five suspended teachers were not even invited to the council meeting, principal Radivoje Stojkovic declined to comment on their case, and when the assigned teaching loads were read out, it turned out the five dismissed teachers were not on the list. Vasic described the new schedule she received that same morning as vindictive.
“It’s a vindictive schedule, where I have 20 classes and 14 breaks in between. My workday starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 8 p.m.”
Natasa Katic, who was dismissed, told the media it was wrong that she learned she had not been given a teaching load on the evening of August 31, twelve hours before the new school year began, leaving her no chance to say goodbye to the students she had taught. Her fixed-term contract expired that same day and was not renewed.
Why the first day of classes was boycotted
Students did not receive their class schedules the night before, and some still did not have them by 8:30 a.m., when the first class was supposed to start. That, on top of the layoffs, was the immediate trigger for their decision to boycott classes and gather with banners reading “We won’t give up Jovina,” “We won’t give up our teachers” and “How much longer.” Their demands are clear: a return to the school’s home building and the reinstatement of the dismissed and suspended teachers.
Jovina Gymnasium has had no access to its own building for a second year running, after it was declared unsafe over structural problems with its central dome, forcing students to attend classes across three locations: the Chemistry School, the School of Traffic Engineering and the Mechanical Engineering School. Novi Sad Mayor Zarko Micin said in late August that a solution had been found for reconstructing the dome and that reinforcement work should begin in early September, with students potentially able to return to their classrooms by mid-October. Given the city government’s earlier unmet promises, parents are skeptical of that timeline.
Ministry and union: two different pictures
Education Minister Dejan Vuk Stankovic told the media there was no basis for the school year to be delayed.
“There is no reason, social or political, for the school year not to start on schedule.”
Tanja Notaros, a member of the main board of the Independent Union of Education Workers of Serbia, took a different view, telling Masina that the situation amounts to pressure on education workers.
“They want to keep us under control.”
The Novi Sad boycott was not an isolated case that day. Students at Svetozar Markovic Gymnasium in Nis announced a protest for 7 p.m. over proposed amendments to the Law on the Fundamentals of the Education System, which would, among other things, eliminate students’ right to organize freely in clubs outside the Student Parliament. Opposition parties have previously described the amendments as a continuation of retaliation against students and teachers who took part in protests and blockades during the previous school year.
Principal Stojkovic has not yet publicly explained his decision on the teaching assignments, and the question of whether the dismissed and suspended teachers will receive formal reinstatement remains open until the reconstruction of Jovina Gymnasium’s home building is completed, as city authorities have announced, by mid-October.
