Teachers’ Trade Union Suggests that Every Teacher be Granted the Status of an Official

Branko Ruzic (BETAPHOTO/Milan Obradovic)

The Alliance of Teachers’ Trade Unions reported on Dec. 12 that at a meeting of the Working Group for the Prevention of Violence in Educational Institutions the Alliance offered a number of proposals to improve the situation, including to grant teachers the status of officials, and that a student with a poor behavior grade should repeat the year.

The Alliance also suggested that school secretaries and professional associates in every school should be ex officio members of their respective protection teams, and that special educators should be hired to offer additional professional assistance in preventing and responding to violence, abuse and neglect.

In addition, the use of mobile phones in class should be treated as a serious violation of discipline by a student, because unauthorized recording and taking pictures is spreading and should be fined.

The Serbian education minister, Branko Ruzic, said at the meeting of the Working Group that it’s necessary to improve inter-sectoral cooperation and align all proposals to overcome the problem of violence in schools.

“There is a need to improve institutional cooperation between the areas of education, social and child protection, healthcare, police and other bodies, services and organizations,” Ruzic said at the beginning of the meeting.