Kako je borba protiv korupcije postala borba protiv obrazovnog sistema ? — Hronologija pritisaka

Dear friends,

 

I fear that Serbia is not on your information radar, although we are living through six months of incredible, game-changing protests here. However, the regime gets angrier and angrier, so at the moment we are one of the few European countries with political prisoners. As the world is burning everywhere and Serbia is forever doomed to be an insignificant semi-periphery, I’m using this opportunity to acquaint you with what is happening with the Serbian academic community.

 

Below is the genealogy of events. The strategy of the regime is to destroy the students’ blockades by destroying public universities through direct economic violence over the teaching staff. My university colleagues today received the second half of their salary – 4.800 Serbian Dinars = 40.95 EUR or 46.6 $.

How did it all begin?

• Nov 22, 2024 – silent vigils blocking the roads in honour of the Novi Sad victims. The vigils were announced to the In front of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, those gathered were attacked by the passers-by, some of whom were identified as the officials of the ruling party, SNS.

 

• Nov 25, 2024 – the students of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts occupied the faculty building in protest, to be successively joined by four other faculties (U Belgrade) and the Faculty of Philosophy (U Novi Sad).

 

• Dec 25, 2024 – 84 public faculties and one private faculty are ’blocked’ (74% of all Serbian faculties). At the same time, 73 secondary schools, i.e. 14%, are occupied by their pupils. These numbers would grow.

 

• Mid-December: all public faculties (but one, Orthodox theological faculty) gave their public support to the four students’ demands.

 

• Dec 20, 2024 – Ministry of Education abruptly shortened the first school semester in order to prevent the school teachers, already in legal strike, from joining the Pupils remained in schools until the end of term. Due to the Ministry’s executive order, the first semester was not graded.

The Months of Uprising – January and February 2025

 

• The second school semester was supposed to begin on Jan 20, It didn’t. As a consequence, at the beginning of March cc. 500 schools all over Serbia were in blockade, while approximately 400 continued with a legal strike (15.500 teachers in blockade, 9.000 in strike; 70-80% schools in some form of work stoppage).

 

• In parallel, various social sectors – medical and agricultural workers, the Bar Association and the Association of Engineers, post office workers, cab drivers, actors, and pensioners, – joined the blockades or initiated strikes.

 

• Jan 21 – Rector of U Belgrade addressed the parliamentary Committee for Education and Science and stated that ’University of Belgrade gives its full support to the students’, citing the support of a huge majority of professors.

 

• Rebellious and Free University platforms of professors and researchers began to connect and Teachers formed their informal associations, PULS, Udružena prosveta Srbije, and those platforms collaborate.

The Days Prior to the Sound Cannon (March 15)

 

• March 4 – The salary of education workers was reduced between 50 and 100 percent; in some cases, high school teachers were paid only 2,191 RSD (less than 20 EUR), in others 000 RSD. An informal group of IT experts invited citizens to join the “Solidarity for Education” network and donate to help educators. The network is still in operation.

 

• March 7 – A group of 30 young people, presenting themselves as ‘the students who want to study’ or ‘Students 0’, set up tents in front of the president’s office in Pioneers Park. In the following days leading to the major gathering on March 15, the ‘Students 2.0’ were joined by SNS members and affiliates, and then by the suspicious characters, many of whom have an established criminal record. Park area was soon fully occupied, fenced and additionally shielded by 150 tractors without licence plates. The encampment is still in place.

 

• March 9 – commenting on the large protest scheduled for 15 March, the President said he expected the opposition to “organize great violence” at the rally in Belgrade, and that “everyone who participates in it will be arrested”. This would mark the beginning of the long line of threats to the participants and organizers – still labelled as the ‘opposition’ funded by foreign money, despite the fact that the students openly and consistently refrained from supporting the opposition parties.

 

• March 13 – At a press conference two days earlier, the U Belgrade rector emphasized that the students, who organized the gathering, want a peaceful and dignified protest, stressing that the conflicts, announced for days from the government-controlled media, are not part of the students’ plans.

 

• March 15 – the largest gathering in the capital with more than 000 people in the street. The gathering was interrupted by the alleged deployment of LRAD on peaceful protesters during 15 minutes of silence for the victims of the Novi Sad collapse. The Ministry of Internal Affair denied the allegations despite the footage of the incident, as did the President, who called for the prosecution of those ‘lying’ and ‘spreading disinformation’.

Serbian Academia at the Helm of the Coloured Revolution

 

• Since December, the regime unsuccessfully sought to single out the ’leaders’ of the students’ Before March 15, the opposition was still defined as the main culprit behind the blockades.

 

• March 18 – in a TV interview, the President commented: “Faculty professors who do nothing, except participate in blockades, will get potatoes. Tomorrow, I think … They will get nothing“.

 

• March 24 – The Ministry of Education of the technical, caretaker government issued the regulation (5/35), which effectively reduced the professors’ salaries to 12.5% of what they earned before.

 

• March 28 – the rector of the U Belgrade turned into the state enemy 1, ‘the face of evil’ (Minister in the technical government).

 

• March 31 – the dean of the Faculty of Philosophy U Niš was stabbed by a passer-by at a protest.

 

• April 1 – the dean of the Faculty of Economy U Belgrade was summoned to the police.

 

• April 18 – the rector of U Belgrade summoned to the police on charge of abuse of official authority (sued by the ’Students 2.0’).

The Effects of Potato Regulation 5/35

The university professors are no longer paid for 20 hours of teaching and 20 hours of research per week, since the ratio was changed to 35 to 5 in favour of teaching. As there are no classes, professors receive only 12,5 percent of their salary, or, according to some reports, about 20.000 dinars (170 EUR) per month.

1. Financial Violence Against University Professors: The drastic cut in scientific and artistic work hours has subjected university professors to severe financial hardship, endangering their basic livelihoods.
2. Collapse of the Accreditation System for Academic Programs: Scientific and artistic research is essential for accreditation and quality assurance of university With the new Decree, this capacity has been undermined, affecting the credibility of Serbian higher education.
3. Jeopardising Engagement on Current and Future Projects: The regulation mandating that 5% of working hours be allocated to research hinders most scientists and artists in the country from engaging in or applying for various European projects, limiting international cooperation.
4. Weakening Prospects for Career Development: The Decree presents a significant risk to the future prospects for career advancement within academic and research institutions, as academic promotion is based on research output which will be limited with only five hours allocated to research.

(Unanswered) Appeals of the Serbian Academics

 

• March 4 – 80 researchers who hold EU research grants in Serbia have written a joint letter to the European Commission calling on it to help tackle corruption in the The European Commission has acknowledged receiving the letter, but has neither replied nor commented on its demands.

 

• March 20 – An Open Appeal for the international academic community to support Serbian students and professors, was signed by some 4,500 academics in less than a week.

 

• March 26 – Deans, professors, assistants and other employees at the University of Belgrade, 470 in total, submitted to the Constitutional Court an initiative to assess the constitutionality and legality of the Regulation

 

• March 31 – Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts demanded the withdrawal of the Regulation.

 

• April 17 – academic community appealed to the new PM, professor of medicine himself, to consider withdrawal of the Regulation.

 

• And many more…

Where are We Now?

• Students’ demands are not met.

 

• Primary, then secondary schools gradually resumed classes in late April and The ambition of the government is solely to quell the blockades, without a clear plan how and when the school years ends. Many teachers are threatened with dismissal, or are dismissed.

 

• The new Ministry of Education (prosveta), responsible both for the schools and the universities, is dubbed the Ministry of Revenge (osveta).

 

• Several faculties entered legal strike, the majority is still in blockade, while several decided to enter into online, asynchronous form of teaching.

 

• All faculties are exposed to the non-payment of funds for material costs, fines, inspections and reduced budgets. The illegal reduction of salaries for university teaching staff entered the third month. There are frequent announcements of the cancellation of funding of state higher education institutions.

 

• Strategy: divide et impera.

 

• At the rally in Niš on May 17, the president chanted that many young people have been misled, manipulated by various tricks from social networks and by some professors, to whom he said “they will not get money until they start doing their work”.

 

• The new Bill on Higher Education, announced in the previous days, caused suspicions of the academic community that the aim of its passing is to further repression against universities and professors and significantly curb the autonomy of the university.

 

Spreading the word will be the best way to help.

In solidarity,

 

—

 

Adriana Zaharijević

Principal Research Fellow

University of Belgrade, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory