Strikes in Education, Harming for Students

The United Education, Science and Culture Union has decided that strikes will begin this Monday at all educational institutions in Kosovo.

This decision resulted in the frustration of teachers over the salary cofficiency. And representatives of this union have said they will not back down from the strike unless the wage cofficiency increases for 30 per cent.

The strike, which is expected to begin Monday, is considered to hurt children the most.

The Kosovo Parents' Council is calling this decision disturbing. The chairman of this council, Ymret Resiti, tells Kosovo that they support the demand for increased salaries of teachers, but do not accept the strike as a means to achieve that requirement.

With the break of the learning process, students are losing or losing their desire and will to learn, because the more time they are staying away from the learning process, it's a very bad time, a very difficult phase that then teachers and parents have to work hard to promote their will and desire to get into the learning process. Also, replacing lost days or hours of learning is causing unaffordable cargo for students' mental skills”, says Resiti.

Education expert Dukagjin Pupovci, also director at the Kosovo Centre for Education, considers the teachers' revolt reasonable, but the strike is not naming it the right means. According to him, the problem is that the government is taking a customer course.

The problem presented in this case is that the government often gets a kind of clientistic approach and anyone who acts more or in a certain way to raise wages in this case increases the cofficients, while those who have a less than strong position apply to it some other cofficiency. Therefore, I consider that in this case there is an injustice to teachers, especially to these pre-university classes that are rewarded by some below the level of intermediates, even some in high school, some even below that level, and that these are some abnormalities that need to be adjusted”, says Pupovci.

Regarding the wage issue, Pupovci proposes that teachers be paid on the basis of qualifications and on the basis of the work they do.

“If a teacher or school principal is comparable to a new adviser to the minister or prime minister, then the salary should be there somewhere, that is, to see the complexity of the jobs performed and the qualifications”, Pupovci declares.

Even Education Minister Shyqyiri Bytyqi considers the strike a harmful tool for children, and according to him, SBASK must be convinced of that.

I don't think we should be looking for solutions by damaging the most important part of this system, and if we're trying to do something right, the question is what? We're making the effort to have a better education system for our children and just by asking for this, we're hurting them”, Bytyqi says.

According to Bytyqi, the problem will not be solved by strike. He has invited the SBASAK on Monday to meet with the Parliamentary Commission to negotiate an institutional solution, and has confirmed that he has support from the prime minister's office as well.

“I think that rational solutions should be found, that solution is possible, add that in the wage bill, the article that was proposed on our part to have an increase in income depending on the growth in the career of teachers and I consider that are the positive steps that this law currently has” says Bytyqi.

Meanwhile, the SBASK is expected on Monday, January 14th to start a general strike, including all educational levels in Kosovo.

According to the SBASK decision, the strike will be held every day at the beginning of between 9:00 and 12:00.

During this time, they have called for any teaching activity until their demands are met.