SUNK again threatens strike in September

19 schools are expected to close in Kamenica in September, according to the decision by the head of this municipality, Standers Kastrati, due to the poor situation in which they are located, but also the small number of students.

But this decision is strongly opposed by the United Trade Union of Education, Science and Culture of Kosovo (SBASHK), which has come out against closing schools in Kamenica.

The chairman of the Education Union, Nundman Jashar, in an interview for EO, has warned general strike if this decision is not cancelled.

We came out of that meeting together with the decision, which is also supported by the SBASK at the central level, that if Chairman Kastrati from his decision, in Kamenica will start in September with strikes. We've appealed to Kamenica's teachers that each go to his school and not let the school shut down, and if the mayor uses other mechanisms then Kamenica's education will go first on a two-hour warning strike, and we'll give the president a public deadline to think about it one more time and withdraw the” decision.

If I don't call the SBASAK Steering Council and I'm looking for from Kosovo's teachers and other educational workers from the nests to the university of solidification, with colleagues in Kamenica because we have a task of”, he says.

Jashari has accused Kastrati of setting out on behalf of reforms to close these schools without any concrete plans.

President Kastrati's “ide is not an idea for reform, but it's an idea for closure of schools which we're going to oppose, because it's not done well planned or analyzed. He has wrongly called his activity reforming. Those of us who have worked in education know what reforms are, reforms take place within schools with modern tools and new methods of work rather than with the closure of schools”, he says.

Niteman Jashari has said that there is a decline in the number of students in schools, but that this should be done through a platform and not through municipal experiments, but with a co-operation among central institutions.

It's true that we have a falling number of students, but things don't do experiments, but we need a central level. August, the Kosovo Parliament and other institutions will also sit down to make a platform what is away because we know that in the future, shorting hours due to students will happen. But it's not without answering what with teachers, what with schools where our country has provided tools to build in the races where these schools were held for politics, to show that we've come to power and we're building new schools, which are now proving to have been too much”, he says.

The first SBASAK has asked the Ministry of Education and Technology to react to the issue.

We expect August to react to why we have a August without full guidance, because parliament is broken down. Unfortunately, in this situation of September, we're having a lot of trouble, because on the other hand, we don't have central institutions that are valid”, he says.

Kamenica Mayor Central Kastrati, in May, has declared he will organise a referendum reforming education in the municipality he leads.

Although Kamenica's first one has said that this reform is in the best interests of education in this municipality, he acknowledges that reform could leave some of the current teachers without jobs.