Zaporozac: By banning the construction of a school in North Mitrovica, they are also denying our right to education

The head of the school administration for Kosovo and Metohija, Ivan Zaporozac, said today for Kosovo Online that he was concerned about the decision of the newly elected mayor of North Mitrovica, Erden Atic, to prohibit the continuation of the construction of a school for children from vulnerable categories in this city, indicating that this was denying the Serbs the right to education, and called on the international community to react.

Zaporozac visited the construction site in North Mitrovica where the construction of the school was prohibited yesterday and emphasized for Kosovo Online that he had received many calls from parents who were upset by this decision and did not know what to do next.

"With this decision, the right to education is prohibited. Everywhere in the world, in any country, education is in the first place, here the Serbs experienced such a blow because education and educational institutions are the pivot of gathering and the pivot of the struggle of the Serbs in these areas, and that decision absolutely worried all of us, we don't know what to do next and what will be the next move," Zaporozac said.

He pointed out that due to yesterday's decision of the new mayor Atic, the construction site, where the construction of elementary school buildings that had been expelled from the southern part of Mitrovica had been underway, was empty today.

"They have already lost their school buildings once, and with yesterday's decision, exclusively political, the construction of a school for vulnerable persons, vulnerable families, and students has now been suspended.

He appealed to the international community to influence the authorities both in the Municipality of North Mitrovica and in Pristina, so that they did not make such decisions.

"Forbidding the construction of a school, forbidding children to be brought up, educated, to live in these areas, what kind of message they sent to the entire people in the area of Kosovska Mitrovica, northern Kosovo, absolutely the whole of Kosovo, we know very well. We will try to overcome this problem, we will try to peacefully, in accordance with our stay and survival in these areas; one day children's voices will be heard in this school, so that one day children will come here to be educated, because it does not endanger anyone, the children are not to blame for anyone’s political decisions," Zaporozac concluded.

The Serb List announced yesterday that "the decision of Kurti's illegal and illegitimate mayor prohibited the construction of apartments for socially vulnerable families, as well as schools for children from vulnerable categories in Kosovska Mitrovica."

In the announcement of the Serb List, it is emphasized that this decision was also aimed at raising tensions and jeopardizing peace.