Zaporozac: Schools in Kosovo start the year in accordance with the guidelines of the Ministry of Education of Serbia

Students who attend classes in Kosovo according to the system of the Republic of Serbia will be at school desks from September 1, and the school directors agreed at the meeting that the school year will start on time, even though the security situation in Serb majority areas in Kosovo is difficult.

In the first two weeks of work, according to the guidelines of the Ministry of Education, due to the tragic event at the "Vladislav Ribnikar" school in Belgrade, workshops will be organized to promote empathy, and friendship, and to develop respect.

The head of the school administration, Ivan Zaporozac, said that the schools would work in accordance with the recommendations and calendar of the Ministry of Education and that they had not considered the option of online classes for a single moment.

Stating that last week all school administrations received guidelines from the Ministry on how to start the school year, Zaporozac says that this school year will be a little different in the whole of Serbia due to the events that marked the end of the last school year.

"Due to circumstances, we in the north of Kosovo left the school desks earlier, but the whole of Serbia ended the school year a week earlier, due to the events at the Vladislav Ribnikar school, and accordingly we are starting the new school year. The first two weeks will be a little different, we will organize workshops in schools, and everything in the direction of respect, and consideration at school," Zaporozac explained.

He adds that all relevant factors will be involved, from the Teachers' Council, professional councils, the pedagogical and psychological service, and the Student Parliament.

Zaporozac points out that during those two weeks, students will be in school as much as the class schedule provides, but also that teachers will have the freedom to, if a topic is very important, extend the class and talk with the students about some topics that are very important to them.

"But we leave that to the schools to predict, to make their own schedule of activities in those weeks, and I expect the support of the Ministry of Education, maybe we will have visits. Absolutely, the schools have the support and all the guidelines from the school administration to make this beginning of the school year the way it is it should be," Zaporozac said.

Director of the Elementary School "Sveti Sava" in North Mitrovica and President of the Directors of Elementary Schools in the North of Kosovo, Milorad Jovanovic, said that they had received guidelines and accurate instructions on how to behave and work with students in elementary schools from the first to the eighth grade.

"The emphasis of the guidelines is to work intensively with children for the first two weeks on promoting empathy, companionship, and developing a model of camaraderie. The Ministry's decision is to strengthen and intensify that work and to direct children towards what are the true values, what is school, how we should behave at school, and how to respect each other at school," Jovanovic said.

The guidelines refer, as he says, to the fact that pupils respect their teachers and that teachers and the school principal respect students as individuals and their parents.

"Everything that is given in those guidelines is in the interest of the children, to direct those children rightly so that the school is a safe place for them. That the student space is safe, that the children feel comfortable in it, and that through the workshops we bring safety closer to a high level," Jovanovic said.

The Director of the Medical School with the Dormitory of Students in North Mitrovica, Marina Bisevac, says that as a secondary vocational school, they have already prepared for the beginning of the school year in accordance with the instructions and guidelines.

"Professional teams have been working for days on coming up with specific plans regarding the realization of classes in the first week, which is scheduled to be a thematic week. We have the advantage that as a secondary vocational school that is in the field of health. We have the possibility and a wide range of our teachers comply with the recommendation of the Ministry of Education," she stated.

She adds that they will stick to those recommendations throughout the school year, each within their subject.

"Vocational subjects will mark thematic days, and workshops, as for general education subjects, they will also hold a special form of classes. General education subjects will actually work in groups on the implementation of some classes, and all this is designed to facilitate the adaptation of our new students, first-grade students, and others who interrupted their classes in order to reduce their stress and to present them the school in a new color," Bisevac said.

For security reasons, at the end of May this year, classes in schools in the north of Kosovo were suspended.

Primary and secondary schools in Zvecan and Leposavic are located in the immediate vicinity of municipal buildings, which were entered by Albanian mayors and members of the Special Unit of the Kosovo Police, in front of which KFOR soldiers are on duty.