Jovina students begin school year without a timetable or their main building

Students at Jovina Grammar School in Novi Sad began the new school year without returning to their main building. Instead, they are attending classes in the Chemical, Traffic and Mechanical schools.

Parents said the uncertainty continued until the first day. Some students received their timetables and school assignments at 6 a.m., others at 7 a.m., while some had still received no information after the first bell.

“Unfortunately, this is not the first year that has started this way for us,” parent Vukašin Cicmil said. He recalled receiving an email late on Aug. 31 last year, and said families again spent the night waiting for information in online and Viber groups.

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Unfortunately, this is not the first year that has started this way for us.

The school also began the year without 10 teachers. Five had their contracts extended, while five other teachers had previously been suspended. Courts returned four of those suspended teachers to work pending disciplinary proceedings, although their longer-term status remained unclear. Cicmil said teachers whose contracts were not renewed learned of the decision only the previous evening, despite having worked at the school for more than a decade in some cases.

“It would be completely logical for them to receive the information several days earlier, so they could make arrangements or do something. Instead, they wait until the evening of the 31st to be told they no longer work at the school,” Cicmil said. He added that students had reacted with distress because several of the affected teachers were popular. Students were expected to gather outside the Mechanical School at 1:30 p.m. in support of the professors.

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It would be completely logical for them to receive the information several days earlier, so they could make arrangements or do something. Instead, they wait until the evening of the 31st to be told they no longer work at the school.