Parent questions whether Jovina school principal can resolve crisis as online classes loom

After spending most of the first week of the new school year boycotting classes or protesting, students at Jovina Grammar School decided to give classes another chance on Monday. But only the first shift returned, according to Snežana Bačlija Knoh, the mother of one student. She said that group represented about one-fifth of the school’s total enrollment.

The students want to return to their classrooms and try to act constructively, Bačlija Knoh told N1. They also want to see what the school will be like with its new teachers, after more than 50 teachers and specialist staff lost their jobs at Jovina Grammar School.

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I think it is inappropriate to expect every household to have the conditions that would allow children to join online classes.

Talks with principal Radivoje P. Stojković had taken place several times the previous week. The reported conclusion was that remote classes might begin because of the extraordinary situation. Bačlija Knoh said parents still had no clear information about online teaching, and joked that they might receive notice five minutes before it started.

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He removed the school, removed the teachers, and now he wants to remove the children from sight so he can sit alone and run things.

If online classes begin, she said parents would demand that the school, city, province or state provide all the equipment children need to participate. “I think it is inappropriate to expect every household to have the conditions that would allow children to join online classes,” she said. She also demanded assurances that teachers would be able to teach remotely and an explanation for why online learning would be used if there was no extraordinary situation.

Bačlija Knoh questioned whether the move would mean the principal could not resolve the school’s problems. She also criticized President Aleksandar Vučić’s comments describing Stojković as a difficult man while blaming parents for the situation. She said Vučić’s remarks appeared to confirm the parents’ belief that he supported the principal. Parents had contacted the president months earlier, she said, but received no response until he spoke publicly about the school.

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It sounds like a small reprimand, but it could actually be understood to mean that he is difficult, strict and fair, and simply doing what he has to do in this difficult situation for him.