Parents of Novi Sad school students respond to Vučić: 54 teachers lost their jobs, are we to blame for that too?

The parents of students at Novi Sad’s Jovan Jovanović Zmaj Grammar School have challenged President Aleksandar Vučić over his defense of the school’s director, saying at least 54 teachers and professional associates have lost their jobs in just over a year.

The informal group Parents of Jovina’s Students said it reached the figure by comparing the staff who worked at the school until September 2025 with those working there now. It said parents had confirmed that the majority had been dismissed, suspended or denied extensions to their school engagements.

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Are we to blame for that too?

Some of the affected teachers had worked on temporary contracts for more than 15 years. Some professional associates had taught specialist subjects in the school’s specialized classes for more than 20 years. The group said popular teachers who mentored students to numerous medals at national and international competitions no longer taught there, and that people with questionable qualifications and competence had taken their places.

The parents described the staff purge as unprecedented in the history of Serbian education. They asked Vučić whether students and parents, whom he blamed for the school’s condition, were also responsible for the loss of the teachers. They also questioned whether his real intention was to shut down Novi Sad’s oldest and best-known grammar school, arguing that no school can survive with fewer teachers and students.

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Is Vučić’s real intention to shut down Novi Sad’s oldest and best-known grammar school, because no school can survive without teachers and students, whose numbers at Jovina are falling every day?

The group called on Vučić to immediately order Stojković’s dismissal, noting that the president himself had described the director as difficult and said he had made mistakes. It also urged him to investigate how Stojković had spoken about him until recently. The parents said the public would hear testimony in the coming days and weeks about the director’s treatment of staff and students.

Earlier, Vučić had accused students who protested in the director’s office over the teachers’ dismissals of jumping around him “like lunatics” while he sat and stayed silent. He said the problem lay with the students’ parents, not the director.

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Like lunatics.