Million-dollar donor fund supports protesting Serbian teachers, ET Education
Belgrade -Thousands of Serbian teachers, unpaid for months for supporting protesting students, are relying on donations from a sympathetic public, with over a million dollars raised through a citizen-led platform to make up for part of their lost income.
Since November, when 16 people died in the collapse of a newly renovated railway station in Novi Sad — a tragedy widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight — students, followed by their teachers, have led an anti-corruption protest movement that has spread across Serbia.
Despite not being officially on strike but facing empty classrooms as pupils demonstrate, thousands of teachers — 20,000 according to unions — stopped receiving their pay, in what they say is punishment for backing the protests.
“We received no payment at all in February — except for a small compensation covering the national holiday, which amounted to around 4,500 dinars ($44) for a full-time teacher,” Biljana Bogojevic, a high school language and literature teacher, told AFP.
With pupils absent, she has been turning up for work to perform other tasks outside of lessons — but in March, she received no pay whatsoever — or a “potato”, as Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic dismissively put it.
In response, activists stepped up to organise a way for Serbians to offer support.
After launching an initial online platform connecting individual teachers with donors, the organisers of the project reached out to Aleksandar Kavcic, a Serbian scientist, philanthropist, and head of the foundation that bears his name.
“The foundation already had the infrastructure to accept and distribute donations,” says Kavcic, who donated himself – as did “several companies, athletes” and others.
As of April 22, the solidarity platform had received $1.1 million.
“It’s great because citizens saw what we were doing and helped however they could. They knew it was very hard for us,” said Ana Dimitrijevic, an English teacher at a Belgrade high school.
“On the other hand, it’s not very pleasant to receive, let’s say, charity,” added Dimitrijevic, a union representative.
She remains fully committed to her students — and still goes to school every day, even though there are no classes.
– ‘Revenge’ –
As the teachers are not technically on strike despite supporting the protests, their pay is a legal grey area that allows for each headteacher to act as they see fit.
The president gave them clear instructions: “For those who didn’t work, they’ll be getting ‘potatoes’ – that is, nothing,” Vucic said in mid-April.
“What’s happening to us feels like pressure, a way to force us to give up the movement. As if principals had full freedom to punish ‘disobedient’ teachers,” said Biljana Bogojevic.
“It’s revenge,” agreed Kavcic, “retribution against the whole education system, because this education system has been at the forefront of this, we can call it, rebellion.”
Kavcic, who established his foundation after winning a patent-theft lawsuit in the United States, is a former Harvard professor and has long defended a Serbian education system that he sees as beleaguered, with teachers underpaid.
“Look at our teachers’ salaries!” Kavcic told AFP: Serbian teachers earn between $800 and $1,140 per month in a country where the national average is around $900.
The philanthropist became known to the Serbian public when he began distributing free textbooks to bypass what he calls a “corrupt system” that he claims charges parents 10 times too much.
Serbians “have realised that if we carry on like this, the country has no future,” he said. “We’re a small country. If we don’t have educated people, we have nothing.”
He accused the government of trying to destroy education to make citizens subservient.
“Educated people are not loyal. They don’t subscribe to this personality cult. Educated people are dangerous for an authoritarian government.”
For teacher Bogojevic, “it may now be our duty, as teachers, to nurture the solidarity that has emerged from these difficult times.”
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