The anti-school violence working group, formed by the Serbian Education Ministry, had a meeting today, after which Education Minister Branko Ružić announced that they agreed on 10 measures to prevent and penalize school bullying.
“The working group agreed today on 10 key measures and a series of activities that we will carry out to improve the violence response system, as well as to prevent violence in schools. I believe that the measures will create positive effects and that we will improve the protection of students,” announced the Minister of Education on Twitter.
“Among the proposed measures, the grade that students get for their behaviour in school will be included in the overall grade score for the 5th to 8th-grade students of elementary schools during and at the end of the first and second semesters. It was also proposed to delay the expulsion of students from high school until the relevant disciplinary action against them is completed,” the Ministry’s press release said.
Schools will be recommended to prescribe measures for the use of mobile phones during classes.
One of the measures is to increase the number of psychologists in elementary schools, higher salaries for homeroom teachers and the adoption of rules of procedures that would regulate their work.
“Also, it was proposed to increase the minimum fines for parents of school bullies, as referred to in the relevant article of the Law on the Basics of the Education and Training System, which refers, among other things, parents not properly bringing the child up or neglecting them, as well as not reacting when their child discriminates or abuses another child on the school grounds. One of the proposals is the development of a new and revision of the existing list of instructions on cooperation and communication of institutions under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Family Care and Demography, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Interior”, the press release adds.
The working group also proposed to amend the Rule of Procedure in a way that school bullies should do community services, as well as an amendment to the Rules of Procedure regarding how schools should respond to violence, especially in the part that foresees that the third-level violence should be reported on the Čuvam Te online platform too.
(Euronews Serbia, 20.12.2022)
This post is also available in: Italiano