Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is one of the most demographically threatened countries in the region, and estimates are that in the next four decades, we could lose more than half of the population. The biggest problem is emigration, and this is more and more pronounced in schools, which educate professional staff, where about 50 percent of students go abroad after schooling.
Vuk, Milorad, and Aleksandar belong to a group of young people who, as young people, decided that they would build their future and career abroad upon enrolling in high school.
“It can simply be said because of the low wages and incomes in this country and the hard life because of those incomes,“ stated Vuk Cvjetkovic, a student in the final year of the cookery department.
“I think, there I can earn more and learn something more,“ said Aleksandar Bodo, a student in the final year of the cookery department.
“Because it’s better there. There’s a big difference in pay,“ said Milorad Cukovic, a student of the first class of the waiter department.
Almost 13,500 people found jobs in European countries, mostly in Germany and Slovenia, during the past year through the Agency for Labor and Employment of BiH, that is, 35 people left our country every day in search of a better life.
The age limit for those leaving our country is getting lower and lower. While schools educate staff and strive to provide students with the highest quality acquisition of practical knowledge, that staff leaves immediately after acquiring knowledge.
“We did some analysis, some 40 to 50 percent of the children after graduation already have offers from the Croatian and Montenegrin coasts, the Czech Republic, Prague elite hotels to work as cooks and waiters and have good incomes since June,“said Sasa Matic, director of the Secondary Vocational School Janja.
“We make sure that their practical teaching is as good and high-quality as possible so that they are ready after completing their vocational training. It is somewhere around 50, 50 percent where the students who find a job abroad and 50 percent of them who stay in local city companies,“ explained Milenko Maksimovic, director of the Technical School “Mihajlo Pupin” Bijeljina.
While the schools are doing their job, concrete steps by the authorities to stop the departure of young people are missing. Because even the most educated and professional people are not motivated enough to stay.
“We have to stimulate the economy, we have to do everything to keep people, and we will keep them if we provide them with a stable future and favorable working conditions. Working conditions must be relaxed, obligations must be reduced in general, parafiscal charges should be released, taxes and contributions should be reduced, if it cannot be done in general at least it can be differential,“ said Mile Stevic, ZPU “Entrepreneur”.
Those who, though, decided to stay, for now, have some hope.
“I plan to stay, I’m not like some of my friends. I can learn more here, and the wages will increase over time,“ told Mirjana Draskic, a student in the final year of culinary studies.
While schools educate almost half of the vocational students for other countries, the authorities do not react, and there are more and more entire families who can no longer wait for “better days to dawn” that have been promised to them for years.
