Although the school bells signaled the beginning of the school year, there are more and more empty desks in some BiH schools, because the number of enrolled students is decreasing. There is also a continuation of the trend of decreasing the number of first-year students. Officials without specific solutions.
The number of inhabitants in Bihać is decreasing every year, and this is also visible in the schools. At “Gornje Prekounje – Ripač” in Bihac, every year there are at least 20 less students, and this year at least the number of first graders. Children’s roars are getting quieter, says professor Ema Lipovača.
EMA LIPOVAČA, classroom teacher at Elementary School “Gornje Prekounje – Ripač”
Before, we had 36 students and four classes each in this same school, and now there is one class with 26 students enrolled. And that’s a huge number in one class. Now I teach third grade with 16 students, that seems like a lot, they say how hard it is to make ends meet. And I used to work here with 36 students and that was normal.
In addition to the fact that there are fewer and fewer students, schools are also closing. Numerous regional offices in the Una-Sana Canton are permanently locked.
NERMINA DELIĆ, principal of “Harmani II” elementary school
Our villages are dying, we really shouldn’t see education as an expense. If there is even one child, a way must be found to keep schools and teachers, because without schools the village does not live and it completely shuts down.
Because of all this, there are fewer and fewer people who want to work in education. And as the school bells go off, the alarm goes off. The question is – do the authorities hear him?
DENIS OSMANKIĆ, Minister of Education USK
We have the fact that people leave across the border, but there are also those who retire. We manage to make that balance.
ZEHRA HADŽIĆ, President of the Union of Preschool and Primary Education USK
Those who find themselves on the list of technological redundancy get tired very quickly, it is not easy to be in a different institution every day. People who get the chance leave. It is already very difficult to find certain occupations in the field of USK.
Demographic projections for the next period are not optimistic. Without a good pronatal policy and measures that will help parents and students, the school bells will be quieter and the queues in front of the embassies will be longer. It is estimated that in the last 10 years the number of students has decreased by more than 90,000, which means that an entire city has been lost. While educators are fighting, demographers warn that this is only the tip of the iceberg, and the main reasons are the decline in the birth rate and the poor economic situation, BHRT writes.
