Two Years After the TI BiH Initiative, the Government of the Republic of Srpska Does Not Want to “Throw Politicians Out of Class”

Even though two years have passed since TI BiH launched the initiative “Politicians get out of class”, which aims to suppress the influence of politics in schools, the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Srpska submitted to the National Assembly of the Republic of Srpska a proposal for the Law on Amendments to the Law on Secondary Education, not containing a single provision that treats the mentioned problem.

In June 2021, Transparency International in BiH submitted an initiative to the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Srpska to change the law on primary and secondary education in order to reduce and prevent political influence during the selection of new employees and directors, as well as the way authorities work in schools .

The reason for such an initiative was a significant increase in the number of applications that the TI BiH Center for Free Legal Aid to Citizens received from parents who expressed suspicion of the party’s hiring of teaching staff in schools attended by their children.

In addition, frequent abuse of position, nepotism and lack of competition in employment were reported, with partisan recruitment becoming increasingly apparent. The aforementioned phenomena and problems once led to protests by parents who even boycotted classes.

On that occasion, TI BiH sent an initiative for a different model of school management with measures that propose reducing the influence of politics in schools and establishing the principles of merit, quality and democratic control.

The initiative proposed a package of measures aimed at reducing the influence of politics in school management and establishing the principles of merit, quality and democratic control. Some of the measures include:

• Provide that the School Board as a heterogeneous and participatory management body has a key role in the selection and appointment of principals in primary and secondary schools. Prior or subsequent approval may be required from the Minister, but the School Board must play a key role.
• Introduce an obligation that candidates for the position of principal must, with the application, submit a proposal of the work program for the term of office for which they are applying. Require candidates to submit a work program proposal to the School Board.
• Provide that the School Board must request an expert opinion on the quality of the candidate’s work program for the position of principal from the Republic Pedagogical Institute.
• Exclude the Government from the decision-making process or the selection and appointment of principals of school institutions.
• Limit the principal’s mandate to a maximum of two consecutive terms, or provide that a maximum of two five-year terms are possible.
• The term of office is set at a period of five years as a form of guarantee of political neutrality.
• The initiative was addressed to the members of the Board of Education of the National Assembly of the Rrepublic of Srpska, all parliamentary clubs and the Republic Pedagogical Institute of the Republic of Srpska, with which TI BiH started an advocacy campaign called “Politicians, leave the class!” with the aim of eliminating corruption risks in educational institutions.

The amendments to the law proposed by the Ministry which were on the agenda of the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska do not contain a single provision regarding the proposal for the depoliticization of schools in the Republic of Srpska, which shows the unwillingness of the authorities to solve the problems caused by the inappropriate influence of politics on the process of appointing principals and school management.