Education Minister Jovo Todorovic has repeatedly urged the country's teachers to show ''solidarity with the economic hardships of the country''. Now striking teachers are facing the real risk of losing their jobs. They are being replaced with undergraduate students who are eager to get jobs. The year ended without the syllabus being finished, and no final examinations were held. This is not education, it's patching up pieces of knowledge,'' says Gordana Nikolic, psychologist at the Belgrade Fifth High School.
Educationists warn the problems of illiteracy are serious.
According to the most recent figures, 9.5 percent of people have never been to school while 25 percent dropped out of elementary school. Universities in Serbia are also in trouble. The university is slowly dying. This regime has destroyed both high schools and universities. When you do that, you need 20 to 30 years to put things back in order,'' says Petar Grujic, a former university professor of physics.