Mitreski: Optimization in education must not come at the expense of teachers, while the Government preserves its own privileges

During the parliamentary debate on amendments to the laws related to primary and secondary education, SDSM MP Jovan Mitreski said that the announced optimization in the education sector must not be carried out to the detriment of teachers.

According to him, thousands of educators are living with uncertainty about their jobs, at a time when the Government, as he said, is showing no willingness to cut its own spending, luxuries, and privileges.

Mitreski stressed that if optimization is truly being sought, then it should begin with the institutions and not with the people who educate and shape the country’s future generations.

“I cannot believe how easily we are passing over a topic concerning some people whom someone may think are not very important, but who in fact are the most important in society and in our country. We are talking about teachers and professors, whose work is not simply a profession. What they do is not just a trade. They educate, shape, inspire, and build a future. And yet today we are going to pass these two laws in a half-empty hall.

We are discussing their future and passing over them so easily because of something that happened, I do not know when it happened. Today we are talking about the consequences of a problem that comes from the past. If today we say that the number of our citizens is declining, that the population is shrinking and the number of students is also decreasing, then should we say that the teachers are to blame? That the professors are guilty and that we should go after them? No, first we must say that we are to blame. We who are sitting here, we bear responsibility for the fact that the population is shrinking and the number of students is falling,” Mitreski said.