site.btaTeachers and Journalists Protest in Belgrade, Students Continue to Advance to Kragujevac

During a traditional 15 minutes of silence, participants in two protests in Belgrade paid tribute to the 15 victims in Novi Sad, when a concrete canopy of the local railway station collapsed last November.

Both protests were organized by teachers and journalists.

Teachers and education officials from an organization of Belgrade high schools gathered on Thursday in front of the Education Ministry and demanded an end to the repressive measures against strikers, local media reported.

Since January 20, a number of schools in Serbia have stopped work in support of the students' demands and due to the employees' dissatisfaction with the financial situation in education.

The Ministry of Education has ordered primary and secondary school principals to deduct the salaries of employees involved in the strike when calculating their January salaries, prompting resistance and discontent among teachers.

Last week, Serbian Education Minister Slavica Dukic Dejanovic said it has not yet been decided whether the February salaries of striking teachers would also be cut.

Journalists from Serbia's national broadcaster RTS also gathered at a protest in Belgrade on Thursday and said they were distancing themselves from some of their colleagues because they were not reporting objectively on events in Serbia over the past three months, Serbian media reported.

Despite the icy wind and worsening weather conditions, Serbian students are continuing their march to Kragujevac, where a large rally is planned for Saturday, 15 February.

In social media posts, the organizers of the student march appealed to drivers to be careful when driving, especially on the sections of the national road network that the students are also using.

So far, the student march to Kragujevac has passed without incident.