Interjú a horvát projektkoordinátorral (angol szöveg)

Samanta, a horvát iskola Erasmus+ projektkoordinátora a rovinji szakmai látogatásom elején Grazban volt egy tanulócsoporttal. Amikor visszaérkezett, felhívott telefonon, hogy a csoportjában volt néhány megbetegedés, és ő sem érzi jól magát. Biztosabbnak éreztem, ha egyáltalán nem találkozunk egy ilyen helyzetben. A kollégáitól és az igazgató úrtól már úgyis rengeteg dolgot megtudtam. A hét során a baléi és a rovinji épület nagy részét bejártam, lefotóztam, és az utolsó napomon az iskola karbantartója még a többi helyiséget is megmutatta. 

Mindazonáltal maradt még néhány kérdésem, melyeket emailben tettem fel neki. Az  "interjút" változtatás nélkül másolom be ide. Fekete színnel a kérdésseim, pirossal a projektkoordinátor válaszai olvashatóak.

School 

I know that the main building of the school is in Rovinj and there are two side schools in Bale and Rovinjsko Selo. I have been to Bale with Suzana (which was a great experience) but do not know anything about the side school in Rovinjsko Selo. What grades? How many classes? How many students? How many teachers? (Does it have a staff of its own?)

So - the side school in Rovinjsko Selo is the same like the one in Bale - a primary school from 1 to 4 grade, 4 teachers working with 50 pupils. There are 2 teachers for after school care. There is no a canteen with cooked meal but we are delivering hot meal for pupils who are staying afternoon at school. They have the same curriculum as the main school in Rovinj. After 4th grade pupils come to the main building and they are integrated with pupils from Rovinj. There is a school bus from Bale and Rovinjsko Selo and is free of charge since it is paid by the town of Rovinj.

Textbooks

Who decides what books are used in the classes? Do the kids pay for the books? Do they have to return them after the school year?

Can the teachers decide their teaching methods or are they fixed in eg. the pedagogical programme they need to follow? 

Teachers are free to choose the books on which they will work. Primary classes are free to choose every day since they have a working books - it means that they are filling the books and they are not usable for other generations. From the 5 to 8 grade teachers had the possibility to choose books on their own, but now they will have to use the same program for 4 years. 

The books are returned every year and are free of charge because they are paid by the Ministry. The workbooks in Rovinj are free for pupils too because they are financed by the Town, but this is just in some Croatian towns - Rovinj is rich and they can afford it . Regarding the program, teachers have the same curriculum in all the country but they can choose the approach to achieve the learning outcome. 

School trips

Do the children go on longer school trips (2-3 days) with their teachers? Do the children pay for them? Do they pay for anything at school?

Trips are usually organized as field trips for one day from the 1st to 3rd grade. In the 4th grade there is a field trip in Zagreb of 2 days. In the 6th grade there is a field trip of 3 days in the east of Croatia and in the 8th grade a 5 day trip in Dalmatia. Beside this, there are lots of one day trips to different parts of Croatia, but everything is paid by parents.

About the teachers

How many subjects do the teachers usually teach according to their qualifications?  

Maximum two if he/she has a degree for them, for example history and Croatian language or Geography and History or Physic and Chemistry, but usually one subject.

Are there any teachers without qualifications?   

No, it is impossible to hire them.

Do young people become teachers? Is it a respectable job, a career for the young? 

Less and less people is willing to work at schools. There is a big number of them having a degree, but they work in a private sector or tourism because it is getting more and more difficult with kids and parents too.

How many lessons do the teachers have in the classrooms? Is this number the same for all of them with full-time jobs? If not, what makes the difference? 

It is the national law - the primary teacher from 1 to 4 grade has about 18 hours and they teach Croatian, Maths, Science, PE, Art and Music. Then in primary classes we have a subject teacher for Religion, English and ICT and they teach about 20 hours a week. The subject teachers in upper classes have from 19-23 hours a week and it is defined by the Ministry. The minimum of 19 have the Croatian teacher and the maximum science, technician, History etc.

What are the other main obligations of the teachers besides teaching? (school trips, helping slow students, administration, after-school activities, summer camps, looking after the kids during the breaks between two lessons in the corridors, meetings, substitutions, etc? Are the extra works paid?) 

Nothing is extra paid, not even if you are a class teacher. If you are a class teacher it means that you have lots of administration, parent information, parent meetings, trips, other activities with pupils, looking after then during breaks. If you are not a class teachers, you just teach and have to look after kids once a week during lunch. This is why nobody wants to be a class teacher anymore, 😞If you are a class teacher all you get more is 1 hour less of teaching.

How much is the salary of a beginner teacher and that of an experienced teacher with 20 or 40 years of teaching? 

The beginner has approx. 700 EUR, when he passes the national exam he gets about 800 EUR. After 20 years he has about 1000 EUR, after 40 years about 1150

Can teachers live on their salaries or do they take extra paid jobs? 

Very difficult to say - it depends on many factors - if you have somewhere to live, what is your husband doing etc. let's say two teachers if they have to buy a flat in Rovinj of 50 m2 they have to pay about 120,000 EUR.. They get a credit for 30 years and pay monthly about 500 EUR. Then you have a car, electricity, kids, kindergarten... very, very hard. Not to mention holidays. But in Rovinj lots of them have an apartment to rent so they live better, they can afford holidays for themselves. 😀 

Holidays

I heard that the academic year is 35 weeks in school. The rest of it is the holiday for the students. How much holiday do the teachers have? 

Yes, it is 35 weeks of lessons. The school starts on September 5 and ends on June 20 approximately. Then pupils have 2 weeks for Christmas, one week in February, one week for Easter and some national holidays. Teachers are at school until July 10 and return on mid August, but if there is nothing to do then, we can be at home. This is just the case in our school - in other schools teachers have to be at school no matter if they have spmethingthe o do or not. It is up to the headmasters. All the other holidays, teachers in our schools are at home, too like our pupils.  

 

Erasmus+ projects

What is the process of choosing the students and staff for the Erasmus+ projects?

What do they have to do for mobility? Before, during, after?  

When we set up the project we announce it to pupils and then they can choose whether to be involved or not. If they want to go for a mobility week, they have to write a motivation letter and then we have an interview where we examine the knowledge of English. They have several things to do - a project work, some presentation, they have to be involved in Erasmus+ group and then the most active students will get the possibility to travel.

The staff is chosen upon their preferences and inner motivation to participate and they have to implement something they learned into their own teaching.

Library

You, as a librarian, do you work full time, if not what else do you do? I saw your nice library on the first floor. Is this also used for meetings and school plays?

I work as a librarian for a full time job. It is the law that every school has to have a school librarian. The library is used for pupils to spend their time there and for meetings - it is always very crowded there.