For the greatest part of the participants from Slovenia the cost was paid by the Association, while those who registered later paid by themselves. As organizers we recommended that all cost should be paid by the Association, which meant only one-time payment of VAT, which is cheaper."
"The purpose of the conference was, besides transfer of knowledge and experiences, to come to agreements on joint utilization of European funds, to reduce the tensions arising from reciprocal differences, and to improve intercultural dialogue," explained the reasons the president of the Association of Head Teachers of Slovenia, which according to the data from Supervizor in the last ten years received more than 400 thousands euros of budget funds. When asked who covered the cost of the travel and stay of 50 Slovenian school principals from October 3 - October 5 in Montenegro, Nives Počkar answered that "the above mentioned costs were within the purview of individual principals". But one of the participants of the conference, and the organizers from Montenegro, claim the opposite.
Everything was paid by the Association
"For all the secondary schools everything was paid by the Association, including the plane tickets. It was worth participating, as we must not give up our education. Of course we must be careful how to spend the rest of the money, after salaries, material, and other costs. Unreasonable use of money would mean some of the walls would be left unpainted," said for MMC Marjetka Bizjak, the principal of The Secondary Technical and Vocational School Trbovlje, and rejected the reproach that while the school principals are educating themselves, the teachers are being dismissed. "There is no correlation between dismissals and education. Dismissals in schools happen because the number of pupils is decreasing," she added.
The Association should pay because of the lower VAT
"For the greatest part of the participants from Slovenia the cost was paid by the Association, while those who registered later paid by themselves. As organizers we recommended that all cost should be paid by the Association, which meant only one-time payment of VAT, which is cheaper," said for MMC Radiša Šćekić, the conference organizer and the president of the Association of Head Teachers of Montenegro. "We tried to carry out the conference with as little expenses as possible, and we wanted to gather as many principals from the area as possible, in order to allow them to exchange experiences. The work went on for three days, and the main aim was networking," explained Šćekić.
And the cost?
According to our calculations the stay of Slovenian school principals in Budva cost 3,000 euros per day, or 9,000 euros for three days, even though some of them returned home after a day; the participation fee in was 40 euros per person, which means additional 2,000 euros. As some of the participants travelled by plane, let us mention that the starting price of the return ticket at Adria Airways for the flight Ljubljana-Podgorica amounts to 340 euros per person. Those who travelled by car were entitled to a kilometric allowance in the amount of 400 euros, and according to the law they were also entitled to at least 20 percent of the daily allowance for stay abroad, along with the full board and hotel accommodation.
China gaining popularity among school principals
The school principals didn't confine their travels to the ex-Yugoslavia. Education in China is becoming more and more popular. It has been organized since 2011 by the Confucius Institute at the Faculty of Economics of the Ljubljana University, in cooperation with the Shangai University of International Business and Economics, and with the financial support by HANBAN, the State Office for Chinese language with the headquarters in Beijing, covering all the cost for teachers and school principals, with the exception of plane tickets, explained Danijela Voljč from Confucious Institute, which in the last three years co-financed the further professional training for 20 teachers and principals.
18 applied, nine travelled, four prolonged their stay
This year, from October 27 to November 1, six school principals and three assistants from elementary and grammar schools went to China; twice as much showed interest, i.e. 18 who applied for 12 available places. "Four of them paid for the plane tickets from the funds schools gain from their economic activities, and did not burden the state budget, four paid from the funds allocated to them for education, and one paid her plane ticket by herself. Four participants decided to prolong their stay for four more days, on their own expense, and will use their annual leave for the additional stay," explained Danijela Voljč.
For the greatest part of the participants from Slovenia the cost was paid by the Association, while those who registered later paid by themselves. As organizers we recommended that all cost should be paid by the Association, which meant only one-time payment of VAT, which is cheaper."
