Balkans | Discrimination against a Turkish language teacher in Radović

In the city of Radović in North Macedonia, a Turkish teacher was discriminated against at the Krsti Petkov Misirkov Primary School, where he was taught in both Turkish and Macedonian.

In the recruitment of English teacher for Turkish classes at the “Krste Petkov Misirkov” primary school in Radović, a Macedonian candidate was selected and appointed for the second time, although the Committee for Protection and Prevention of Discrimination was dismissed once. The Turkish teacher who applied to the advertisement in which discrimination was revealed on the basis of ethnic origin was not elected.

According to the SDK.mk report, the school repeated the announcement on the instructions of the committee, but the school board of three teachers there chose the Macedonian candidate with a Turkish language course certificate at A2 level.

According to the Law on Professional Teachers and Assistants in Primary and Secondary Schools, which the school in Radović violated, “a teacher in primary and secondary schools can be a person who knows the Macedonian language, the Cyrillic alphabet, the language and script required for teaching”.

Given the relevant law, it means that the applicant, whose mother tongue is Turkish, has an advantage.

The State Education Inspectorate declared before the Anti-Discrimination Committee that it had no authority to interfere with candidates’ examinations.

He stated that no one goes to the lessons to check how the teacher, who was chosen in the Education Development Office due to the retirement of the Turkish National Counsellors, teaches lessons in Turkish classes and how he communicates in Turkish with A2 level children.

At the request of the Anti-Discrimination Commission, the State Education Inspectorate reviewed the initial publication and concluded in December that the English language candidates had been incorrectly selected because the school board had violated the Basic Education Act.