Skopje, 21 November 2024 (MIA) - Minister of Education and Science Vesna Janevska called on the authorities of the City of Skopje to provide an urgent solution to the city’s public transport issues. She said an analysis carried out by the Ministry of Education and Science hasn’t identified significant changes in class attendance.

“I assume the pupils and parents are organizing the best they can so their children can arrive at school, but the teachers are also considerate in light of the situation. The situation is very bad, and it is embarrassing that schoolchildren in the capital city are prevented from receiving appropriate education, which is a right guaranteed by the Constitution. I hope that a solution will be found because it is impermissible for all our efforts, all the changes that we are trying to implement to improve the quality of education, to be obstructed in a way due to the lack of organization of the city’s authorities. I hope that they will take this situation seriously and urgently find an appropriate solution,” Janevska said on Thursday ahead of the signing of an Annex to the Memorandum of Cooperation between the Ministry of Education and Science and the French Embassy.

Janevska also voiced support to the students who said they would join a protest on Friday in front of the city administration building if a solution isn’t found to the capital’s public transport woes.

“They are absolutely right, they have a right to express their revolt in the appropriate way, and if this is the only way to find a solution, I support it,” Janevska said.

The issues with Skopje’s public transport culminated on Wednesday when most of the city's public transport buses remained parked in their garages due to a lack of fuel. Only 25 buses serviced their routes in the capital on Wednesday.

Skopje’s City Council is set to hold an extraordinary session at 6 p.m. Thursday, with some political parties urging Skopje Mayor Danela Arsovska to resign.

Photo: MIA Archive