Top court throws out teachers’ referendum

In its Thursday ruling, the top court, acting as a tertiary forum, scrapped a secondary decision by the Kuria, the supreme court, which had given the green light to two out of the five original questions, PSZ said.

All five questions, concerning the qualification of teachers, the number of classes at school, as well as school closures, had earlier been rejected by the National Election Committee (NVB), which said at the time that answering the questions would need “special information, which cannot be expected from voters … and they could therefore not assess the ramifications of their decision”.

PSZ regretted that the Constitutional Court had “taken over the arguments of the NVB … taking voters for minors”. Both organisations, they said, “assume that voters could not decide whether the number of weekly classes should be reduced by three or if schools for disadvantaged children should have the same curriculum as institutions of the elite.”