Scandals snowball for Education Minister

Education Minister Josef Dobeš is under increasing pressure as a series of minor affairs have built up over recent weeks into opposition calls for his resignation. Reports indicate that even some members within his Public Affairs party are seeking his replacement. However, party officials and Prime Minister Petr Nečas are standing by Mr Dobeš and blaming the media for sensationalism.

Josef Dobeš

It was never going to be an easy ride for the next head of the Ministry of Education. Josef Dobeš came to the position last July with the tasks of reforming the country’s tertiary education system and initiating nationwide school leaving exams that have been a topic of debate for 14 years. The latter in particular has proven as difficult as expected, with students faring exceptionally poorly in trial exams in October.

But less serious mishaps are proving to be a bigger threat to his longevity in the ministry. Media scrutiny into chaotic personnel turnover at the ministry led to revelations that ‘key’ personnel had received bonuses of 100,000 crowns amid large scale staff cuts. Mr Dobeš said that he hadn’t allotted the bonuses himself, and fellow minister and party member Vít Bárta defended him anyway, saying there was nothing wrong with rewarding excellence, and preventatively revealing that he does the same thing. Party chairman and Interior Minister Radek John distanced himself from the situation, saying that he would not have done it.

Ladislav Bátora

Allegations, related and unrelated, have kept coming since, however, with Mr Dobeš forced to state that he did not help write an advisor’s college thesis, and that he had not ordered the surveillance of employees’ emails. Prime Minister Petr Nečas and others have in turn accused the media of sensationalism, and the weak journalistic basis for some of the claims seems to give at least some credence to that defence. Mr Dobeš then actively fuelled his own fire by introducing a new advisor, Ladislav Bátora, who was a former candidate for the extreme right-wing National Party.

As a member of a party that brought itself to power with a mantra of anti-corruption, it comes as no surprise that Mr Dobeš’s every move has been carefully studied by the media. On Monday it emerged that the minister had paid some 70,000 to a celebrity photographer for two days’ of promotional shoots that included photos of him and his family. Had that been happened at another ministry, it is a question whether anyone would have noticed. In the case of Minister Dobeš however, he was compelled first to fire staff members for having themselves photographed jumping on their desks and standing on historic furnishings of the Education Ministry, and then to announce he would pay for the photographs himself. That afternoon he was in hospital being treated for exhaustion and a neglected case of the flu.

In spite of everything, the prime minister says Josef Dobeš is staying put to do the job he was appointed to do and has taken personal responsibility for, that is, introducing nationwide leaving exams. Those exams are to be in place in the spring and a great deal will be riding on their success, both for the coalition and the increasingly beleaguered Josef Dobeš.