Protesting School Pupils Take on Macedonia Govt

Following in the footsteps of their older colleagues in universities who successfully rebelled against government plans for state-run "external" tests, high school pupils in Macedonia, united in a movement called "High School Plenum", announced their own protest in Thursday in Skopje.

Under the motto "Stop the Bad Reforms in Education", the pupils plan to march from the city park to the front of the Education Ministry in the centre of town.

Parallel marches in other towns have been announced.

Pupils want a stop to plans for externally controlled state-run graduation exams in high schools that are intended to check their skills and evaluate whether teachers have done their work. They also wants the scrapping of envisaged additional math exams that they say create an impossible burden.

"We want the 'external exams' scrapped... We see no purpose in the concept," Teano Kardula, of the High School Plenum, said.

Preparations for the protests have drawn a hostile counter-campaign. Posters by unknown authors have been placed in front of many high schools, warning pupils not to protest.

"For an experiment they need mice. Don not allow them to experiment on you like Soros did with me," one poster reads.

The message echoes the narrative of the main ruling VMRO DPMNE party, which has long campaigned against so-called "Sorosoids", portraying them as mercenaries working for foreign interests.

George Soros, the Hungarian-born American business magnate, is known for his support for politically liberal causes and movements thoughout Central and Southeast Europe.

He is the founder and backer of the Open Society foundation, an NGO which is also active in Macedonia.

Another poster reads: "Education is the most...