The Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Bitola will examine the case of Stefan Popovski, an art teacher at primary school „Todor Angelevski" in Bitola, who taught classes and entered grades for a whole year without being paid. To be precise: he was dismissed on 29 January 2025 - without being told. And he kept on working.

The case doesn't resemble any known type of labour abuse. Popovski, who has been working since 2020 in three schools in Bitola - „Goce Delcev," „Kole Kaninski" and „Todor Angelevski" - has proper contracts with the first two through 31 August 2026. But in the third - „Todor Angelevski" - the former principal Natasa Shvigir signed his dismissal at the end of January 2025, without his signature. Popovski was never informed. The current principal, Gordana Jonacik, has given no explanation for why she kept assigning him classes.

How does someone teach for a whole year without a salary? Popovski had access to the e-diary. He entered grades. He attended teachers' councils. He signed in for attendance. He kept records - all the functions of a regularly employed teacher. And no one - not the principal, not the inspector, not the municipal education department, not the state inspection - noticed.

Popovski came forward when he asked for his earned salary and years of service - and barely a week later he was formally dismissed. That is a statement with two readings. First - the system worked on inertia, with no one really tracking that teacher's status. Second - when he asked for an explanation, the reaction was to quietly remove him, not to explain the process. That, at least, is what the documents show.

Several institutions are now involved. The Ministry of Education says it was unaware until the case became public - „primary schools are under municipal jurisdiction." The municipal inspector, the State Education Inspectorate and the Labour Inspectorate have been notified at the request of Bitola's mayor. The mayor himself has signalled dismissal of the principal if the allegations are confirmed.

The question that should stay open - and which is perhaps the biggest tragedy of this story - is whether Popovski isn't alone. How many other teachers, nurses, municipal clerks in Macedonia are working in a „grey zone" where their status was never signed, or signed unilaterally, and they pay for the work themselves? In a country where years of service are still often tracked by hand in a folder in a cupboard, and where every change of principal can be a chance to end someone's employment without their knowledge - this example isn't isolated. It's a test for the inspection structure. Will it prove it can work - or will it prove it can't?