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 In
partnership with Roma Student Union, NSHC has started a new
project 'Education Against Poverty - Advocacy Initiative for
Roma Inclusion in Educational System'. The aim of the
project is to contribute to inclusion of Roma in educational
system and to poverty reduction among this vulnerable
population.
In five Vojvodinian municipalities - Zrenjanin,
Opovo, Titel, Bac and Secanj - local action plans for
improvement of Roma educational status will be drafted and
finalized. Local authorities and other stakeholders will
take active participation in the process. This 12 months
project is supported by the Institute for Sustainable
Communities (ISC) with USAID means.
One of the key
measures concerning the improvement of the education of Roma
people is early inclusion of Roma children into the
preschool education system. This way, the children would be
more intellectually and socially prepared to follow the
programme in the primary school. In order to accomplish
this, it is necessary to provide Roma children with a free,
whole day stay in preschool institutions, to make sure the
parents of Roma children are aware of the importance of
education and to permanently motivate them; to provide
teachers with advanced training so that they could respond
to the needs of Roma and other marginalized children, and to
introduce Roma assistants into the educational institutions.
Similar measures
are stated in the area of primary school education: material
support, advanced training of teachers and experts, parents’
motivation, introduction of Roma assistants, in addition to
improvement of remedial instruction and struggle against
segregation and unjust enrolment of Roma children into
schools for children with special needs.
 Action
plans for the advancement of Roma people education status
suggest concrete measures by which to improve the inclusion
of Roma people in the educational system. This initiative is
taking place within the “Decade of Roma inclusion” as an
international effort to use coordinated, open, and clear
methods to advance the status and life of Roma people in
areas of education, health, employment and accommodation.
In the process
of LAP making, within every municipality there is a group
consisted of representatives of the local authorities, Roma
organization, preschool institution, primary school, and
social welfare centre.
In every
municipality, LAP is going to include measures for
improvement of secondary school education, strengthening of
the Roma community and respecting differences and
multiculturalism.
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