State to make additional efforts to support Roma students
- Details
- Wednesday, 30 June 2021 09:19
Aware of the fact that certain systemic changes in education require time, the state and the institutions of the system should start making efforts as soon as possible - in the financial, personnel, and especially program part, in order to express the readiness of relevant institutions to contribute in improving the educational process and educational outcomes of students from the Roma and Egyptian population, concluded today at the conference Mentoring as support for Roma and Egyptian children in primary and secondary schools organized by the NGO Young Roma.
On that occasion, Safet Kalac, Acting Director-General of the Directorate for Education of Members of Minority Peoples and National Communities at the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports in the Government of Montenegro, said that Montenegro has been working for more than two decades to improve the education of Roma population, and therefore certain measures have given and are giving results, which we are especially proud of, I think there is a lot of room for further improvement. In the activities that the Ministry conducts towards Roma students, the focus is on strengthening integration, providing equal opportunities. I would especially like to point out the activities that the Ministry carried out, and those are the campaigns for enrollment in school - primary and secondary, providing free textbooks, and we also provided free transportation to students from Podgorica, Berane and Niksic. In addition, associates in the social inclusion of Roma were hired in the part related to education, scholarships were awarded to high school students. For all these activities, the Ministry allocates half a million Euros and therefore we are of the opinion that the work must be intensified in order for the results to be as good as possible.
Samir Jaha, Executive Director of the NGO Young Roma, presented the key results and successes of the three-year project "Increasing access and participation of Roma students in secondary education and transition to the labor market", as well as the two-year project "Improving primary education - the first step towards quality secondary education” and on that occasion pointed to the fact that in May, 140 mentors and 460 children were included in the educational programs that we implemented. Bearing in mind that the textbooks from this school year will be free for all primary school students, our proposal was to redirect the inclusion of RE communities in the Strategy for Social Funds of 150 thousand, which were intended for the purchase of textbooks, and finance the program through them. mentoring students in primary and secondary schools and thus significantly reduce drop-outs and young people from the RE community would be encouraged to continue their education and thus become an even more useful part of society, Jaha said.
Furthermore, he presented the most significant results of the mentoring program and said that in 2018, 37 mentors were hired in Montenegro and a total of 108 students were monitored, while next year the number of mentors (44) and students (120) is monitored. In the school year 2020/2021 we hired 48 mentors, while the mentoring program included 155 students from the Roma community. And the 2018/19 school year, 102 students successfully completed the year, 115 the following year, and this year 114 students completed the final class for now. The most common directions and occupations that students enroll in are mainly from the profiles of secondary vocational schools, such as car mechanic, sales technician, service technician, cook, hairdresser, he said.
What we are especially proud of is that at the end of 2018/2019 we had a total of 20 students who successfully completed high school, 2019/20 year we have 41 students and 2020/21 through the mentoring program, 27 students have successfully completed high school, and that number will increase when the August correctional deadlines are completed, Jaha said.
With the cause of the COVID-19 virus, students followed classes online and then with the help of the US Embassy in Montenegro we managed to provide 75 tablets with internet cards, and 40 devices were provided through the program "Increasing access and participation of Roma students in secondary education and transition to the labor market ". Upon return to schools, bus tickets were provided for 60 users and missing textbooks were provided for 62 users to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
A special result of this program is that in 2018/19, 31 students completed a paid internship after graduating from high school, for a period of two months, and 27 of them successfully completed the internship 2019/20. During the school year, the employment model was changed, so the gross salaries of two students who were hired under an employment contract were financed in full. From the school year 2020/21, we apply the model in which students are employed for a period of 6 months, of which the first three months of gross earnings are financed through this program, and the remaining three months are financed by the employer. Through this model, six students have been successfully employed this year, Jaha concluded.
I must say that the mentoring program is conceived not only as a support in learning for children, but it is also a program that leads to their socialization and greater integration within society itself. This NGO, with its hard work, great professionalism and enthusiasm, went beyond its scope and led Roma students to understand the importance of education and how good a signpost it is to create their future, said Natasa Mitrić, director of the School for Secondary and Higher Vocational Education "Sergije Stanić" in Podgorica. In her presentation, she also referred to the new employment model launched by the NGO Young Roma, and said that this program provides economic stability to students and their families for a longer period of time and that is why it is important and high quality.
Sebastian Baftijari, a student and beneficiary of mentoring support, pointed out that mentoring has brought great and important results and has brought about great changes. As one of the beneficiariy of the program, it helped me a lot, because having a mentor you know that you can count on someone to help you in your work and learning. The mentor also helped me with non-formal education, which helps a lot in shaping young people. What we should especially work on is the reduction of the language barrier, and this should be addressed at the earliest period of education, more precisely in primary schools. Also, I am very grateful to the NGO Young Roma, which gave me the chance to do an internship in this organization, and now I have the opportunity to start working in it, said Baftijari.
In the second part of the conference, the challenges and opportunities for education of Roma students in primary schools in Montenegro were discussed, where the participants in the panel were: Samir Jaha, Executive Director of NGO Young Roma, Marijana Blečić, Pedagogical Center of Montenegro, Vera Božović, Director of Elementary School "Mileva Lajović Lalatović” in Nikšić, Radomir Jočić, director of the elementary school “Radomir Mitrović” in Berane, Biljana Krivokapić, director of the elementary school “Savo Pejanović” in Podgorica and Elizabeta Ramadanović, student and beneficiary of mentoring support.
The three-year project "Increasing access and participation of Roma students in secondary education and transition to the labor market", as well as the two-year project "Improving primary education - the first step towards quality secondary education” NGO implemented Young Roma with the support of the Roma Education Fund and the European Union which provided mentoring support for high school students from the RE community in all grades, as well as elementary school students in the eighth and ninth grades. The final conference brought together 50 representatives of educational institutions in Montenegro, representatives of international organizations, NGOs and the media.