Vesna Dragicevic, librarian and mentor at the Secondary School Ivan Goran Kovacic - Good cooperation with colleagues is important for successful mentoring

Details

Tuesday, 11 August 2020 13:08

The project Increasing educational opportunities for Roma students and young Roma in the Western Balkans and Turkey funded by the European Union and implemented through the Roma Education Fund and the NGO Young Roma is of immeasurable importance for children who want success and progress. Knowing that they can get a job only with knowledge and perseverance, they try to seize their chances. They know that they are not alone on that path because they have the support of a mentor. This time the heroine of our story is sociology professor Vesna Dragicevic, a librarian and mentor at the Secondary School Ivan Goran Kovacic, who helps Roma high school students through our organization. The biggest challenge for Vesna is to enroll students and ensure their safe completion of schooling. However, three decades of work at the school guarantee good performance. She classifies herself as an old-fashioned worker, she approaches children both as a friend and as a collaborator, and often as a parent.

How is your job different from the job of a teacher, professor?

DRAGICEVIC: My job differs from teachers in that you have to summarize pedagogical advice in one person, position yourself as a friend, advise individually, depending on whether he is a boy or a girl, because they are in puberty and belong to a vulnerable category. Good cooperation with colleagues is important for successful mentoring, because they point out problems in teaching and give us guidelines on how to improve success.

Describe to us how one working day of a mentor and your work with students goes?

DRAGICEVIC: My working day depends on my obligations at school and on the shifts in which the students are. I have students in both shifts. Working with high school students is very different from working in elementary school. Pupils who attend high school also have an internship, so their schedule should be taken into account. Sometimes we have a class together because I had students from the same class. The first and foremost thing is to take care of regular school attendance and the attitude towards teachers.

What are the biggest challenges that you have to face?

DRAGICEVIC: The biggest challenge is to enroll students in school and be persistent so that they finish school. I personally led a guy who finished high school at the age of 21 and I was very proud of our mutual success, and of course the help of the school administration.

What are the prejudices that exist from students of the majority population to Roma students?

DRAGICEVIC: Herceg Novi is a special city. Our Roma lives in all parts of the city, so these prejudices are much less than in other municipalities.

How do Roma students react to the news that they will get a mentor?

DRAGICEVIC: I have positive experiences. There is a little mistrust in the beginning,  but it gets overcome very quickly.

Why is a mentor an important link in the education chain?

DRAGICEVIC: Because it is an individual work and children from vulnerable groups are easier to adapt and trust to one person who, if necessary, can solve a personal or school problem in cooperation with a school psychologist. For example, a student can contact a mentor at any time by phone or via Viber. They all have smartphones and are doing well, which has especially proved to be an advantage in the age of distance learning.

What are the difficulties that Roma students face within the education process and how do mentors help in solving these problems?

DRAGICEVIC: The difficulty is the very poor education brought from primary school, although there is an exception. Parental education, ie. inability to help them. With some students, you literally have to fight on the muscles and spend the last atom of strength in order to make a progress in learning and behavior.
I help them by using my experience of working at school for 30 years, and I classify myself as an old-fashioned worker, I approach children both as a friend and as a collaborator, and often as a parent.

What needs to be done in order for Roma children to fit in better and be encouraged to achieve better results?

DRAGICEVIC: It depends on the environment in which they live. Conversation and advice are basic tools in encouraging children to fit into school. Mention should also be made of benefits - scholarships and dual education as motivation to achieve better success.

Interview conducted by: Milena Cavic – journalist/associate
Adapted by: Samir Jaha

Translation: Milena Cavic, Milos Knezevic, Irijana Rizvanovic

The interview was created within the project Increasing access and participation of Roma students in secondary education and the transition to the labor market

The views expressed in this text can not be considered the views of NGOs Young Roma, the Roma Education Fund and the European Union