November 01, 2010

1. November 2010.

Education of Albanians in South Serbia

Galip Beciri, President of the Albanian National Council, says that there is a burning problem with textbooks in Albanian in South Serbia, including the ABC book for first-grade students.

Danijela Nenadic, Deputy Director of the Coordination Body of the Government of the Republic of Serbia for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, says that she perceives an improvement in education in South Serbia as a strategic goal: „An improvement in the education of members of all ethnic communities is a strategic priority of the Coordination Body, since it is a key for achieving progress in all three municipalities, as well as one of unavoidable mechanisms for integrating ethnic communities in political and social life, both at the local level and at the level of the Republic of Serbia.“

According to Danijela Nenadic, the Coordination Body, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, has taken a series of initiatives in that respect.

„Two education inspectors for classes conducted in Albanian are going to begin working next month. It is an extremely important move for improving the quality of education in Albanian. The Coordination Body is constantly having dialogues with the Ministry of Education, whereas the priority is given to providing textbooks in Albanian. In cooperation with the Albanian National Council, the Coordination Body has taken an initiative for importing ABC books from Albania. In compliance with the procedures specified by the Law on the Basics of the Educational System, as well as by the Law on Textbooks and Other Teaching Aids, the Albanian National Council proposed the ABC book from Albania. The procedure for approving this textbook is underway, so that first-grade students should get the ABC book in one month. We underscore that this is the first and very important move initiated by the Albanian National Council, which, by the law, has the right to propose textbooks in the language of the Albanian ethnic minority“, Ms Nenadic said.

She also said that the Coordination Body encourages both formal and informal forms of education in South Serbia.

„The Ministry of Education, in cooperation with the Coordination Body, continues working on resolving the issues of textbooks in Albanian, whereas the „Klet“ publishing house is currently translating from Serbian into Albanian math textbooks for grades 5, 6 and 7.

We expect that the Albanian National Council will take an initiative for preparation of all other textbooks over the next two years”, Danijela Nenadic said.