SPECIAL WORKING GROUP FOR EDUCATION IN SERBIA PAID A VISIT TO VOJVODINA

25. November 2010.

Members of the Special Working Group for Education in South Serbia, who include representatives of the Ministry of Education, the Coordination Body of the Government of the Republic of Serbia for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, the Albanian National Council, as well as the national and international experts, paid a three-day visit to Vojvodina.

The visit was aimed at getting an insight into the way in which higher education is organized in Vojvodina, which might serve as a model for organizing the classes at the future department of the Nis University’s Faculty of Economics, which the Government of the Republic of Serbia is willing to open.
The language in which the classes will be held, the issue of the available teaching staff, as well as the textbooks - related issues, are only some of the numerous questions that should be answered in the best possible manner prior to the opening of the faculty. In order to get detailed information about the ways in which these issues were solved in Vojvodina, members of the Special Working Group paid a visit to a Higher Vocational School for Kindergarten Teachers (Novi Sad),the Faculty of Economics (Subotica), the Faculty of Primary School Teachers (Subotica) and to the Faculty of Philosophy (Novi Sad). They also met with Miroslav Veskovic, President of the University in Novi Sad, and with Zoltan Jeges, the Provincial Secretary for Education. All these meetings provided an insight into the various ways of organizing classes at institutions of higher education, which are in compliance with the regulations and applicable laws of the Republic of Serbia, and they also provided a basis for specifying the best model that could be used in South Serbia, in accordance with the possibilities and needs.

During the visit, members of the Special Working Group met with Danijel Petrovic (the Romanian National Council), Ana Tomanov-Makanov (the Slovak National Council) and with Tamas Korhec (the Hungarian National Council). Bearing in mind that the Albanian National Council was only recently established, meetings with representatives of the other National Councils, who are experienced in their organizing and solving of the issues that are within their competencies, are of great importance for the newly set up Albanian National Council.

Also important were meetings held with Milorad Djuric, the Provincial Secretary for Culture, Anika Muskinja -Hajnrih, the Provincial Ombudsman, Andor Deli, and the Provincial Secretary for Regulations, Administration and National Minorities and with Aleksandra Vujic, who is from the Vojvodina Center for Human Rights.

Upon summing up the impressions and the received experiences, members of the Special Working Group for Higher Education in South Serbia are going to meet in December in order to consider in detail the issues regarding the ways and models of organizing the classes at the future unit of higher education, which will be opened in Bujanovac next year.

The visit to Vojvodina was organized as part of the United Nations PBILD Program.