Pilot Program: Training and Learning for adult Roma In Serbia

The implementation of the Pilot Programme: “Functional Primary Education of Adult Roma” is ending this month.The aim of the Programme is raising the general level of  education of adult Roma, acquisition of primary education and skills for certain jobs, creating conditions for continuation of education and their integration into the social, economic, political and cultural life of the community.

The implementation of the Pilot Programme: “Functional Primary Education of Adult Roma” is ending this month.The aim of the Programme is raising the general level of  education of adult Roma, acquisition of primary education and skills for certain jobs, creating conditions for continuation of education and their integration into the social, economic, political and cultural life of the community.

The Program was organized by the National Employment Service and is conducted in Nis, Leskovac, Prokuplje, Vranje, Bujanovac, Belgrade, Sombor, Apatin, Ada, Becej and Valjevo involving approximately 200 unemployed Roma aged 15 to 35, and women in particular.

The implementation of the Program began in the school year 2006/07 and its duration is one school year at the minimum.
The primary and secondary schools in the above cities adjust their curricula and trainings with the needs, possibilities and living and working conditions of adult Roma. At the end of the seventh form, the adult Roma may select one of the offered programs of vocational training depending on their own needs, interests and capabilities as well as with the capacities of schools. Primary schools help them chose training programs. Vocational training starts in the course of the eight form and cannot be completed prior to completion of the form. Trainings are ongoing or have been completed in some ten cities in Serbia within the framework of functional education of adult Roma for assistant hairdressers, ceramists and housepainters, for tailors, forklift operators, simple masonry jobs, assistants in trade, etc. The pilot program “Functional Primary Education of Adult Roma” is implemented on the basis of the Agreement on Cooperation signed by the National Employment Service,Ministry of Education, Institute for Pedagogy and Andragogy of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Belgrade University and the Office for Human and Minority Rights of the Government.