The SDC's partners in Serbia
Partners:
Ministry of Education
Pomoc Deci
Red Cross Movement
UNICEF
Under Serbian law, the Ministry of Education is responsible for planning, coordinating and organising programmes to continuously improve teachers' skills. The Ministry therefore has overall responsibility for ensuring that skills development becomes a reality. The Ministry implements its programmes in collaboration with various entities and structures at both the centralised and decentralised levels.
- National Education Council
This Council plays the key role in establishing norms and requirements for the education system and its reform. One of the Council’s responsibilities is to define strategic guidelines for primary and secondary education as well as skills standards for teachers and school heads. - Regional school administrations
These are the Ministry of Education’s satellite offices (19 offices throughout the country). Their main role is to provide schools with administrative and technical support. In terms of professional development, these offices are in charge of coordinating skills development for teachers, including pre-school teachers, psychologists, educationalists, school heads and school secretaries. They also play a role in quality control. - Institute for Quality Improvement
This Institute oversees the implementation of a system for professional development and ensures that the skills improvement programme is relevant and effective. This institute has a department dedicated to professional development, i.e. the Centre for Professional Development. - Institute for Quality Education and Assessment
This institute is responsible for ensuring that children progress through the school system. It sets objectives for learning, exams and the analysis of results. It also evaluates the extent to which learning has improved, in order to assess the effectiveness of measures aimed at professional development. - Skills improvement centres
These centres were created by municipalities and institutions of public education to provide a programme of continuing training for teachers. The new education law, adopted in 2009, recognises these centres as a fully-fledged component of the education system.
SDC’s Serbia website/Ministry of Education Project Centre
This organisation was created in 2003 in Belgrade, with the support of the Christian Children’s Fund. It initially sought to discover why so many Roma children leave school before completing their primary-school education. Pomoc Deci is now financed by international donors and embassies. Its main activities are:
- to promote access to pre-primary and primary education for all children
- to promote quality education for all
- to facilitate access to each child’s right to a name and an identity.
Pomoc Deci has signed a partnership contract with the Ministry of Education. It implements its programmes together with community-based organisations such as OFER, Children's Rights Centre, Beosupport, Edukativni Centar Roma, and Association of Roma Intellectuals. Its 2008 budget was EUR 1.3 million, CHF 530,000 of which was contributed by the SDC.
The Red Cross is active in Serbia and Montenegro through the two National Societies, which are supported by international partners including Norway, Spain, the UK, Denmark and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. These two societies play a unique supporting role for the government. They are supported by a countrywide network of local branches and volunteers. They have positioned themselves as a vital long-term partner in the implementation of reforms, and work with local governments, individuals and civil society organisations. The Red Cross of Serbia was founded in 1876 and has an annual budget of EUR 2.6 million. It has access to over 60,000 volunteers and is run by a staff of around 600. The Red Cross of Montenegro employs some 50 people and has a network of 1,500 volunteers.
In 2008, the Red Cross of Serbia carried out a peer assessment and review of its work with Roma and disabled children over the past six years.
SDC Serbia website/IFRC Social Welfare Programme
UNICEF advocates for the protection of children’s rights and helps to cover the basic needs of children and to improve the opportunities for them to reach their potential. The 2005-2009 programme for Serbia and Montenegro aimed to ensure that all children are able to exercise their rights. This involves four areas of activity through the following programmes:
- Reform of social policy in order to create national legislation and a frame of reference with regard to children. To achieve this aim, UNICEF supports the government in developing legislation, policies and strategies and in implementing a data collection system and mechanisms to monitor the situation of girls and boys in Serbia.
- The goal of the System and Institution Building programme is to ensure access to social services aimed at children, especially poor and excluded children (improving the development of young children, access to quality education, especially for Roma children and children with special needs, creating environments that are favourable to child protection, health education and HIV-AIDS prevention, and health services that are adapted to young people).
- The Community Mobilisation programme aims to improve the participation of children, as well as their families and communities, in decision-making and processes concerning their lives (e.g. preparing and implementing local action plans for children, protecting children’s rights and identifying excluded children).
- The Partnership for Children’s Rights promotes children’s rights and the creation of partnerships regarding children. This programme aims to raise the public’s awareness of children’s rights, create alliances and mobilise local resources.
