How can out-of-school children be included in the education system? In accordance with the findings of the Research report on this topic, overcoming this challenge is possible, but has to be a continuous cooperation between the responsible institutions, the schools and the civil sector.
For that purpose, teachers and professional collaborators from 10 primary schools included in the project attended a working meeting held at the end of January 2018 in Skopje. In the course of the two-day workshop, several theoretical lectures were given on the inclusion of children from the socially vulnerable categories, as well as practical sessions in which the participants offered specific solutions for the inclusion of these children in the education system.
It was of particular importance that the teachers and the professional staff shared their personal experiences in terms of the challenges they face within the schools, starting with the enrollment of the students and the data submission on children who are obliged to attend school, all through to the counseling and the cooperation with the parents of the out-of-school children.
“The purpose of this meeting was to bring all the participants together and create ideas, suggestions, methods and opportunities for inclusion of out-of-school children in the education system. The two-day meeting enabled us to identify the challenges that are of utmost importance for the inclusion of children, whereas a special emphasis was given to the schools and the conditions they need to provide in order to include and, certainly, keep the children in the education system”, said one of the participants in the working meeting.
The activities proposed at the meeting will be part of the next stage of the inclusion process of out-of-school children in the education system, while the teachers and the professional staff that were part of this meeting will continue to cooperate with the project team during the entire process.
This activity is part of the Project for inclusion of out-of-school children in the education system, financed by the Pestalozzi Children’s Foundation, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science.
