As part of the “Inclusive Preschool Education and Care” project, implemented by the Ministry of Education in partnership with the Novak Djokovic Foundation, five more workrooms were adapted and equipped in the territory of the municipality of Trstenik, the village of Velika Drenova, with a loan from the World Bank.

PU “Biseri” enrolls over 1,000 children in four facilities and 19 half-day groups. There is a great need to increase the coverage of children, and PU is trying to include as many children as possible. 150 children at the institution level are exempted from payment by category – the third and every subsequent child in the order of birth in the family, children who are recipients of financial social assistance, members of national minorities, children with developmental disabilities, and children of war veterans.

The Novak Djokovic Foundation, together with the Ministry of Education, recognized their need and adapted and completely equipped five workrooms in the village of Velika Drenova as part of the Inclusive preschool education project.

The new facility in Velika Drenova will be attended by children who are members of national minorities, children of single parents, children whose families are recipients of financial social assistance, as well as children with developmental challenges.

Renovation works included the replacement of floors, walls, ceilings, joinery, and lighting. New, adapted rooms (one junior nursery, one older nursery, two mixed, and one preschool group) are fully adapted to the needs of children and educators and follow the new basics of the preschool education program.

In addition to the furniture that was selected and adapted to each age group, the rooms are equipped with new toys, carpets, lazy bags, easels for painting, books, and necessary consumables.

In this way, we have enabled the joint forces for a large number of families to remain in the countryside and for their children to have the same quality conditions for early education as in the cities.

115 new children between the ages of 1 and 7 were enrolled in new groups in the territory of the municipality of Trstenik, and the premises were adapted and equipped to the needs of our youngest residents.

You can see photos from the fair here.

Within the framework of component 2 of the project “Inclusive Preschool Education and Care”, support is provided through various activities to improve the inclusive approach to developing a realistic program.

As one of the types of support for 809 participants from 155 public Preschool institutions (members of teams for inclusive education, professional associates, and PI directors) in the period May – June 2023, the training Quality education and care for all children was implemented.

The training is a shortened and adapted version of the unique design Modules for training teachers in the field of inclusive education (UNICEF 2015). The author of the program is Judith Hollenweger. Adaptation of the scenario for training in Serbia was carried out by Gordana DJigic and Olja Jovanovic. Gordana Djordjevic and Jasmina Vuletic aligned the training with the Basics of the Program to implement the training within the Inclusive Preschool Education and Care project and after its pilot implementation for a group of participants from all professional associations.

This training aims to help the participants systematize their previous experiences and knowledge about inclusive education into a conceptual map that will represent a framework for further development and improvement of quality inclusive educational practice, both in their work and through exchanges with preschool teachers, institutions with which they are in the project together, as well as other preschool institutions.

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It is expected that after the two-day training, the participants will be able to:

– systematically plan and improve quality education for all children in their institutions, relying on relevant concepts, principles, and theoretical models, and

– participate in monitoring, evaluating, and providing quality guidelines for solving practical problems and improving the practice of educators in the institutions where they work, based on relevant concepts, principles, and theoretical models.

The training is designed to guide participants through the following topics:

–  Building common understanding: basic concepts and principles of inclusive education;

– Different environments carry different potentials/barriers to development and learning;

– Educational policies as a framework for the action of practitioners;

– Competences and beliefs of educators as a significant factor in the development of inclusive education;

– Learning involves participation in a learning community;

– How and where children learn is as important as what they learn;

– Learning from the perspective of lifelong learning;

This requires trainees to be familiar with:

1) the basic principles and assumptions on which inclusive education is based, i.e. education that includes and enables the well-being, involvement, and learning of all children;

2) the importance of participation, the limitations of participation, and the planning of changes that will enable the child’s participation in the process of upbringing and education;

3) legal regulations at the international and national level as a basis for the actions of practitioners;

4) the profile of a teacher competent for inclusive education;

5) situational approach to the educational process, i.e. how the behavior of educators affects the behavior of children and with planning and creating a stimulating environment for all children.

A group of 58 training leaders selected from among interested training leaders/mentors for the Fundamentals of Air Defense Program was trained during two trainings for training leaders (ToT) held in Belgrade on April 27-28 and May 8-9, 2023. In the period from May 22 to June 9, 809 members of Teams for Inclusive Education (TIO) from 155 public preschool institutions participated in 29 trainings organized throughout Serbia. Each preschool institution received the number and structure of participants based on data on the structure of employees and TIO members, to ensure the participation of various profiles (management, professional associates – psychologists, pedagogues, speech therapists, nurses, educators, special education teachers, pedagogical assistants).

In addition to training, the improvement of inclusive practice is also supported through the participation of all public preschool institutions in the implementation of the model of horizontal exchange of practitioners – the Community of Professional Learning. In the context of the implementation of this model, all kindergartens – the core of change – analyzed their inclusive practice based on the offered scenarios, then shared their insights with colleagues from other PUs and created action plans for improving and changing practice.

Additionally, The Kindergarten stories of good inclusive practice are being prepared by PU “Djurdjevdan” Kragujevac, PU “Nada Naumovic” Kragujevac, “Decija radost” Cuprija, PU “Bambi” Kula, PU “Nase dete” Sabac, and PU “Radost” Novi Banovci. It is planned that The Kindergarten stories of good inclusive practice will be available as a learning resource for all practitioners on the Learning Passport platform.

On the 19^th of June, 2023, in Zrenjanin the first Parenting Fair in this city was organized.

The goal of this event is for parents, guardians, and foster parents to find answers to questions and new knowledge about parenting in a conversation with experts from various fields, to provide children with a healthier and more beautiful upbringing. At the stands, information was available to them about nutrition and care of children, about protecting their health, rights, enrollment in kindergarten…

During the Fair, parents were able to familiarize themselves with the services provided by the City Administration of the City of Zrenjanin, the Preschool, the Center for Social Work, the “Dr. Bosko Vrebalov” Health Center, the Red Cross, the Center for the Provision of Social Protection Services “Most”, Primary and Secondary school “9. May”, Institute of Hygiene, Educational Center “Klikerino” and the Police Department of the city of Zrenjanin.

Tatjana Lojovic, coordinator of the project team of the “Kindergarten with a smile” grant program implemented in Zrenjanin as part of the “Inclusive preschool education and care” project, said at the opening of the fair: “One of the strengths of the city of Zrenjanin is the intersectoral cooperation in the interests of all children.” and their families. For this reason, during the month of parenting, the Parenting Fair is held on Trg slobode, where several different institutions of the city of Zrenjanin will be presented that deal with raising and educating children and providing support to families.”

You can see photos from the fair here.

On Thursday, 15.6.2023. In Titel, the event “Parents in the spotlight” was held for the first time, organized by the Preschool “Plavi cuperak” and the Municipality of Titel, and in cooperation with the Center for Social Work from Titel, the Titel Health Center, as well as two primary schools: “Isidora Sekulic”. from Sajkas and “Svetozar Miletic” from Titel.

The visitors of this event, about 250 parents with children, had the opportunity to get all the information in one place about the types of support provided by the local institutions of the municipality of Titel, as well as to learn more about their rights and how to exercise them.

The cooperation between the institutions was started through the project “Inclusive Preschool Education and Care”, which is implemented by the Ministry of Education with the support of the World Bank, and was started in the municipality of Titel in 2020 and from which the municipality received a grant worth 50,000 euros. The main goal of the Project is to improve the availability and quality of preschool education and upbringing for every child from birth to 6.5 years, especially for children from socially sensitive groups. As a result of this project, the coverage of children who were not involved in educational work increased, so two new half-day preschool groups were started in the settlements of Vilovo and Mosorin, through which about 40 children pass annually.

As the networking of institutions through the project “Inclusive Preschool Education and Care” proved to be a good practice, cooperation continued through the project “Playful Parenting”, which is supported by UNICEF in cooperation with the Government of the Republic of Serbia and partners, with the support of the LEGO Foundation.

This manifestation was held as a symbol of all that the local self-government does for children and their parents, but also as an announcement for all future activities that are planned for the next period, in cooperation with local institutions.

See photos from the event here.

Within the project of the Ministry of Education, Inclusive preschool education and Education, which is financially supported by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, UNICEF, as an engaged implementation partner, realized training for the implementation of the new Foundations of preschool education and education program Years of Ascension, which was developed by the Institute for Pedagogy and Andragogy of the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Belgrade.

The support program developed in the first year of project implementation includes combined training, mentoring support, and horizontal exchange, while in the third year manuals were completed and planned. Support for the implementation of the new Fundamentals of Preschool Education and Education Program (Fundamentals of the Program) was implemented in phases that support the implementation of the Rulebook on the Fundamentals of Preschool Education and Care, which foresees the introduction of the new Fundamentals of the Program in phases from 2019 to 2022, and the goals have been determined for each year of implementation so that the final total training coverage would be 12,000 practitioners, i.e. 63 percent of all practitioners in public preschool institutions (1,500 in the first year, 4,500 in the second, 8,500 in the third and 12,000 in the fourth year).

The set goal of the project was greatly exceeded! A total of 21,232 professionals from preschool institutions (out of a total of 22,229) were included in the training, which almost doubled the predicted goal of 12,000 trained.

Based on the savings achieved due to the online realization of part of the training, moderated online training included all the remaining educators who until now did not have the opportunity to attend training for the implementation of the Fundamentals of the program.

From all public preschool institutions, 18,967 educators and professional associates were trained, as well as 275 nurses in preventive health care. Additional online training included 1,721 practitioners from all private preschool institutions who are registered in the unique information system of MPNTR, as well as 269 educators who implement the preparatory preschool program organized by primary schools.

The training was implemented for a total duration of five weeks, with the first two parts of the training lasting two weeks each, and the third part of the training lasting one week. During that period, the participants could choose the dynamics by which they would familiarize themselves with the materials and implement the planned activities, and the training sessions were open 24 hours a day during the training period.

In cooperation with the Institute for the Improvement of Education and Care, the training will be translated into a programmed unmoderated format by the fall and as such will be permanently available for free to all practitioners in preschool institutions.