The REF carried out its first REF monitoring mission to review two projects under implementation in Serbia, assess the adequacy of its monitoring procedures, discuss with the Government and Roma civil society education reform and its impact on Roma Education. The REF team was in Serbia from April 16 to April 21, 2006.
The REF carried out its first REF monitoring mission to review two projects under implementation in Serbia, assess the adequacy of its monitoring procedures, discuss with the Government and Roma civil society education reform and its impact on Roma Education. The REF team was in Serbia from April 16 to April 21, 2006.
The REF team composed of Tunde Kovac (Senior Advisor), Alexandre Marc (Director), Jeno Zsiga (Finance and Administration Manager), Mariana Jasarevic (Intern) and Natacha Covic (Country Facilitator). The mission met with the Minister of Education and the REF major counterparts in the Ministry of Education. The mission also met with the coordinator for the Decade of Roma Inclusion and other staff of the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights as well as leaders from Roma civil society and representatives of donors (World Bank, Sida and OSI). The team traveled to project sites in Nis and Novi Sad. The mission was satisfied with the overall progress of project implementation but also identified a number of weaknesses in one of the project and requested the implementing agency to strengthen its management and has decided to provide additional technical support. The team was extremely satisfied with the frank exchange and discussion it had with the representatives of the governments and civil society but identified some critical issues that would require urgent action. In particular, the new law making pre-school education compulsory could have devastating effects on Roma children if the number of facilities and staff is nor rapidly increased, and barriers deriving from lack of personal documents for Roma are overcome. Pre-school facilities are full in most large urban centers and can not absorb new children and many Roma do not have the many required documents to register their children to pre-schools.
