The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy of the Republic of Northern Macedonia organized on the 13 of June, in Skopje, the final event of the project Inclusion of Roma Children in Public Preschool Institutions (Kindergartens).
As a partner in the project, Roma Education Fund was represented at the event by its co-director, Mr. Redjepali Chupi. During his speech, he underline the main achievements of this partnership which started in 2006, only a year after the establishment of REF.
Over the past 16 years, REF has invested 1,214,363 EUR for continuous financing of the project through which access to pre-school education has been provided to over 6,400 Roma children aged 3 to 6 years.
As a result of this partnership, the rate of regular attendance in kindergartens increased from 60% to 90% in the period between 2006 and 2022 in the municipalities where the project was implemented. The transition rate from preschool to primary education improved from 80% to 96% for the same period.
Another major success of this partnership was the hiring, in 2016, by the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy of 16 Roma caregivers who were until then employed by REF.
„Today they are an important resource and I would say they brought added value in the system not only in their work to support the Roma community but in general, for the overall multicultural society in the country“ – said Mr.Chupi
From 100% financial support by REF in 2006, the project reached about 65% of the commitment to finance it by the Ministry in 2020. In addition to access, regular and additional support was also provided in their early childhood, which directly contributed to greater readiness and increased enrolment of our beneficiaries in primary schools, and thus directly linking our interventions in primary education together with relevant ministries and other partners.
“Another important result is the Government’s decision from 2018 when decision makers recommended that 21 municipalities should provide the costs necessary for the inclusion of Roma children whose families receive guaranteed minimum assistance in preschool institutions, costs that were covered from the state budget of the unit through local self-government. I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank all the mayors and municipal councils for the understanding and the support they have added to the systematization of this activity and thus helping the project become one of the most successful public policies aimed at increasing the wellbeing of the Roma children in our country“ – Mr. Chupi.
At the end of his speech, Mr. Chupi drew attention to “the challenges in terms of inclusion, retention and completion of compulsory education”, further aggravated during the pandemic and which require “greater engagement, with even greater focus especially on the most vulnerable, among which the Roma community is most affected”.
