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Workshops for pre-school children |
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 During the summer, in “Vuk Stefanović Karadžić” elementary school in Niš we realised the school preparation programme for children returnees under readmission agreements and other children who had not attended pre-school programme. Unfortunately, there are a lot of Roma children, especially those among socially vulnerable, who had not attended pre-school institutions. We went to visit them, find out what they had learnt and to what extent this programme was useful for them.
We entered the classroom, and there were children’s drawings hung on the blackboard. Sun, flowers, houses in vivid colours. And the blue moon, drawn by six year old Halil, framed with blue stars. “I like it this way”, he says. The children write words, and the teachers show them how to draw various lines. The children are smiling, trying to do the exercise as good as possible.
Ajša Alić, one of the workshop leaders and Roma Assistant in the school says: “There should be more such workshops organised. There are a lot of Roma children who are not prepared for the first grade. They neither know how to sit properly in their chairs nor to hold pencils. It is particularly difficult for children who cannot speak Serbian. Most returnees speak a combination of several languages which is the main obstacle for mastering school curricula “.
Slavica Zadro, teacher, says that the project is well conceived and useful for children: “At workshops, we practiced writing, Maths, learned about the nature and human body. The children have learnt a lot of new words through stories and songs. We used the latest teaching methods that enhance children’s memory by the combination of learning words and playing games. The children enjoyed learning at the workshops. However, although they have learnt a lot, they should have continuous support in order to adopt the school curricula successfully. We will continue to organise workshops for these boys and girls so that they could master all the subjects in the first grade.
 
This programme is realised within the project “Support to the Readmission Process through Sustainable Reintegration of Returnees from Western Europe in Serbia”, financed by the European Union through the EuropeAid AENEAS programme.
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