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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Textbook in Serbian sign language introduced for first time

Belgrade, 22 September 2023

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic attended today at the Children's Cultural Centre the celebration of the International Week of the Deaf and the promotion of digital tools for learning the Serbian sign language.

On that occasion, Brnabic stated that for the first time in history, a textbook in the Serbian sign language was introduced in our country, pointing out that an agreement was reached to introduce two more from the next school year – for Mathematics and for the World around Us for the first grade of elementary school.

Today is a historic day for me – the day when we mark the fact that for the first time in history we introduced textbooks in Serbian sign language, and that is just the beginning, the Prime Minister said.

We managed to provide a primer and reading books for the first and second grade for elementary schools in Serbian sign language, but there is a whole range of subjects for which we still do not have such textbooks, Brnabic said.

This means that there is still a huge gap between children who are deaf and hard of hearing and everyone else, just as there is a gap between children with other forms of disability, in wheelchairs for example, who cannot walk to their school or can only they go to the ground floor or the first floor, and they cannot have access to the subject-based classrooms along with the rest of their peers, the Prime Minister explained.

Stating that the state tries to change these things every day, she pointed out that all the schools that are being renovated today have such access.

Brnabic also reminded that the SOS application for the deaf was recently presented, which enables free phone calls through an interpreter for the Serbian language.

That application helps all of us, both those who can hear and those who cannot hear, the Prime Minister said.

She also announced that service information in sign language will be introduced at the Prokop railway station from 20 October, when it opens.

President of the Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing of Serbia Mihajlo Gordic also pointed out the importance of discussing the implementation of the Declaration concerning the Rights of Deaf Children, which includes, among other things, the right to sign language, the right to bilingual education, the right to interaction through sign language etc.

UNICEF Deputy Director Yosi Echeverry Burckhardt said that partnership is the key word when it comes to things like this.

I want to highlight the fact from 2015, when the Serbian sign language was adopted and recognized as the mother tongue of hearing-impaired children, which marked a big step forward, encouraging social equality for the deaf and hard of hearing, Burckhardt said.