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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Formation of working group for development of higher education in Presevo, Bujanovac

Belgrade, 3 March 2010

Director of the Coordinating Body for Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja Nenad Djurdjevic stated today that a working group will be formed which will work on developing higher education in Presevo and Bujanovac.

The working group will be formed by the Coordinating Body, the Education Ministry, academic circles and local communities in line with a feasibility study for opening up higher education establishments in Presevo and Bujanovac.

The feasibility study resulted from the Reform of Educational Policy in Southern Serbia project. The purpose of the project was to systemize the education system in Serbia, examine and compare regional experiences and to offer a possible model for future activities.

The feasibility study was sponsored by the Fund for an Open Society, the UK Department for International Development, the Balkan Trust for Democracy and the Coordinating Body.

Djurdjevic said that the development of higher education in the southern municipalities is motivated not just by the need to provide higher education opportunities to the Albanian community in their mother tongue, but also by a wish to raise the overall educational level in undeveloped areas, which will contribute to their economic development.

He said that the Feasibility study, the final text of which will be presented in April, envisages that the development of higher education in Presevo and Bujanovac develops within the institutional framework of the Republic of Serbia, preferably within the existing institutions of higher education in Nis, Kragujevac and Novi Pazar. Djurdjevic said that educational programmes in Serbian, Albanian and ideally in Roma language as well should meet the needs of the labour market and spur economic development. OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Knut Vollebeak said that education in southern Serbia should be multiethnic and multilingual and it is of key importance for the development of the region.