One of the main problems in the Republic of Macedonia is a dropout rate of the
students in the Secondary education, mainly amongst the students who belong to Roma
and Albanian Community.
(Assistance, support and involvement of the International organizations) The
ongoing UNESCO project "Education for All" (also supported by the UNICEF office)
has the goal to increase the quality of education for all students in the Republic of
Macedonia regardless of their ethnic, religious and cultural background. The activities are
targeted to provide necessary skills to undertake concrete measures for reduction of
school withdrawal rate of these students.
(Field wo Expert teams through education of parents aim towards
raising the awareness of the importance of their children education. In addition, a
strategy on how to prevent this phenomenon in future was developed.
Madam Chairperson,
(One of the experts mentioned access to tetriary education) The Law on Higher
Education in the Republic of Macedonia includes the measure of "positive
discrimination". This measure enables, in addition to regular students, members of the
non-majority communities to be enrolled in the first year of studies, by establishing the
so-called additional quota, which is a legal obligation. Two amongst four established
state universities are located in city where majority of population is Albanian. The
instructions at most of the Universities are provided in Macedonian, Albanian and English
language, in some of the Faculties on Turkish language as well.
Madam Chairperson,
Another problem that exists is a lack of adequate teaching staff on mother thong
of ethnic communities. In order to cope with this problem, Republic of Macedonia made
enormous efforts to overcome this situation in the area of education. Especially, positive
developments have been witnessed after the implementation of the Framework
Agreement and the adoption of the Amendments of the Constitution in 2002.
In the state pedagogical institutions of higher education and at the State
University's Faculty of Philology a possibility is given the instruction to be held in the
languages of the members of non majority communities, for education of elementary
school teachers. Same possibility exists in the Didactics and Methodology of Teaching
subjects for secondary school teachers and studies on Albanian and Turkish language
have been organized. It is the state's obligation to finance this type of instruction.
In order to promote the rights of Minorities, particularly for the purpose of
expressing, nourishing and developing the own identity, at the Faculty of Drama Arts the
instruction is held in the languages of the members of the communities.
A legal provision is encompassed, according to which the financing by the state
will be provided for the higher education studies of this kind.
Madam
Chairperson,
(Efficient Implementation of international standards) In concluding, I would like
to mention that several other ongoing projects exist to provide and to promote an equal
access to education of non-majorities communities in the Republic of Macedonia.
Established criteria of the educational programs for the members of the communities in
the Republic of Macedonia are aimed for the implementation of the principles set out in
the Fundamental Human Rights documents such as: the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, International