At its sitting held on 7 March 2006, the Education Committee of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia discussed the initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Poverty Reduction Division for co-operation with the Education Committee. UNDP officials Branka Andjelkovic and Davor Salom presented the proposed co-operation agenda, stressing that any social policy and economic development programme can succeed only if it contains a clearly defined educational component.

As UNDP has been co-operating with the National Assembly for over eighteen months, and that co-operation with the Poverty Reduction Committee has proven exceptionally useful, UNDP is proposing to provide direct assistance to the Education Committee, the Local Self-Government Committee, the Agriculture Committee and the Committee on Labour, Ex-Servicemen’s and Social Issues. The UN Programme is prepared to support deputies’ efforts to acquire professional skills, as well as education through seminars, public panel discussions, study visits, and direct co-operation with experts from various fields. The project, to be implemented over the next three years, aims at building Committee capacities.

Education Committee members resolved to accept the initiative and to prepare specific proposals for co-operation (such as downsizing the school network) for the next sitting.

Committee member Nadica Momirov informed the Committee of her attendance at the Adult Education seminar, held on 25 and 26 February 2006 in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The seminar had been organised by the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, and attended by parliamentarians from the region. ‘Learning for life’, one of the principles discussed at the seminar, meant that efficient employment required people to learn actively and be included into society from pre-school to until after retirement, Ms Momirov underlined. She conveyed her impression that Serbia had done the least of all countries in the region in the field of adult education.

Having discussed a letter from the Archimedes Young Mathematicians’ Club complaining about the lack of office space, the Education Committee resolved to send an official request to the Ministry of Education and Sports asking it to solve the issue in co-operation with the City of Belgrade Secretariat of Education.

The Committee had also received a letter from the Mladost Pre-School of Novi Pazar, stating that changes to the institution’s Governing Board had led to disaffection among the public, teachers, and parents. The Committee resolved to ask the Ministry of Education and Sports to re-assess the situation and collect information on the procedure of electing members of the institution’s Governing Board.

The sitting was chaired by the Committee’s chairperson, Donka Banovic, and attended by officials of the Ministry of Education and Sports and the UNDP.