The State Secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Čedomir Rakić, spoke today on behalf of the Minister Aleksandar Martinović, PhD, at the National Conference “Network of Educational Institutions in the Republic of Serbia – Reality, Challenges and Perspectives”, which is organized by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development.
Pointing out the importance of the development of the Network of Educational Institutions, but also the fact that this topic represents a challenge for many local self-governments, Rakić has pointed out that many issues are discussed inter-ministerially nowadays, and that only synchronized, partnership action and continuous cooperation can lead to more productive results for the system and the categories for which they are intended.
“The Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government is dedicatedly working on the transformation of public administration into a service for citizens, so the issue of what kind of services the Local Self-government Units provide to the citizens is very important for us, while municipalities and cities have a wide scope of competences, but also responsibilities, precisely in pre-school and primary education”, the state secretary has said.
According to him, the Programme for the Reform of the Local Self-Government System in the Republic of Serbia for the period 2021-2025 indicates all the key points by which the quality of life of the citizens in the local community is measured, and one of them is education.
He has expressed his belief that today’s exchange of experiences, opinions and lessons learned shall contribute to identifying the biggest challenges, as well as recognizing further plans for the improvement of this particularly sensitive and important area, in order to, with a rational approach, reach a new perspective concerning the development of the network of educational institutions and ensure the satisfaction of educational needs of every child in Serbia.
The National Conference was opened by the Minister of Education, Branko Ružić, while Ivan Milivojević addressed the attendees on behalf of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities. Today’s meeting was organized by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development with the aim of presenting examples of good practice and the results of a survey completed by Local Self-government Units, as well as to review the challenges and possible solutions in order to provide support to local self-governments that have not yet passed an act on the network of schools.
Photo gallery – source: MESTD and SCTM
