On 24 February there was a closing conference of the project Equal Educational Opportunities for Roma Children held at Skopje Fair. The project was financed by the Netherlands Embassy in Skopje over the period of 2006-2009 with EUR 1.8 million and it was implemented by the Foundation Open Society Institute Macedonia. The project covered 10 primary schools in Macedonia in 9 cities and 2,600 Roma students, who were included in additional classes in subjects where they used to have poor grades. 12 local NGOs were included in the project actively working with the parents and on extracurricular activities.


Mr. Nikola Todorov, the Minister of Education also spoke at the beginning of the conference stating that the Ministry has seriously approached the challenge of involving Roma children in the educational system. The Minister also said that the project will be used as a positive example for future activities. The Netherlands Ambassador, H.E. Simone Filippini said that in the 21st century everything starts and ends with education and it is part of becoming an active citizens. She was convinced that any parent who sees what the value of education for his child is will go for it, as it was visible in this project. Ambassador Filippini also said that she thought that the project should become a mainstream programme, and it only took a step forward for the authorities to use the lessons of this project.

The Executive Director of FOSIM, Mr. Vladimir Milčin thanked everybody for their efforts, and the participants in the project discussed the results and expressed their hope that the activities of the project will continue to be implemented in the regular educational system.

To see more photos of the event please follow this link:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/fosim/sets/72157623376843407/