On the International Day of Education, we explore the importance of the mentorship programs and today’s educational system with Sanja Bajić, an experienced professor of Serbian language and literature from Subotica, Serbia.
Sanja is one of the 109 mentors engaged to work with Roma secondary school students in 53 cities and municipalities across Serbia through the “Employment Empowerment of Young Roma” project, funded by the German Development Bank KfW and implemented by REF Serbia. Via this project over 1,300 Roma secondary school students in Serbia received support through scholarship and mentorship programs. Owing to the collaborative partnerships with state institutions and local community members, the dropout rate of young Roma secondary school students involved in the project has reduced from 7% to 0.46%.
“The biggest challenge in mentoring is to generate the awareness and engagement of everyone – the community, but also the students and their families, environment/community the students come from – to understand that the regular school attendance of Roma children should not be seen as something unusual or exceptional, but as completely regular; it is a civic right of each individual to get education, to acquire knowledge and qualification (a degree), a degree that will ensure a tool for leading successful and productive life in the future” – says Sanja.
In Sanja’s opinion, today’s transfer of knowledge in schools has not drastically changed.
“Most of the teachers still believe that the essence of teaching is in monotonous ex cathedra lecturing, and the basic goal is to go through all the material provided by the curriculum, evaluate the exam after the completion of the chapter and their task is finished. Recently I I have noticed some progress – especially in secondary education, through elective programs in which learning through projects is quite common. It seems to me that the focus is slowly shifting from teacher to student, from lectures to research, and I like that – Sanja says, emphasizing that there is a negative trend due to high flow and easy access to information, when it comes to students today.
“Students often treat school curricula carelessly, do not take it seriously, do not study regularly because they get the impression that all knowledge of this world is available to them with one click, while not distinguishing permanent knowledge from isolated information, which simply “evaporates” from their head without systematic learning. The school system is called a system for a reason and it takes into account all the elements that complement, correspond and form a system of permanent and functional knowledge. The availability of information on the Internet is an excellent tool. I am very happy to live in a time where we can easily and quickly learn what interests us or remind ourselves of what we have forgotten, learn something new, attend courses and trainings, but it can not replace the institutionalized education we gained at schools” – claims professor Bajić.
However, the process of education is quite challenging for both teachers and students, as showed by the difficult implementation of the curriculum during the COVID-19 pandemic.
”Work methods in the conditions of the pandemic have changed a lot. We were all forced to adapt to new conditions, both students and teachers. I am convinced that the “distance” learning is not offering the same quality as regular teaching, but it is certainly a better solution than not teaching at all. So, not having classes to prevent the transmission of the virus or having an online class is not a dilemma for me. Any kind of continuity in learning is certainly better than the absence of learning! As a good side of online teaching, I would like to point out the raising levels of digital competencies of teachers and students, discovering different platforms, applications and tools”.
Professor Bajić believes that the process of education must be modernized.
“The good practice of traditional teaching methods should retain (systematic, fundamental knowledge, the intertwining of knowledge in various fields, inter-subject correlation), but it is necessary to adapt the knowledge according to the needs of the new era, to transfer the focus on the students, in accordance with their capabilities and potentials, in a motivating and stimulating atmosphere. I believe that in the future, teaching will become more “digitized”, i.e., digital resources will become didactic, basic teaching aids, where the teacher will actually coordinate and control their use in the teaching process” – concludes Bajić.
Employment Empowerment of Young Roma
The secondary scholarship and mentorship program is one of the three components of the project “Employment Empowerment of Young Roma”, with components to strengthen the professional and life skills of Roma high school students and increase their competitiveness in the labor market, as well as the reintegration component of Roma returnees. The goals of the educational component are to reduce the dropout rate, improve academic achievement and increase the number of Roma graduates. The need for this type of support was also recognized by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, which is in the 2019/20 school year took over the scholarship program for Roma high school students, while the Roma Education Fund continued with the implementation of the mentoring program.
The project is implemented with the support of the German Financial Cooperation Program implemented by the German Development Bank KfW on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Germany – Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development.
