The Macedonian Ministry of Education and Science (MES) has taken a significant step forward in improving the education of the Roma community, providing for the first time a textbook on the elective subject “Romani Language and Culture” for the 6th grade.
In the past, students from the Roma community had textbooks on this subject available only from the 3rd to the 5th grade, which represented a limitation in the continuity of studying their own language and culture. The new textbook for the 6th grade, authored by Daniel Petrovski, provides for the first time an upgrade of the teaching process. We would also like to inform you that a procedure for the development of a textbook for the 7th grade is underway.
The Ministry of Education and Science has also adopted a new bylaw, the Rulebook on the manner of forming groups of less than 15 students from the same grade, in order to enable the study of the language and culture of the communities even in cases where the number of students is smaller. The Rulebook was adopted on the basis of Article 53 paragraph (9) of the Law on Primary Education. According to data, the elective subject “Romani Language and Culture” is currently studied by over 2,300 Romani students, distributed in 13 primary schools in 7 municipalities nationwide.
