At the seventh sitting, held on 15 December, the Children’s Rights Working Group discussed the Bill on Pre-School Upbringing and Education, currently in Assembly procedure. The sitting was chaired by Prof. Dr Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic, National Assembly Speaker and Working Group Chairperson.

Presenting the new law, State Secretary at the Ministry of Education Tinde Kovac said that it harmonised the basis of pre-school education with the recently adopted Law on the Bases of the System of Education and Upbringing. The new law should provide a better foundation for the commencement of elementary education and contribute to include more children, particularly those from marginalised and socially endangered groups, as well as special needs children.

The Working Group members believe that investment into children’s pre-school upbringing and education is basically an investment into children’s growth and development and the best investment into future social development. In addition, according to them, the solutions of the new law guarantee the observance of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in both realising children’s developmental potential and in the matter of inclusion.

The Annual overview of the activities of the Children’s Rights Working Group in 2009 and the Working Group’s 2010 framework Proposed Action Plan were also considered at the sitting. On the occasion, it was noted that the drafting of a comprehensive law on children has not been realised this year and that the task should be moved to the first quarter of next year. The law shall be preceded by an extensive analysis of the realisation of the existing laws from the aspect of children’s rights. In addition, the Working Group members pointed out the need to strengthen the National Assembly’s monitoring role, which would include several visits to local self-governments.

They also pointed out the need to create a special working body to deal with the protection of children’s rights.

The members of the working group agreed to allocate an amount equal to a daily wage for the procurement of equipment and send it to one of the kindergartens already working on the inclusion of children from marginalised groups.

The Head of the UNICEF Serbia Office Judita Reichenberg took part in the Working Group sitting.