The Open Society Foundation Serbia launched the initiative `The Parents Have a Say Too` in 2010 in partnership with the Open Society Education Support Program, the Center for Interactive Pedagogy (CIP) and the Science and Technological Development of the Ministry of Education in Serbia. Our goal was to promote more active and substantive parents’ participation in decision-making process as regards their children at school, municipality as well as at the national level by providing a systemic frame work supporting the emergence of parents` councils.
In cooperation with the local governments, NGOs and educational institutions, the parents’ councils started to work, so far in eleven municipalities, with the aim to improve the conditions for education which take into account each the parents, educational institutions and local governments for more effective participation of parents child’s individual, cultural and social differences.
In 2012 the parents’ councils of Towns and Municipalities produced information materials such as guides and brochures on career development, violence, children’s rights, internet violence etc. They organized humanitarian and other events together with the representatives of school authorities, police departments, and centers for social work and school clinics to promote the role of parents in the prevention of psychoactive substances abuse. They advocated for additional support to children with developmental disabilities, human trafficking, violence prevention, children’s safety, inter-cultural understanding. They opened a facebook profile for better information sharing, and issued public statements to advocate for children’ s safety and well-being.
In 2013, they plan to further empower in preschools, primary schools and high schools and in their municipality. They will work on promoting the importance of active parental participation in the media, among the parents and the professional community. Among others, they plan to launch a resource website not only for parents, but for teachers and others interested as well.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.cipcentar.org/index.php/en/133-the-initiative-parents-have-a-say-too
http://www.cipcentar.org/en
Tatjana Stojic
Open Society FoundationSerbia
Tags: Policy
