Children’s orchestra from Vasa Pavic Music School

ROZAJE/BIJELO POLJE, Montenegro, 15 May 2015 - Only 10 per cent of children aged 3-6 years attend preschool in Rozaje according to the recent survey conducted by Monstat and UNICEF. The greatest share of parents whose children don’t attend preschool say there is someone at home to take care of them and one in four parents believes children should not start learning before enrolling in school.

Financial difficulties are one more reason for parents in Rozaje not to enroll their children in preschool as pointed out by one mother Emina Grgić: “We can’t afford it. My husband is unemployed, me too, so I don’t have the money to pay for it.”

The Study on investing in early childhood education recently presented by UNICEF recommends introducing free three hour preschool education for every child and explains how to achieve this by spending the current preschool education budget more efficiently.

While working on accelerating the preschool education system reform, UNICEF and the Ministry of Education also launched the “Preschool for All” campaign aimed at increasing awareness of parents about the benefits of preschool education and thus, raising the preschool enrolment rates in the north of Montenegro. 

In order to stimulate parents’ and children’s interest for preschools, within the campaign, on May 15, 2015, interesting artistic and educational events were organized in downtown pedestrian areas of Rozaje and Bijelo Polje.

On this occasion, while listening to the music performed live by the children’s orchestra of the Music School “Vasa Pavic”, children in Bijelo Polje and Rozaje played in the outdoor preschool organized by the NGO Pedagogical Centre and the Faculty for Preschool Education.

Children were happy to play in the outdoor preschool. “I feel sorry for having to go to school, it would be nicer to still go to the kindergarten. I learned to draw, to write, to paint, to make trucks, cars and many other things from modeling clay.  I can make a rescue robot, garage, rocket…” says one boy while playing. A girl next to him adds: “I really enjoy spending time in preschool. I play with dice and go outside to play. When the winter comes, I play in new ways. I like making a Snowman and throwing snowballs.” Another child describes the things she learned in preschool in this way: “In kindergarten, I learned songs, tales, I learned how to draw, to write names “dad”, “mom” and so on, and I also learned to draw little bees and butterflies.” Other children also confirmed that they learned many new things in the kindergarten by playing with peers.  “I learned to make a car, I learned everything,” says one boy and his friend adds: “In kindergarten I learned to count – one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.”

Parents enjoyed the events and were happy to have their children play in the outdoor preschool. Some of them shared their experience with preschool education of their children. “Two of my children go to kindergarten, my younger daughter and my son. They have been satisfied so far, and I have noticed that they are different and more free compared to the children that don’t go to preschool. I want to appeal to all the parents who can afford it to send their children to kindergarten,” Adin Duraković, father of two children pointed out.

Teacher and mother Selvija Hadžić fully supports preschool education and enrolled her children in it: “Since I am a teacher who knows how much it means for the education of every child, I have decided to enroll my children. I think that going to preschool is very important for the children who are moving to the first grade, primarily because they are very social, so we have a completely different situation with children attending kindergarten and with those who are not. That is why we get, at the beginning of the first grade, students who need their parents to sit next to them in the classroom for a month, and the children - coming from kindergartens - who are self-reliant and who just continue to do what they have already started doing in the preschool.”

According to the Deputy Director of the preschool in Bijelo Polje , Gordana Knežević, this campaign is already making parents more aware of the importance of preschool education. “Parents understand how significant the period from two to six years of age is. It is a period when a child - like a sponge - absorbs the most, developing his or her mental functions, social and emotional intelligence and communication. It is a period when the child develops, and if that period is handled in the right way, everything goes easier for that child throughout later life and education,” Knežević pointed out.

New surprises in the form of original and interesting artistic and educational events are awaiting children and citizens of Bijelo Polje, Rozaje, Berane, Andrijevica and Plav within the Preschool for All campaign. The key message of this campaign to all parents is to give their children the best start to life by enrolling them in preschool.