Children and teachers who overcame prejudice

June 1, 2022

"The best thing that has happened to our school in the last four years is the arrival of migrant students and their schooling in our country," says Jovan Komlenac, a school psychologist at the Sava Šumanovic High School in Šid.

“Half of our colleagues already had experience with refugees during the war of the 1990s, so we reacted strongly and made a unanimous decision to do everything in our power to enrol these children in school, to provide them with quality education. We gave them universal human rights - on education, but also human contact and warmth." The efforts of school employees were supported by Serbian institutions, and above all by the EU, through the project "A strong school for every student" which deals with the integration of students from the migrant and local population into schools and strives to make the right to education accessible to all. Teachers received the necessary training in the field of inclusive education, and children received the opportunity for a better life. Komlenac admits that, driven by stereotypes about migrants, the local community initially opposed inclusion in schools. However, when that happened - the situation changed. "When the children came, they won all our hearts. They were children hungry for school and knowledge. On the other hand, they quickly connected with local students, so all those stereotypes and prejudices that the locals had fell into the water overnight. Children conquered all", says Komlenac with pride. The European Union (EU) is the largest donor to the Republic of Serbia in migration management. Since mid-2015, when the influx of migrants to the territory of the Republic of Serbia began, the EU has donated more than 130 million euros and thus provided humanitarian aid and protection of migrants, especially children; adequate housing and living conditions in reception and asylum centres, including food, health care and education; assistance to local communities where migrants are housed to strengthen social cohesion, assistance to the Republic of Serbia in border management and the fight against human trafficking, and capacity building assistance to Serbian institutions involved in migration management. Also, the EU supported Serbia with more than 28 million euros to effectively control the borders and thus contribute to the security of Serbian citizens, improve security at border crossings and prevent criminal activities, and thus enable fast flow of passengers and goods (integrated border management).