The US Ambassador, Margaret Uyehera, visited the Municipality of Rožaje
On May 20, the President of the Municipality of Rožaje, Ejup Nurković, received her Excellency Margaret Uyehara, the ambassador of the United States of America, Mr. Benjamin Perks, head of the UNICEF representative office for Montenegro, Jan Krasny, political and economic advisor at the US embassy, Marija Manojlović, social policy advisor at UNICEF, Milena Labović, political and economic advisor at the US Embassy, Arijana Nikolić Vučinić, Acting General Director of the Directorate for Preschool and Primary Education and Education and Education of Persons with Special Needs and Marija Jovović, PR Manager. The meeting was attended by the President of the Assembly of Rožaje, Husein Kurtagić.
The delegation was interested in the reasons why the rate of kindergarten students in Rožaje is the lowest in Montenegro, only 10%.
According to Mr. Nurković, the main reasons why parents do not send their children to kindergarten is the difficult financial situation of the families, so they are not able to pay the monthly expenses of the kindergarten, as well as the lack of sufficient number of kindergarten facilities. "The local administration of Rožaje is making every effort to improve the conditions for children's education, but due to financial difficulties, we are limited and we appeal to the Government of Montenegro, the relevant Ministry, foundations, embassies that have allocated funds for this purpose, and the NGO sector to get involved and help us in our efforts. We expect that next year the building for children with special needs will be completed on Banžovo brdo, and we believe that this will improve education and open up new opportunities for people with special needs, that we will help their adaptation in society, as well as make it easier for the parents of children with special needs needs to take care of children in a more convenient way. We have also done projects for kindergartens and crèches, now we need to find donors who would recognize the importance of the existence of a larger number of kindergartens, in order to enable children to attend kindergartens, as a relief for continuing education." said the President of the Municipality of Rožaje, Ejup Nurković.
The US ambassador presented to the attendees the projects implemented so far in this field in Montenegro, which were helped by the US embassy, stressing that it is necessary to submit ready-made projects for donations, which can be financed and assisted after expert evaluation.
After the discussion in the President's Cabinet, the delegation attended the session of the Assembly of Rožaje, where the head of the UNICEF representative office for Montenegro, Benjamin Perks, presented Study on investment in early childhood education in Montenegro, after which they also visited the "Boško Buha" kindergarten.
