The Center for Social Policy has started the implementation of the project Tools for Preventing Roma Dropout with the objective to decrease dropout and early school leaving of children, particularly Roma girls and Roma children and returnees upon readmission from EU member states.

The project will review the existing responses provided by local institutions for preventing dropout from the education system and will develop an advanced community early warning and response system for preventing dropout.

Although dropout is not a challenge for the entire school population in Serbia, there is an evident vulnerability of students from specific groups, particularly those from poor families. Numerous studies show that dropout presents a very serious and negative phenomenon both for the individual and for the society. On one hand, dropout decreases the individual’s potential to enter the labor market and achieve a satisfactory standard of living. On the other hand, it leads to countless undesirable social outcomes, such as, increased criminality rate, higher social transfers and weakening of the nation’s health. 

The key project activities are the following:

• Conducting research on the functioning of existing mechanisms at local level for preventing dropout;
• Designing and piloting an advanced community early warning and response system for preventing dropout;
• Designing protocols at local level for preventing dropout that will be used by schools, centers for social work, intersectoral committees, health centers, local self-governments and other relevant mechanisms and partners at local level (such as Roma coordinators, pedagogical assistants, health mediators).
• Selecting 10 good practice examples from local self-governments across Serbia that are active in dropout prevention
• Promotion of the advanced community early warning and response system for preventing dropout and early school leaving.

Prevention of dropout from the education system has been recognized as a priority in achieving quality education for all, in the Strategy for Education Development in Serbia 2020, in the Strategy for Social Inclusion of Roma People for the period 2016-2025 and in the Employment and Social Reform Program (2016).

The Project will be implemented in three local communities until June 2018 with support from the European Union, through the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR).