Bujanovac – In the course of eight years, 100 Albanians, Serbs and Roma graduated from the Faculty of Economics in Bujanovac.  Classes are bilingual, while the introduction of new courses is being considered. 

The classes started on rented premises, and in the meantime, a modern faculty building was built and fully equipped with the funds provided by the government and the European Union. The teaching is bilingual, while the OSCE funds a Serbian language course for Albanian students.

“We have about twenty students who apply and attend the course every year, while the student program is organized so that most courses in Albanian are in the first year, and the fewest of them in the fourth year, "says Aleksandar Grubor, the Dean of the Faculty of Economics in Subotica.  

The students are from the entire Pcinj district, while most of them travel to the faculty or are tenants. Ninety students are enrolled in several courses per year.

“The faculty is an excellent opportunity for young people to have quality education, and later this also influences the development of entrepreneurship and economy of this region, "said Sam Fabrici, the Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Serbia.  

Lamberto Zannier, the OSCE's High Commissioner on National Minorities, says that it is an investment that provides security and focuses on economic development, which is what the community, as he puts it, needs.  

Saip Kamberi, the Mayor of Bujanovac, says that it is important that that institution starts to recruit its former students.

“To pass it on to other institutions acting at the local level, to show the youth that it is useful to study in their midst, "Mr. Kamberi says. "

They need a small dormitory. Also discussed at the meeting on the operation of the faculty was the issue of textbooks for teaching in Albanian in primary and secondary schools. 

“Give us the textbooks from Kosovo and Metohija” is not the right way to solve the problem and I will not allow that. However, there are some Serbian textbooks that can translated into Albanian, "said Mladen Sarcevic, the Minister of Education.  

Students of the fifth and sixth grades of primary school, as well as those of the first and second grades of secondary school, will get new textbooks as of this September.

The Coordination Body provides scholarships to 320 secondary school students from Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, as well as to 30 students studying at Novi Sad University.

Source: Serbian Broadcasting Corporation and Coordination Body