14.1. NATIONAL REFORMS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE
•1 2021
Increased Capacities in the Kindergartens
In 2020 the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy is continued to work on increasing the coverage of children in preschool forms of upbringing and education by opening new kindergartens in many areas throughout the country. At the moment Census 2021 is under way and the results will give clear data on further needs.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Policy continued the cooperation with UNICEF for 2021 which is part of the Coopeation programme with UNICEF 2021-2025
•2 2020
EDUINO e-learning platform
The Ministry of Labor and Social Policy in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science, the Bureau for Development of Education, UNICEF and other partners has developed a national platform for e-learning and a game called EDUINO.
EDUINO is an educational platform designed for all educators and parents where you can find, use and download educational materials, games and activities for children aged 3 to 6 years. The platform provides appropriate content for learning, based on play, in educational institutions kindergartens / centers for early childhood development, as well as in the home with parents to ensure quality education and entertainment for the youngest. This platform offers videos with developed educational content for preschool children aged 3-6 years. The videos are about 15 minutes long and are accompanied by a presentation and narration / explanation by an educator. So far, over 150 videos have been posted in Macedonian and Albanian. The preschool education section of the EDUINO e-learning platform is operational and in the future, all educators and parents on this platform will be able to find and download materials, games and activities ready for use for children from 3 to 6 years old.
Increased Capacities in the Kindergartens
In 2020 the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy is continuously working to increase the coverage of children in preschool forms of upbringing and education, because early learning plays a key role in the development of children and at the same time enables the activation of parents in the labor market. So far, 6 new energy efficient kindergartens have been opened with a capacity of 416 children, in the final phase there are 4 more kindergartens with a capacity of 200 children, and under the construction there are 15 new kindergartens that will cover 1900 new children.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Policy will continue with these infrastrucutal activites, together with the World Bank where they provided over 15 million euros for 7,500 new places in kindergartens for child care.
•3 2019
Amendments on the Law for Child Protection
On 23.05.2019 and 17.07.2019 the North Macedonian Parliament adopted the Laws on Changes and Amendments of the Law on Child Protection. With these legal changes the salaries of educators, child cares, professionals and associates were increased by 16%. The salaries of auxiliary staff are also increased by a Collective Agreement signed with the Trade Unions. The payment of the increased salaries begins with the payment of the June salary during the month of July 2019. The same changes of the Law stipulated for the first time a career development of employees in the child protection sector.
Increased Capacities in the Kindergartens
With the budgetary support from the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy and World Bank, a total of 11 new kindergartens are being built in 2019 year in different parts of North Macedonia (in the municipalities Gjorce Petrov, Kumanovo, Kavadarci, Brvenica, Bosilovo, Vrapciste, Shuto Orizari, Demir Kapija, Stip, and Gazi Baba). With the construction of kindergartens, the capacity will be expanded to a total of 860 children, and at least 100 new jobs will be created.
In 2019, the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy increased the coverage of pre-school children in the kindergartens by 1.959 children, out of these, 1.209 are in state kindergartens, while the remaining 750 are in private kindergartens.