NORTH MACEDONIA: NEW CONCEPTS FOR INCLUSIVE EDUCATION AND PRIMARY EDUCATION AS PART OF THE EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE OF THE COUNTRY
Inclusive education is a high priority in the educational policy towards the European perspective of the country. A Concept for inclusive education was adopted in July 2020. The new Law on primary education and the Concept for inclusive education are introducing new methods of students and schools support.
One of the new methods is transformation of special schools into primary schools with a resource center. All bylaws have been adopted in accordance with the new Law on Primary Education to support the process for transformation of special schools into primary schools with a resource center that will provide professional assistance and support of the municipal primary schools where students with disabilities are enrolled.
The Ministry for Education and Science continued the reforms in 2021 by adopting other bylaws to cover the Concept for inclusive education, as well as other actions including increasing the budget to implement the concept. Other major reform is adopting the Concept of Primary Education. The new Concept of primary education recognises the need for change based on new knowledge for the development of quality education, world and European trends for education based on competencies, the digitalisation of education, as well as all previous experiences and aspirations to improve the quality of teaching and learning in schools that should become a place for learning and development of motivated students ready to acquire the expected competencies. The adopted concept will be implemented in the next 6 years and will start from the school year 2021/2022.
Concept for inclusive education https://mon.gov.mk/content/?id=3277
Law on Primary Education https://mon.gov.mk/stored/document/Zakon%20za%20osnovnoto%20obrazovanie%20-%20nov.pdf
Concept of primary education https://mon.gov.mk/stored/document/koncepcija%20osnovno%20obrazovanie%20en.pdf
Source: Eurydice Unit North Macedonia