Skopje, 11 November 2022 (MIA) - Minister of Education and Science Jeton Shaqiri met on Friday with the UNICEF regional director for Europe and Central Asia, Afshan Khan, who is paying a visit to North Macedonia. Minister Shaqiri said that the children with disabilities have more and more opportunities and conditions to attend mainstream schools, which increases the number of included students in relation to those who are separated and study in special schools. “Ministry of Education and Culture is constantly working on finding systemic solutions that, by providing conditions, both material and human, will avoid the existing system of parallel education, that is, mainstream and special schools. We have transformed these special schools into primary schools with resource centers, which should support primary and secondary schools for the smooth inclusion of students with atypical development, which will make them part of the regular educational process in the country,” Shaqiri said. Shaqiri underlined that the deinstitutionalization in our society, in the last few years, has been realized in direct proportion to the inclusion of students with special educational needs, the Ministry of Education and Science said in a press release. Minister Shaqiri said that the ministry is continuously working on raising the level of inclusiveness of the educational system and creating a school climate where children with atypical development are really accepted, reads the press release. With the new Law on Primary Education, Shaqiri stressed, the educational assistance service is an obligation of the state. “500 educational assistants were hired last school year, while since September this year, 720 have been hired, according to the needs of the parents or guardians of these students, in primary schools. We need to realize the obligation to provide educational assistance for students in secondary schools, after the adoption of the new Law on Secondary Education,” Shaqiri said. The fact that the number of students involved in the inclusive education process is growing year by year is very good, Minister Shaqiri noted. In the 2021/2022 school year, a total of 911 students with special educational needs are included in primary schools and 312 students with special educational needs are included in mainstream high schools. Aimed at promoting inclusion in education, the Ministry of Education and Science is working on two programmes with the EU Delegation. Within the the first programme, 12 educational facilities will be reconstructed and will receive access ramps and accessibility to the premises, with EU funds.