If the adoption of the occupational standard for a teaching assistant will mean a different approach by the Ministry of Education and the employment of people in those positions, then this is good news for all parents of children with developmental disabilities, as well as staff who fit the position description.
This is what the director of ADP Zid, Igor Milošević, told "Vijesta", adding that it would be even better news if the assistants could work with the children in mastering the curriculum, at least in groups, even after class.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare recently issued a decision on the standard of teaching assistant profession. The standard, among other things, defines the competencies and tasks that the teaching assistant performs.
Milošević has previously said that issues such as inclusion in the educational process cannot be resolved through public works and active employment measures, especially not in the case of program users who have used them more than once.
Teaching assistants are now engaged through the public work project of the Employment Agency and for the engagement they received volunteer contracts and compensation in the amount of 193 euros.
Milošević believes that the consequences of such an approach by the institutions were not only suffered by the assistants, but also by parents and child beneficiaries.
"Especially those children who were worked with by persons who were not educated for this. These children need continuous support, consistency in the provision of services and support from people who will not change every few months. And active measures should be left to serve the purpose of professional training. A chance for that is the current drafting of the Law on Employment", said Milošević.
The Ministry of Education states that with the adoption of the teaching assistant occupational standard, another prerequisite is now provided for children who need assistance to receive adequate help.
The occupational standard, among other things, defines that a teaching assistant must be a person with at least a high school diploma, IV degree. The standard also defines the duties of assistants, so they are responsible for helping children with movement, orientation in space, using didactic tools, setting up and using aids, calculating, handling utensils, writing down answers, turning pages... The assistant's task is also to check whether the child understands the material, to clarify unknown words, help in self-care activities...
"We appreciate that the children will have adequate help whose competences and obligations are clearly set", said the secretary of that department, Omer Mehmedović.
In addition to the occupational standard, thanks to a number of other legal solutions, assistants will be hired through employment contracts in the future and will have significantly higher salaries. In the future, they will be hired by schools for the duration of the school year, and not as it was before, through ZZZ, through a public work project. As Minister Damir Šehović told "Vijestim" earlier, their contracts will be for a certain period of time, "considering the fact that the number of children who need assistants is constantly changing in relation to the institution".
About 99 public educational institutions hire assistants who provide assistance to 265 program beneficiaries.
There were problems with paying assistants
Teaching assistants complained at the beginning of the school year that they had not been paid, and the state's response to that was parliamentary elections. At that time, the Ministry of Education, headed by Predrag Bošković, recommended to schools that from September 1, until the elections - October 16, they hire teaching assistants on a volunteer basis.
The recommendation was given on the basis of the Law on the Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns, which limits employment from the day of the announcement to the holding of the election. In the end, the assistants were paid by the Ministry of Education, from their own funds.
During 2017, ZZZ was also late with the payment of fees to assistants, who recently complained to "Vijesta" that their fees were late.
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