Minister of Education and Science Spiro Ristovski delivered Wednesday a speech at the Regional Ministerial Education Conference “Including All Children in Quality Learning”, organized in Istanbul by the Turkish government and the UNICEF Regional Office for Central and Eastern Europe.
 
Minister Ristovski underscored Macedonia’s commitment to education as one of its strategic priorities presenting the key reforms and activities carried out to tackle the challenges facing the country in relation to education, the Ministry of Education and Science said in a press release.

“Educational reforms are one of the key challenges. In this regard, our efforts are mainly focused on expanding the mandatory elementary education from eight to nine years, mandatory high school education, construction of new and renovation of existing schools, providing and applying information communications technologies in classes,” Ristovski pointed out.

Another vital challenge, he added, is integration of children from all ethnic groups, because “children deserve equal opportunities and conditions for quality education.”

The conference, which brings together education and labour ministers from the region and beyond as well as numerous representatives of international organizations, marks the start of a regional joint initiative on including as many children as possible in quality education i.e. stimulating equality in education and learning.