At its session held on 3 November 2004, the Education Committee discussed the official letter forwarded by the Legislative Committee of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, as well as other activities relating to the appointment of members of the National Education Council. According to the Legislative Committee, any deputy to the National Assembly can nominate candidates for the Council if authorised submitters fail to present their nominees as stipulated by the Act on the Foundations of the Education System.

Having inspected lists of nominees submitted to date, the Committee ruled that seven lists were not compliant with legislation. The Education Committee is to ask the Chairman of the National Assembly, Predrag Markovic, to advise all deputies’ groups to put forward their nominees for incomplete lists.

Members of the Education Committee agreed on the plan of activities for the implementation of the Committee’s Implementing education reform together project, which aims at replacing usual written communication between the parliament and the general public with real and effective interaction, providing far greater possibilities for mutual understanding and more complete insight. The aims of the project are to establish immediate communication with as many education stakeholders as possible, to improve the quality of Committee members’ information on the results of education system reforms to date, and to enhance the standard of general and legislative activities of the Education Committee.

Committee members established the schedule of visits to Belgrade, Novi Sad and Nis Universities and Sremska Mitrovica, Valjevo, Nis and Sombor regional centres. The project is being realised with the support of the OSCE Mission to Serbia and Montenegro.

At the initiative of deputies Rajko Baralic and Miloljub Albijanic, the Committee is to ask the Ministry of Education and Sports to ensure that more media coverage is given to students winning top prizes at republic-level and international competitions, and to find a means of awarding them appropriately.

The Education Committee adopted the proposal of deputy Dragan Petrovic to provide textbooks for the Veselo detinjstvo preschool from Lesnjak, Kosovo and Metohia.

At the suggestion of Committee member Milan Veselinovic, the Education Committee resolved to invite the Minister of Education and Sports, Slobodan Vuksanovic, to attend its next session, which is to centre on the problem of the introduction of instruction in the Bosnian language in the first and second grades of primary schools in the municipalities of Novi Pazar, Tutin and Sjenica.