The sitting was attended by Slavoljub Blagojevic, President of the Municipality of Crna Trava, and Dragan Kocic, Principal of “Milentije Popovic” Technical School. They talked about the demographic problems of this underdeveloped area of Serbia, stressing that the goal is to have as many families as possible return to Crna Trava, which would be possible if they were provided with adequate employment and schooling conditions. The President of the Municipality of Crna Trava Slavoljub Blagojevic said that the municipality has developmental potentials, but the state must undertake certain measures to revive this part of Serbia. The Principal of the “Milentije Popovic” Technical School Dragan Kocic said that in two years the school would be marking a century of existence and it is imperative to avoid its closure due to insufficient number of students. He said that underdeveloped border municipalities and municipalities with mixed populations should be given preferential treatment when it comes to the 15-student threshold needed to form a class because fewer students live in them. That would enable the survival of schools in under-populated areas.

In the debate the Committee members agreed that the state should have a special programme and investments for underdeveloped municipalities. They noted that the unfavourable demographic conditions in this as well as many other underdeveloped rural areas are a huge problem. The Committee members decided to propose to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development to work with the interested parties to find solutions to the alarming educational problems in underdeveloped areas and also suggested to the Ministry that legal amendments should follow demographic trends.

Committee Deputy Chairman Prof. Dr Ljubisa Stojmirovic presented the school library with a number of vocational textbooks.

The Committee sitting outside of the National Assembly seat was held with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) via project “Strengthening the Oversight Role and Transparency of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia”.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Deputy Chairman Prof. Dr Ljubisa Stojmirovic, and attended by the following Committee members and deputy members: Prof. Dr Marko Atlagic, Marko Parezanovic, Natasa St. Jovanovic, Dr Danica Bukvic, Fatmir Hasani and Milena Bicanin.