MA STA will employ about 100 people to work with children with special needs

To that end, numerous training has been conducted, and the necessary budget has been shared, but most municipalities have not yet announced the competitions for their accession.

Ministry of Education officials say they are surprised with this situation, as this has been the demand of municipalities and their commitment is necessary.

The head of the Division for Education of Children with Special Needs at the Ministry of Education, Lulavere Behluli, told Radio Kosovo that after numerous demands from the municipal education directorates has become the preparation of 100 assistants, and the budget has been split, but municipalities have not yet announced the competitions for their accession.

We as minister have made all preparations in terms of budgetary means and the preparation of assistants, since each municipality has been a particular budget line. For all municipalities, when the budget was divided in March, you have been shared by means and norms. But now this whole process depends on municipalities and internal problems that they have why they have not declared contests so far”, Behluli.

Behluli also said this situation is discouraging for the ministry since it has been the demand of municipalities and parents, and the commitment of these assistants is necessary.

Because the planning has been made so far should all the assistants be employed. But it is still unclear to us why this slow response of municipalities, given that they know what great needs schools, parents, and students with special needs for these assistants. This is really a discouraging thing for us as Minister”, Behluli said.

And the education director in the Pristina municipality, which has about 500 students with special needs, Hope Shala, told Radio Kosovo that when the budget line is divided, it has become a mistake that these assistants have been seen as part of the administration and for that reason it has not been possible to announce the contest.

But with the new law, the possibility that by the end of the year the contest will be announced, Shala said

The first request from me as director of education has been for human resources to hire and assistants who will work with children with special needs. But their response has been that there has been a mistake on the budget line that 12 assistants who were provided for the Pristina municipality have been placed in administration and not in education. Now with the new administration law, we are looking at the opportunity to find legal grounds to announce the” contest, Shala said.

The municipalities which so far have not announced competition for accepting the regular assistants who will work with children with special needs are: Pristina, Gjilani, Mitrovica, Prizren and several other municipalities.

The country's public schools lack services for students with special needs.

assistants currently working in several schools are paid by their parents and assisted by schools in collaboration with various organisations.