BBC News Online: Education

Serb refugees delay new school term

For thousands of Serb schoolchildren, the new term starts on Wednesday.

But some children in central Serbia are not able to return to their classrooms, because Serb refugees from Kosovo are sheltering there.

The authorities are tackling the problem by moving the refugees to new accommodation.

But there is another problem they have not yet solved - how the refugee children will be able to continue with their education.

The Vuk Karadzic school in Kragujevac was one of the schools in central Serbia used as a temporary shelter for hundreds of Serb refugees from Kosovo.

The last of the refugees who had been staying there left for other accommodation just a few days ago.

Headmaster Vitomir Vasiljevic said it was difficult asking them to leave.

"It was a big dilemma for me, but I hope the authorities will deal with the problem," he said.

New hostility

"After all, the refugees were aware that the children have to go to school, and that the school was only a temporary accommodation.'

But in the nearby Dragisa Mihaelovic school, another group of refugees has been holding out against the order to leave.

These people fled Kosovo when the Serbian security forces pulled out, fearing revenge attacks from their Albanian neighbours.

But now in Serbia they face new hostility, from local people who want their children to go back to school.

An old municipal building has become home for more than 200 refugees who were moved out of schools in the Kragujevac area.

The local authority has yet to find alternative accommodation for many others, and some aid agencies have accused it of leaving the problem to the last minute.

Steven Allen, Regional Director of the United Nations children's agency Unicef, said: "As we all know, the Kosovo crisis has always been running far ahead of all the possible planning, and this is no exception.

"But I think that there is very active work going on. I've just come from visiting as many as four or five schools where they are working virtually round the clock, through the weekend, to make sure that these schools are fixed up."

Refugees not optimistic

It is not yet clear where the refugee children will go to school in this new academic year.

The Serbian Government is actively discouraging them from enrolling in schools in Serbia - they want the refugees to go back to their classrooms in Kosovo.

This is a political issue, since many officials do not want to acknowledge that Serbia no longer administers the province.

But the refugees are not optimistic about returning. They expect to be living as displaced people in their own country for some time to come.

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Internet Links

Unicef
Serbian Ministry of Information
Kosovo Crisis Centre
UNHCR Kosovo update
Nato

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