UNDP Resident Representative Yakup Beris highlighted that it was very important for all girls and boys to have equal access to high quality education, regardless of their future choice of profession. “The skills of programming are highly important as a preparation for the jobs of tomorrow, regardless of one’s choice of profession. Therefore, together with our partners from the Ministry of Education and Petlja Foundation, we have prepared free learning materials and we organise programming schools, summer and winter camps for children, where they can acquire new knowledge and skills. I am glad that the interest in these schools has increased, especially among girls. UNDP will continue to support all programmes that have improvement of digital skills as their aim, especially for young generations,” said Beris.  

“We have the great pleasure of organising the Summer School of Programming for primary school students for three years now. Not only that such schools support motivated students to learn programming, but they are also wonderful opportunities for making new acquaintances and socialising. During the three years of organising this school, our team has been adjusting the curriculum to students’ interests, while the teaching methodology has been improved based on the experiences by teachers and expert associates – psychologists. Our students and their parents have positively evaluated of our teachers and instructors, the serious approach to learning, time for relaxation activities such as quizzes, sport tournaments and excursions, communication with the organisers and the children’s motivation for further work after returning from the Summer School. We thank the Grammar School in Sremska Mitrovica for being our host for the second time, to the High School Students’ Residence Hall in Sremska Mitrovica for the lovely cooperation, as well as to the United Nations Development Programme and Ministry of Education for their support in realising the activities,” said Nebojša Vasiljević, Director of AI in the Petlja Foundation.