SKOLA ZA OSNOVNO I SREDNJE OBRAZOVANJE "MILAN PETROVIC" SA DOMOM UCENIKA - REPUBLIC OF SERBIA
Elementary and secondary boarding school “Milan Petrovic” is the biggest, unique institution in the Balkan region. Our mission is to bring up, educate, support and empower children and adults with all kinds of disabilities following their needs through numerous contemporary and innovative programmes and activities. We invent, implement and promote open-minded, multidisciplinary approach to help their inclusion into the society throughout their life time. We are fully dedicated to lifelong learning process, obtaining our beneficiaries the possibilities for home learning, distance learning and adult education programmes. The school is a complex system of centers and services which, in addition to education, also include social welfare and health care services. The students and beneficiaries, from the youngest to rather old, are children and people with all types of disabilities - visual, hearing, autism, impaired motor skills, reduced intellectual abilities, multiple disabilities... In addition, we pay significant attention to educational and social inclusion, as well as to sociocultural activities of children, youth and adults who need specific social support. 1,200 direct users attend `Milan Petrović´ school. They are students of our primary and secondary school and beneficiaries of social welfare programs, aged one to 69 years. Along with them, there are more than 600 indirect users, i.e. children and students who, in inclusive education, attend regular kindergartens, primary and secondary schools. Our special teachers and speech therapists provide additional support to them as well. More than 300 special teachers of all profiles, teachers, professional associates, vocational education teachers, educators, professional workers and associates in social welfare, doctors, medical technicians, technical and administrative workers are employed. In addition to education, as our core business, we also provide services and programs in the field of social welfare and health care. In the field of social welfare, they include support for persons with disabilities and their families, sensitization of the professional and external public, as well as constant improvement and innovation of services and programs. Currently, about 2000 people with disabilities are included in these services. Beneficiaries are: children and young people with disabilities - physical, intellectual, mental, sensory, speech, socio-emotional or multiple disabilities up to 26 years of age, as well as adults and the elderly with disabilities - physical, intellectual, sensory, mental or communication difficulties.