National.

Unicef comes with bad news for Macedonia with publishing a report about Education and language skills. Macedonia is on the last place in the region because the Macedonian children don't seem to know how to read and speak well. Also Unicef reports that the results of Macedonian children in the fourth grade are below international standards and the quality of education has decreased drastically in the last 8 years.

In Macedonia only 31% of children from 3-6 years old are going to kindergarten while it reaches 74% in Bulgaria, 72% in Romania and 50% in Albania.

The estimated amount of children in Europe who leave school after their 8th year of age is around 10%, in Macedonia 34% are not continueing to high school after primary school.

"Macedonia is behind in education compared to other countries in the region" said Hongwai Gao, the ambassador of UNICEF in Macedonia. He also called upon the government to increase its budget for education by at least 5%.

MD: The future of Macedonia lies in the hands of the children so this has got to be changed fast!

[UNICEF]

Posted by Macedonia Daily on Friday, October 20, 2006 at 9:06 am | Permalink