OSCE Mission supports parliamentary simulation for high-school students

BELGRADE, 20 February 2009 - Some fifty students from high schools in Vojvodina province will learn about parliamentary procedures and improve their communication skills at a simulation of a Provincial Assembly session in Novi Sad tomorrow.

The students will play the roles of parliamentarians during the simulation, which was jointly organized by the OSCE Mission to Serbia and the Vojvodina Provincial Assembly 

"The simulation is a great opportunity for the participants to learn more about the tools of democracy - namely to debate, to compromise and to achieve results at the end," said Hannelore Valier, Head of the Democratization Department at the OSCE Mission to Serbia.

"The simulation project will help to give the students an excellent lesson about the functioning of the Assembly and increase their interest in its work," said Maja Sedlarevic the Vice President of the Vojvodina Provincial Assembly.

The simulation is a part of an OSCE Mission project to support the efforts of authorities to enhance public access to state institutions. Another parliamentary simulation took place in the National Assembly in Belgrade last November, and the programme has been successfully tested in schools across Serbia.

Teachers from all of Serbia's 19 school districts have been trained to conduct this programme, and 500 students have had the opportunity to participate.