DPM Aleksić meets with President of the “Vraneš” Citizens’ Association

Deputy Prime Minister for Education, Science and Relations with Religious Communities Budimir Aleksić met with President of the “Vraneš” Citizens’ Association Momo Joksimović. The meeting addressed the challenges affecting the entire northern region of Montenegro, including the territory of the Vraneš Valley, with particular emphasis on demographic issues, especially reflected in the closure of rural schools.

Deputy Prime Minister Aleksić underlined that the Government of Montenegro, through the competent ministry – the Ministry of Social Welfare, Family Care and Demography – is undertaking all possible efforts to improve living conditions in the north of the country.

It is important to identify effective mechanisms to retain young people in the northern region, thereby mitigating the current highly negative trend of emigration. The emigration trend is most visible in the field of education, where the number of pupils in primary schools continues to decline, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksić explained.

Joksimović particularly highlighted that in Pavino Polje, a place where nearly one thousand pupils once attended primary school, not a single first-grade pupil was enrolled in the current school year.

The meeting concluded that retaining young and educated people in northern Montenegro is essential to ensuring balanced regional development – one of the strategic objectives of the current Government – with educational infrastructure playing a key role in achieving this goal.