The Need of Professional Social Work in Overcoming Social Problems and Social Exclusion of Children in the Process of Education

Abstract

School going children face numerous social problems such as peer violence, a social behavior, educational neglect, dropout from regular education, committed crimes, and social exclusion. Inevitably, these problems can have devastating effects on adequate social functioning and personal development of children and can hinder their future potentials and wellbeing. Findings presented in this article are generated from two separate researches related to social exclusion and social problems encountered by children in primary and secondary schools in the Republic of North Macedonia. In general, prevalent problems of children are related to bulling, addictions, and conflicts with caregivers and social surrounding, whereas, social exclusion is more prevalent among Roma children. Problems of such nature require appropriate professional assistance and support. The school teams for professional support of children are mainly composed of psychologist and pedagogues. Nonetheless, the above mentioned problems require involvement of other team members such as social workers and special educators. Equipping professional school teams with adequate staff is enabled by the Law on primary education, whereas the Law on secondary education requires additional amendments in order to ensure possibilities for employment of social worker in the secondary schools. Their main role is to provide professional assistance and support to children and their parents on how to utilize the available community services for mitigating prevailing socioeconomic difficulties and for improvement of learning capacities and results of children coping with different problems.