Social Work in Educational System of the Balkans - Is Social Worker Needeed in Schools?

This work is primarily concerned with the need for social workers in schools in the Western Balkans whose engagement is only in development and (incontinably) represented. In some regions, the place of social workers in schools has recently been introduced, as well as the (same-named) subject at the university, which represents a significant shift and greatly guides for development of theory and practice of social work. On the other hand, in a large part of these regions, conflicts, instability of socio-economic nature and transition destabilized institutional arrangements and left significant deficits, and raised the question of the development and sustainability of these programs. In view of this, it could be said that the children here are increasingly becoming victims of various social forces that negatively affect their psycho social state, which often reflects on the failure of educational system. Although schools are set up primarily to educate children, it is necessary to pay attention to the psycho social aspects of students. In view of this, the aim of this paper is to point out the need to provide a comprehensive social work service for students, parents, and staff addressing barriers that limit students to utilizing their full potential. Namely, the incorporation of social work into school facilities could also contribute to improving school security policy, identifying different strategies, and early intervention in different spheres to ensure that each student gets the same chance of progress in academic and social context. In view of this, the paper used qualitative documents analysis to evaluate and analyze relevant and available documents in order to determine the situation and differences in school social workers in these countries. At the end of this work, there was left space for discussion about the needs for fundamental changes in the educational system and putting a greater emphasis on social workers.