ARE SOCIAL WORKERS THE MISSING LINK IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NOVI SAD?

Abstract

Increasing levels of poverty, social inequalities, broken marriages, domestic violence, health problems and other (social) problems present challenges that often have negative implications for school attendance and success at school. Given this fact, the school system should provide more consistent support by introducing social workers to schools. In the theoretical part of the paper, a brief overview of the history of the social work in schools, that is, the basic postulates of school social work before the beginning of the 21^st century will be presented. Following this, the normative bases of the social work profession in education in the Republic of Serbia will be presented, i.e. it will be pointed out whether and in what way it is possible to implement this profession in the education system. In the empirical part, the paper will attempt to answer two research questions: whether secondary schools in Novi Sad perceive the need for social workers, and whether social workers recognize the need of their profession in educational system. Data were collected through interviews (structured questionnaire) that examined the perceptions of professional associates (pedagogues, psychologists, and social workers from Center for Social Work, Novi Sad) about the need for social workers in secondary schools in Novi Sad. The aim of the research is to analyse the perceptions of professional associates on the values and need for social work services in schools.