Conference on integration of people with Down syndrome held in Zagreb

There are about 1,700 people with Down syndrome in Croatia, half of them are up to 19 years old, but only 20 percent are included in the regular education system, a conference on the integration of children and young people with Down syndrome was told in Zagreb on Wednesday.

The conference was organised by the Croatian Down Syndrome Association to mark 10 years since the integration of children and young people with Down syndrome into the Croatian education system.

"A lot has been done in the last 10 years to integrate these children, but there is still a lot of room left for action to bring Croatia closer to good practice in Western European countries, such as Italy, where 20 percent of people with Down syndrome are employed," the head of the Association, Dinka Vukovic, said in her opening remarks.

The conference was attended by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, Minister for Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy Nada Murganic, guests from Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, associations, parents and children with Down syndrome.

"In Croatia, everyone must have access to education under equal terms and we will adapt the system to that," Plenkovic said, adding that his government would develop a legislative framework and ensure financial resources for equality in society and education.

This year, personal assistants have been ensured for 1,488 beneficiaries, and 483 children with Down syndrome are included in the regular education system under individual programmes, while others attend special education programmes.

"This is where we can make further progress. We want to work together with parents, and the political readiness for this on the part of the government is clear," the prime minister said, adding that the Social Welfare Act would be amended to ensure that employees with disabilities could exercise a right to a personal disability allowance.

Text: Hina

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