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NIS endorsed the opening of the “Smart Classroom” for learning russian in Smederevska Palanka

April 11, 2019

The furnishing and adaptation of the classroom was completed under the auspices of NIS corporate program “Energy of Knowledge”. This classroom will be a venue for multimedia teaching of the Russian language using state-of-the-art, top quality teaching tools. Thereby, NIS continues to provide its contribution to the raising of the popularity of the Russian language in Serbia and to improvement of the learning environment in schools throughout the country. The grand opening was attended by the representatives of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia, Požarevac School Administration, local self-government unit, NIS and the management of the Olga Milošević Elementary School in Smederevska Palanka. The classroom for learning Russian was adapted and remodelled, with new, contemporary learning tools, including smart interactive board whose software, in addition to writing, also enables the watching and browsing of educational content, thus providing for the dynamic and multimedia lectures. The pupils of Olga Milošević Elementary School in Smederevska Palanka regularly participate in Russian Language Olympics organised by NIS Company, with remarkable results. The pupils from this school also regularly participate in competitions on a district and national levels, including the International Olympiad “Face of Russia”, knowledge competition about the Russian language, literature, history, art and culture organised by the Russian school at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Belgrade. Darko Dimitrijević, Director of Olga Milošević Elementary School in Smederevska Palanka, points out that the school makes all the efforts possible to facilitate and modernise the learning of global languages and it is their great honour to have received from NIS a new classroom for teaching Russian language under the Energy of Knowledge Program in NIS. “Thanks to funding provided by NIS Company, which had multiple times in the past demonstrated its corporate social responsibility toward education, our school has been awarded the most state-of-the-art learning environment in Serbia. The learning conditions for our pupils and the teaching aids for our teachers have thus been brought to an equal footing with the standards in Europe, the standards we all aspire to. Olga Milošević Elementary School is the only school in the city investing efforts in preserving the Russian language. Cultivation of the Russian language in Serbia is the consequence of a deep, and primarily, spiritual connection between our two nations and cultures and long-standing tradition of learning and being familiar with the Russian language in these regions, said Dimitrijević. Snežana Lakićević, Advisor to the Deputy Director of the Function for Liaisons with State Authorities and Corporate Communications, stated that the Company continues to invest in education and equipment for classrooms and laboratories in schools and faculties across Serbia. “None of the results achieved are accidental in the past 6 years, because if your teacher Darinka Bajkić had not prepared the pupils for the Russian Language Olympics, this donation would not have been possible. We are grateful to your teacher for her efforts and enthusiasm she put into teaching Russian to past and, I am certain, future generations of students of this school, but also in other village schools where Russian language is being taught to students, said Snežana Lakićević. Nikolay Senik, Director of the Russian School at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Serbia greeted the guests and students who chose to learn Russian on behalf of the Ambassador of the Russian Federation in Serbia, Alexander Chepurin, and pointing out that Olga Milošević Elementary School partook, each year, in the International Olympics “The Face of Russia”, with excellent results being achieved regularly by its pupils. Addressing the pupils gathered in the new classroom, Julija Zorić, Head of the Department for Educational Programs with the Russian House in Belgrade, stressed how glad she was that the Russian language continued to endure with the support from NIS and its Energy of Knowledge Program. And if any of its children would wish to continue their education in Russia, NIS currently offers 122 scholarships for Russian universities. During the seven years of implementation of the Energy of Knowledge Program, NIS Company has equipped more than 50 classrooms and laboratories in Serbian schools and faculties. When it comes to raising popularity of the Russian language, NIS has organised six Russian Language Olympics under the auspices of the Energy of Knowledge Program and has opened 10 classrooms and language study rooms for Russian in schools whose students achieved significant results in these competitions. This year, the Russian language study room at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade, has been adapted as well. For three schools in Serbia we provided support for bilingual education. NIS Company also endorsed the opening of the Centre for Russian Studies at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade and the formation of the basic teaching personnel for bilingual school classes at the Faculty of Pedagogy in Sombor. The Russian Language Olympics organised by NIS in 2014 was enlisted into the official competitions calendar posted by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development. In 2015, NIS provided support for the opening of the modern physics laboratory in the High School in Smederevska Palanka.