Expert meeting on “Development of Military Education“ held

The expert meeting entitled "Development of Military Education" was held today in the conference room of the Military Academy’s Academic Council. The two key topics of the expert meeting were what the system of military education in the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces should be like in the next ten years and what decisions and measures can be implemented to fulfil that vision given the current situation.

After the selection process for joining the defence system, State Secretary Aleksandar Živković pointed out, the educational process is one of the most important processes in the defence system.

- Through education, we create officers and non-commissioned officers who should develop the armed forces, i.e. provide training to soldiers in commands, units and institutions and provide all necessary conditions for the defence system and the Serbian Armed Forces as part of it, to carry out their tasks in peacetime emergency situations, state of emergency and war - said Živković.



Assistant Minister for Human Resources Katarina Tomašević believes that in order to create competent officers, it is necessary to establish a well-thought-out, organized, flexible and high quality system of military education.

- The focus should be on defining the profiles of branches and services to be educated at the Military Academy, with precise numbers, as well as the profiles to be provided otherwise. Also, it is necessary to define the profiles of non-commissioned officers to be educated in the Secondary Vocational Military School, but also the profiles of non-commissioned officers to be provided otherwise, for example, through courses and scholarships - Tomašević emphasized.

The Rector of the Defence University, Lieutenant General Goran Radovanović, Assoc. Prof., also spoke about the importance of officers’ education. Their process of education, he emphasized, must last from the moment they enrol in the military school until the end of their military career. Military education has several forms such as formal education, non-formal education and informal learning.

- Formal education in the defence system, whose functioning and development, among other things, implies setting standards that should help determine the quality of education, i.e. determine what is expected from each level of education. In that way, it is determined what knowledge, skills, abilities and values ​​an individual should develop during schooling - said Radovanović.
 
The participants in the meeting discussed the adoption of the new Law on Military Education based on the ideas that emerged from today's discussion and presentations, and which contribute to the improvement of military education.