Challenges and Perspectives of Social Work in School

Abstract

Schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last few years have witnessed violence of large scales among pupils, juvenile delinquency, unsystematic inclusion of children with special needs in regular education,rising abuse of psychoactive substances among elementary school students and other concerningproblems that professional and teaching staff faces. Despite that, necessary actions are not being takenby social workers in educational institutions. Although social work in schools is considered as adistinguished area of social work, it is yet to be affirmed in Bosnia and Herzegovina since engagingsocial workers in schools is sporadic, insufficient and unsystematic. Causes of such state are to besearched not only in the social position and the affirmation of social work as a profession, but also in alegal framework which is often aggravating and confining.Considering the fact that the problem of inclusion of social workers in Bosnian schools is very littleresearched, the objective of this work was to examine and determine if social workers are equal to other members of professional staff in schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina.Regarding that, with parents and teachers being the most important link in the process of education,their attitude towards the inclusion of social workers as associates in schools is examined. Results ofthe research conducted indicate the essential need for including social workers as associates in regularschools in Bosnia and Herzegovina. These results are highly contributed by the teachers’ and parents’ attitudes who consider that schoolscould execute their social – educational function more succesfully if social workers were engaged as apart of professional school staff, and that social workers in cooperation with the rest of professional staff could contribute to preventing behavioral disorders by applying social work methods, which couldbe the main link in the school – student – parent – society relationship. On the way to achieve this, the biggest obstacle is inconsistent legal regulation that differs among the cantons, imposing discouragingminimal number of social workers in schools, not acknowledging specific jobs and tasks of socialworkers as experts even though their engagement is necessary in educational institutions.