ANALYSIS OF SYSTEMS OF TEACHERS’ INITIAL EDUCATION AS A PREREQUISITES FOR SUCCESSFUL ORGANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP OF EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

Sa？etak Besides regular classes in elementary school, an important part of educational work are extracurricular activities. Thanks to their flexible approach, unlike the regular classes, extracurricular activities can reach the students’ personalities more easily, responding to the individual needs and interests of each of them. Being an area of independent and free choice of children, the organization of those activities represents a very important part of the school’s educational activities. The aim of this paper is to gain insight into how much teachers, as holders of educational activities, have been trained for adequate organization and conducting of extracurricular activities during their initial education. A method of comparative analysis of contents, i.e. existing curricula for primary school education at the Pedagogical faculties in Sombor, Maribor, Timisoara, Banja Luka and Osijek is used in this research. The analysis of the curriculum of initial teacher education was done from the perspective of the elective and compulsory courses offered. The comparison of initial teacher education systems in different countries provides insight into the contextual framework, as well as getting to know solutions that are applied elsewhere. The given results show a significant difference in the number of elective and obligatory courses, which suggests that the primary education system in this region is still more focused on the organization of regular teaching as a central part of the educational work in the school, leaving little room for developing creativity and other teachers’ competencies necessary for qualitative management of extracurricular activities. The results of the research could serve as a basis for considering possible changes in study programs at pedagogical faculties, so that within the methodology of teaching individual subjects, topics include organizing and conducting the extracurricular activities