Start date: December 2011
End date: December 2015
Project budget (Life of Project): $ 5,200,000
Implementer: Macedonian Civic Education Center in partnership with other local NGOs
Objectives
Provide awareness building, diversity training, technical assistance, and incentives to school boards, principals, teachers, and administration officials in support of the Government of Macedonia’s (GOM) Strategy toward Integrated Education.
Components
Community Outreach - Raise awareness of the importance of inter-ethnic integration and why it is vital for the future stability of Macedonia and its accession in to the European Union. Build public understanding of the GOM’s Strategy and its ultimate goal of ensuring all Macedonian children receive a high-quality education.
Capacity Building of school management and teachers - Provide teachers, school managers and school boards with the skills they need to work in a multi-ethnic environment, to help prevent divisions along ethnic lines in their schools and communities, and to create conditions that promote ethnic integration.
Demonstration Schools - Provide more holistic and intensive interventions in a few selected schools. These model schools will provide examples of best practices and lessons learned and will contribute to a deeper understanding on various approaches to ethnic integration.
Provision of Incentives to Schools and Communities - Provide school refurbishments as an incentive for schools to participate in ethnic integration activities. Assist these communities with the improvement of the infrastructure and learning environments of their schools, including ensuring that these schools are accessible to the disabled. This component is financed by the U.S. Department of Defense/EUCOM ($1.2 million of the total Project budget).
Expected Results/Impact
The Education community will better understand both the need for ethnic integration for the country’s prosperity, and the wide scope of the Strategy toward Integrated Education and its benefits for all students, teachers, and parents.
Teachers’, school directors’, school boards’, BDE advisors’ and State Education Inspectors’ skills to create inclusive learning environments will be improved; teachers and parents of mixed ethnic backgrounds will cooperate more effectively; there will be more multi-ethnic activities in schools and communities.
Demonstration schools will provide successful models, best practices and lessons learned on ethnic integration; there will be more student integration in selected schools in extra-curricular, and potentially, in curricular activities; teachers and parents of mixed ethnic backgrounds will cooperate more effectively; more schools/municipalities will integrate ethnically mixed student bodies.
Contact Information
Contact at USAID: Lela Jakovlevska, AOTR ljakovlevska@usaid.gov
Chief of Party: Nebojsa Mojsoski
Information Officer: TBD
Website: TBD