News

From 4th to 7th April 2016, the "Sport Palace" hotel in the city of Sliven will be hosting an annual meeting of school parliaments' representatives from 170 schools, included in the "Every student will be a winner" project network in Bulgaria. The event will be running under the "School for Tolerance" motto and will include topics about the early marriages and emotional education, leadership and conflict solving, tolerance, volunteering, etc.

Center "Amalipe" has prepared a challenge for the students - they'll have the opportunity  to participate in a real Parliament session and meet the Vice Minister of education Diyan Stamatov and other official guests. The adolescents will be free to ask questions and discuss the problems in the educational sphere.

See the full schedule of the meeting here 

       "Every student will be a winner" is a long-term program, supported by Trust for social achievement. 

Project activities are  intended to solve the problem of the large number of absences, low grades in school, the relatively small percentage of Roma students continuing their education in secondary schools (high schools) and high school graduates, lack of participation of Roma parents in school life and school structures management. The project steps on the rich experience of "Amalipe" for the introduction of "Ethnic Folklore - Roma folklore" and the program reducing dropout of Roma children from school, which was implemented within a 3 – year period in over than 170 schools throughout Bulgaria.

The Trust for Social Achievement (TSA)is a nonprofit organization, whose mission is to break the poverty cycle by promoting opportunities that help Bulgaria’s most disadvantaged citizens achieve educational and economic success. TSA supports programs that, with integrity, scalability, and transparency, boost the long-term achievement of Bulgaria’s poorest, with a focus on the Roma.

For a second consecutive year the Union of Bulgarian Teachers to CIUB organized a conference on educational integration of children and students from ethnic minorities. It was held on March 25, 2016 in the city of Sofia. It was attended by representatives of the union, Ministry of Education, schools and organizations. Amalipe was presented by Peter Malinov, regional pedagogical coordinator for Southeastern Bulgaria and Anelia Dudinova, regional coordinator "Community Development" for the Sofia region.

The conference was opened by Yanka Takeva, chairman of the BTU and Dian Stamatov, Deputy Minister of Education and Science. Both stressed the importance of educational integration in view of the overall development of Bulgarian education. Then Dr. Joseph Nunev, state expert in the Ministry of Education, presented the updated strategy for educational integration of children and students from ethnic minorities. This strategic document defining the policies of the Ministry of Education was adopted in 2004. In June 2015 the strategy was upgraded and the process started to involve not only experts from the Ministry of Education, but also representatives of universities, schools and NGOs. An Action Plan was also approved. From September 2015 began announcing competitions for educational integration funded by OP "Science and education," said Dr. Nunev.

Natalia Mihalevska,Head of the Department "Organization, control and inspection" in MES, made a short summary of  the project "Your Lesson", which will be funded by OP "Science and education". She emphasized a few key things:

- "Your Lesson" will be the largest in scope, content and finances, so it will be also a national program to increase motivation to learn and to participate in extra-curricular activities (ECA). It is a continuation of "Success" Project and will be implemented not only in non-consolidated schools. The project covers all schools in the country regardless of their type - municipal, state, without covering private schools and kindergartens;

- The supported ECA must be part of a comprehensive school program for dropout prevention. In the summer, schools will be able to work out their school programs, to identify their needs for financing ECA connected on the one hand with the development of abilities and talents, and with educational deficits on the other hand;

- Participating schools will be divided into three groups based on 22 criteria. Each group will finance a wide range of ECA-s and proportion and budget will be different;

- Important part of the project in schools with great number of dropouts will be organizing of the so-called education courses in Bulgarian language and mathematics and other subjects, but priority will be given to the first two items from 1st to 12th grade;

- The specific ECA in each school will be selected through a mechanism for parental and civic participation. Public councils "Your Lesson" will be set up, which will involve also parents and public figures. Schools, NGOs, community centers and others will feed an internet platform with extracurricular activities they offer. Based on this, the public council will choose which ones to organize in the concrete school. The aim of "Your Lesson" is to attract not only what the school can offer as a base and training of teachers, but all the region can offer.

- The budget will be allocated as a financial standard for every child, but there will be additional funds on this standard to allow for efficient operations with the parents to be able to hire people from NGOs to be their mediators etc.

A detailed statement of Mrs. Mihalevska on "Your Lesson" refer to: http://romaeducation.com/bg/

International Roma Children Festival "Open Heart" is coming! It is traditionally held every first weekend of June in the park "Marno pole" in Veliko Tarnovo. Nearly 2,000 students from across the country and the region in three dizzying days presented in songs, dances, theater and crafts the culture and traditions of all ethnic groups in Bulgaria.

You can become part of this emotion and enjoy the unique rhythms and customs, as involved in the preparation and organization of the 13th edition of the festival.
Simply sign up here or call 062 600 224.

We are expecting you!

Book of reports of the Second National Scientific - Practical Conference "Intercultural education as a means of reducing the dropout of Roma children from school" was printed out.  The conference was held in June 2014 in Veliko Tarnovo. It was attended by over a hundred teachers from across the country, heads and experts from the regional inspectorates of education, education experts, representatives of universities. The conference was organized by the Center for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance "Amalipe", University of Veliko Turnovo and District Governor fo Veliko Tarnovo. It was preceded by 15 regional conferences to share best practices, and most interesting reports of the regional conferences were awarded participation in the national forum.

The papers in the collection are grouped into 5 sections:

- Theoretical and regulatory framework of educational integration;

- School program for dropout prevention;

- EPA "Ethnic Folklore - Roma folklore";

- Individual approaches to work with the risk of drop out and activities for activating and motivating students;

- School and Parents: equal partners in a common cause

Published reports of 80 authors presented invaluable experience from their daily practice in dozens of schools nationwide. This experience is not only on attracting, retaining and education of children and pupils from different ethnic groups, but also on the achievement of higher educational results, developing capabilities of students and teachers and transforming the school into a center of the entire local community. It strongly suggests that the joint efforts of teachers and active parents inevitably leads to the most important success: quality education and a better future for all children.