07.06.2016The Monitoring Committee of Operational Programme Science and Education for Smart Growth has approved 5 new operations and doubled the budget for
Five new operations have been approved at the third meeting of the OP SESG Monitoring Committee, which was held on 2nd June in Sofia. The approved operations are in the sphere of the vocational education (“Establishment of dual vocational education","Quality insurance system of the vocational education and training"), the higher education, ("Developing Students career orientation system"), operation "National validation system" and operation "Integrated measures for improving the access to education".
The criteria for the operation "Establishment of dual vocational education" was the most discussed one on the meeting. The operation overbuilds the project "Swiss support for introducing the principles for dual vocational education (DOMINO 1)", which is in current implementation by the Bulgarian - Swiss cooperation programme funding. DOMINO 2 provides to include more than 40 invocation high schools. The dual education within them will be running during 11th and 12th grade and the students will spend 2 days in the classrooms and 3 days in practice. They will be paid for the spent time in practice, which be equal to 90 % of the salary of the relevant profession and will be covered by the OP. The approved projects will cover also the salaries of the teachers and mentors; the transport fees - if the manufacturer is far from the school.
The Operation will be realized by two components; one of them is through call for project proposals. Their cost will be between 100 000 and 200 000 BGN. The candidates can be high schools, business companies or municipalities. The minimum number of students is 1000 students to take participation in practical activities in real working environment.
There was a proposition for increasing the budget for operation "Support for preschool education for children from vulnerable groups", which deadline ended on 30th November 2015. Deyan Kolev, representative of the group of NGO working in the field of integration of minority communities, argued that the operation is the first one, focused on the kindergartens, and that's why the level of interest is very high. There were many quality project proposals given from the stakeholders and it's reasonable to double the budget in order to be doubled the number of the approved projects and to reach out more children, said Kolev. He stressed that it's needed to increase the care and the support for the preschool education in general, systematic policies in that field, because the operational programme could help in particular, but cannot solve the systematic problems in that filed.
The proposal has met the support from the Managing authority, the European Commission and from all represented stakeholders in the Committee. As result, the number of the approved projects will be doubled to 62.
The Committee had approved also the operation "Integrated arrangements for improving the access to education". With that OP SESG will amplify the funds, which OP Human Resources Development will invest in municipal project for integration of minority communities such as Roma. In this way, the project could include activities in 4 directions: employment, access to social and healthcare services, local communities development and overcoming the negative stereotypes (funded by OP HRD), and access to education (funded by OP SESG). Beneficiaries will be municipalities with obligatory partnership with NGOs and schools or kindergartens. It is required that all municipalities must have approved Municipal plan for Roma integration for the period 2015 - 2020. The component "Access to education" will be up to 10 % from the whole municipal project.
Applying for the operation will be in much simple way. First, the municipalities will send project concepts, developed by simplified form covering all components (i.e. one general form, despite that the funding is by two operational programmes). They will represent the partners by the project - at least one NGO and employer, and evidences that the partner is elected in a transparent way. Only the approved candidates will have the right to present project proposals. Between 130 - 150 municipal projects are expected to be approved. The invitation for project proposal will be announced in July or September.
In the end of the meeting, Deyan Kolev asked about the starting point of the "Your lesson" project. The answer from the Managing authority was that the evaluation of the Ministry of Education's project proposal will be finished at 20th June and in the first days of July there will be prepared a contract. The experts from the Ministry of Education will have to prepare the concrete directions for the schools during the summer and to send an invitation to the schools to participate in September. Thus, during the first semester of the school year 2016/2017 the "Your lesson" project will be launched in the schools, said the experts from the Managing authority.
In the name of publicity and transparency, please publish the lists of the approved projects by the operation "Educational integration" and "Support for the preschool education", appealed Deyan Kolev, regarding the fact that the projects by the both schemes were approved at 30th and 31th May and there was only the message that every beneficiary will be informed individually. Deyan Kolev was supported by the rest of the NGO's representatives. The experts from the Managing authority were made a promise to publish the list on the very next day.
Five new operations have been approved at the third meeting of the OP SESG Monitoring Committee, which was held on 2nd June in Sofia. The approved operations are in the sphere of the vocational education (“Establishment of dual vocational education","Quality insurance system of the vocational education and training"), the higher education, ("Developing Students career orientation system"), operation "National validation system" and operation "Integrated measures for improving the access to education".
The criteria for the operation "Establishment of dual vocational education" was the most discussed one on the meeting. The operation overbuilds the project "Swiss support for introducing the principles for dual vocational education (DOMINO 1)", which is in current implementation by the Bulgarian - Swiss cooperation programme funding. DOMINO 2 provides to include more than 40 invocation high schools. The dual education within them will be running during 11th and 12th grade and the students will spend 2 days in the classrooms and 3 days in practice. They will be paid for the spent time in practice, which be equal to 90 % of the salary of the relevant profession and will be covered by the OP. The approved projects will cover also the salaries of the teachers and mentors; the transport fees - if the manufacturer is far from the school.
The Operation will be realized by two components; one of them is through call for project proposals. Their cost will be between 100 000 and 200 000 BGN. The candidates can be high schools, business companies or municipalities. The minimum number of students is 1000 students to take participation in practical activities in real working environment.
There was a proposition for increasing the budget for operation "Support for preschool education for children from vulnerable groups", which deadline ended on 30th November 2015. Deyan Kolev, representative of the group of NGO working in the field of integration of minority communities, argued that the operation is the first one, focused on the kindergartens, and that's why the level of interest is very high. There were many quality project proposals given from the stakeholders and it's reasonable to double the budget in order to be doubled the number of the approved projects and to reach out more children, said Kolev. He stressed that it's needed to increase the care and the support for the preschool education in general, systematic policies in that field, because the operational programme could help in particular, but cannot solve the systematic problems in that filed.
The proposal has met the support from the Managing authority, the European Commission and from all represented stakeholders in the Committee. As result, the number of the approved projects will be doubled to 62.
The Committee had approved also the operation "Integrated arrangements for improving the access to education". With that OP SESG will amplify the funds, which OP Human Resources Development will invest in municipal project for integration of minority communities such as Roma. In this way, the project could include activities in 4 directions: employment, access to social and healthcare services, local communities development and overcoming the negative stereotypes (funded by OP HRD), and access to education (funded by OP SESG). Beneficiaries will be municipalities with obligatory partnership with NGOs and schools or kindergartens. It is required that all municipalities must have approved Municipal plan for Roma integration for the period 2015 - 2020. The component "Access to education" will be up to 10 % from the whole municipal project.
Applying for the operation will be in much simple way. First, the municipalities will send project concepts, developed by simplified form covering all components (i.e. one general form, despite that the funding is by two operational programmes). They will represent the partners by the project - at least one NGO and employer, and evidences that the partner is elected in a transparent way. Only the approved candidates will have the right to present project proposals. Between 130 - 150 municipal projects are expected to be approved. The invitation for project proposal will be announced in July or September.
In the end of the meeting, Deyan Kolev asked about the starting point of the "Your lesson" project. The answer from the Managing authority was that the evaluation of the Ministry of Education's project proposal will be finished at 20th June and in the first days of July there will be prepared a contract. The experts from the Ministry of Education will have to prepare the concrete directions for the schools during the summer and to send an invitation to the schools to participate in September. Thus, during the first semester of the school year 2016/2017 the "Your lesson" project will be launched in the schools, said the experts from the Managing authority.
In the name of publicity and transparency, please publish the lists of the approved projects by the operation "Educational integration" and "Support for the preschool education", appealed Deyan Kolev, regarding the fact that the projects by the both schemes were approved at 30th and 31th May and there was only the message that every beneficiary will be informed individually. Deyan Kolev was supported by the rest of the NGO's representatives. The experts from the Managing authority were made a promise to publish the list on the very next day.
