12.03.2013Workshop of directors from Northeastern Region in the third year of the project
On 7 and 8th of March 2013 at Park Hotel Arbanassi, village of Arbanasi was held a second for this school year meeting with Directors on the Project "Reduction of Roma students drop out of school", initiated by CIEDT Amalipe. It was the third of six consecutive meetings with school principals from the regions, which are held at the beginning of March. The meeting was attended by school principals from Northeast Bulgaria. Number of schools in the region is 34 from the following districts Targovishte, Razgrad, Silistra and Shumen. Guests were Deyan Kolev - Chairman of CIEDT Amalipe Petya Dimitrova - Head of Inspectorate - Razgrad, Pepa Lazarova - Senior Expert "Primary education" in REI- Silistra and Nikolay Roussev - senior expert "Social studies and citizenship education." Moderators of the meeting were Tanya Vanova and Nelly Nikolova - Regional Coordinator for Northeastern Bulgaria.
The purpose of the meeting was to assess and analyze the results up- to date. To consider the case of threatened or drop outs in the first term and strategies for dealing with these problems. Also, the presence or absence, as well as progress on key elements included in the program for dropout prevention in the project schools.
A presentation has been made for the achieved so far on the project, which examined both the strengths and problems of the project. Specific results for number of dropouts, and unexcused absences were given.
The introduction of mandatory elements: Student Parliament, School Board, Students mentors Parental club, sessions EPA "Ethnic Folklore - Roma Folklore", profiling of students at risk, parental lectures proved to be positive part in the solving of the dropout issue. Mentoring - pilot schools interaction received appreciation, as well as sharing best practices and ideas. attracting and motivating parents as partners of teachers were outlined as especially important. School principals appreciated the methodical help of Amalipe center.
Particular emphasis in the workshop was the last panel: "Now what?". The school year 2012/2013 is the last year of the project. So it was very important together to analyze - What happened and what now? After a SWOT - analysis came the logical question "Now what?" A structured discussion was made and innovative, reasonable and realistic proposals for continuation of the project were given. Thus, participants were involved in the overall process of developing a new project idea. This is only the beginning of the involvement of all stakeholders in the whole discussion – Now what?
Thank you colleagues for collaboration, responsibility, goodwill, time, communication andprofesionalism. Your involvement means commitment to a common cause - motivated teachers, motivated parents, motivated students, building a school community or shortly - a good education!
We are glad that in your face we have a long-term partner whom we can always rely on.
See you soon!
