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14.06.2017Round table "Preventing School Leaving: How to Improve Pre-School and School Attendance" was held

 

The necessary urgent action and sustainable policy responses to achieve full scope at school were the main topics discussed at the Round Table  "Preventing School Leaving: How to Improve Pre-School and School Attendance", which took place on 9th of June in the building of the Municipality of Veliko Tarnovo. Vice-President Iliana Yotova, Deputy Minister of Education Denitsa Sacheva, Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Policy Rositsa Dimitrova, Ambassadors of the Kingdom of the Netherlands H.E. Tom van Oorshoot and South Africa H.E. Vanessa Calvert, school and kindergarten principals, as well as representatives of educational organizations took part in the forum. It was organized by Amalipe Center and the Roma Integration Ambassadors Group as an accompanying event of the Roma Children's Open heart Festival.

"I have a dream - to see every Bulgarian child educated, no matter where he/she lives, or at what age he/she is. There are many issues to solve - we are rate at one of the first places, concerning dropouts, and unfortunately, illeteracy is a common issue. About 20% of the European Social Fund is allocated for projects, targeted disadvantaged people", stressed the Vice-President of the Republic in her welcoming speech.

Nearly twenty percentages of children in Bulgaria do not attend school. 21 thousand students have dropped out during the previous school year. Therefore, one of the main priorities of the current government is to ensure full coverage in pre-school and school education and we will devote our efforts and resources to achieve it. This was said by Denitsa Sacheva - Deputy Minister of Education and Science. On 15th of June the Ministry organizes a round table in Sofia with representatives of all institutions - ministries, National agency for child protection, with the special participation of the National association of the municipalities in Bulgaria, said Sacheva. "Our expectations during the round table will be to find the measures to be used from the new school year and to make the first step to developing a 2-year action plan, within the strategy of dropout prevention. We need to work on any case, problem and/or region.", concluded the Deputy minister.

The co-chair of the Roma Integration Ambassadors Group, H.R. Tom van Oorshot emphasized the need to ensure a higher percentage of children from vulnerable groups in kindergartens. He also offered targeted funding for schools and kindergartens that integrate such children.

There are two Bulgaria countries, concerning eduaction - the so-called " "Elite" schools in big cities and schools in rural areas, said the chairman of Amalipe Deyan Kolev in his introductory remarks. Unfortunately, education policies often take into account only the needs of elite schools and deepen the gaps, which further aggravates both the quality of education and the scope. Therefore, the aim of the round table is to present successful practices for achieving full coverage in pre-school and school education from the "other Bulgaria", as well as to discuss the necessary actions through which the executive institutions to support the efforts of schools, kindergartens and municipalities to ensure full coverage in pre-school and school education.

 

Panel speakers 1. Successful practices on full scope in pre-school education were:

Sara Perrin, Trust for Social Achievement. "Ready for school" project: why is the free kindergarten important?

Desislava Boshnakova, Principal of "Children's World" Kindergarten - G. Oryahovitsa. Is the free kindergarten useful?

Gancho Iliev, "World Without Borders" NGO. What measures are needed in the area of early child development?

Irina Fayon, Bulgarian-Swiss Cooperation Program. The recommendations of the "Health and education for all" Program

They united around the notion that a free kindergarten is the best way of increasing the scope of pre-school education and an effective means of preventing school drop-outs.

 

In Panel 2. Successful practices on full coverage in school education speakers were:

Daniela Hristova, Principal of Primary School "P.R.Slaveykov", village of Djulyunitsa. Full range in small settlements - what prevents us and what is needed?

Stella Kostova, Roma Academy of Culture and Education. Scope of ethnically mixed schools - why is desegregation important?

Deyan Kolev,  Amalipe Center. Recommendations to the Institutions

They emphasized the need to change the system of delegated budgets, support schools in small settlements (including their transformation into unified ones), restart the process of desegregation. The participants made numerous concrete proposals to the Ministry of Education (see the presentation of Deyan Kolev in BG)


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