News

The first session – after 5 years break – of the Consultative Council for Educational Integration of Children and Students from the Ethnic Minorities (CCEICSEM) within the Ministry of Education took place in Sofia on December 9. It was chaired by Deputy Minister Svetlana Lomeva. Representatives of different directorates of Ministry of Education, Youth and Science, the National Coordinator of the Decade of Roma Inclusion Milen Milanov, representatives of leading minority organizations and experts took part in the session. Roma NGOs were represented by Vassil Chaprazov (Drom dromendar newspaper), Deyan Kolev (Center Amalipe) and Rumian Russinov.
The participants discussed new Regulations of the Council. They agreed on the idea that the Council should become a working consultative body that proposes decisions in the field of educational integration to the Minister of education. The participants required as one of the first steps in this direction participation of the Council in the preparation of the new Public Education Act: it is necessary the draft law to incorporate crucial points for educational integration as well as to be discussed within the Council. As another important task was defined the preparation of Action Plan for the implementation of the Strategy for Educational Integration of Children and Students from the Ethnic Minorities (SEICSEM) that would contain responsible institutions and financing for implementation of the main activities. The participants agreed that evaluation of the Strategy implementation until now is necessary. They did not gain consensus about the necessity of revision of the Strategy. Thjree working groups were established. The first one would propose indicators for the evaluation of the SEICSEM implementation; it would be chaired by Maria Metodieva (Open Society Institute – Sofia). The second group would revise the Strategy and propose changes if necessary; it would be chaired by Rumian Sechkov (SEGA Foundation). The third working group would prepare the main points of the Action Plan for the implementation of the Strategy for Educational Integration; it would be chaired by Deyan Kolev (Center Amalipe). These groups will propose their recommendations before the end of January 2010.