Projects / Every student will be a winner

Every student will be a winner Project is a two-year program supported by the Trust for social achievement. Project activities are aimed at preventing dropout and retention of Roma children in school, increasing the number of reintegrated and enrolled to school children, increasing the number of Roma adults involved in forms of lifelong learning, significantly increasing the percentage of Roma young people who continue their education in secondary schools / high schools.

The project builds upon the experience of Amalipe for the introduction of " Ethnic Folklore  - Roma folklore" classes and the program for reducing Roma children droppout of school, which was performed within 5 years in 170 schools throughout Bulgaria. About 40 000 children (of which 20 000 Roma children) from 1st to 8th grade in the 150-170 schools in the first year and 210-270 schools in the second year will be the main target group of the project, as well as their parents and relatives and the whole community.

The project aims at achieving the following key objectives:

 Enlargement - in more schools and among more students - of the educational model of Center "Amalipe" to reduce dropout and increase enrollment in schools of Roma children. 170 schools will participate in the first year of the project and in the second year their number will increase to 270 schools, located throughout the country. Advocacy and information campaigns will be organized to ensure institutionalization and sustainability of this model.

 Supporting the school teams through small grants for exchange visits;

 Monitoring and evaluation of the impact of the program in reducing dropout;

 Providing methodological support and educational tools to attract the interest of Roma children and parents in the learning process;

 Empowerment of Roma parents and their involvement in school life;

Every student will be a winner Project will continue to develop and implement the educational model "including intercultural education" which is based on:

 Development of a program to reduce school drop-out;

 Introduction of intercultural education: through EPA "Ethnic Folklore - Roma folklore" and other forms;

 Working with students - organizing training for capacity building of student Parliament, as well as for teachers - mentors of the student parliaments; campaigning for continuing education;

 Working with parents - Increasing the capacity of parent clubs, training coordinators of Parent clubs and applying the scheme "parents teach parents" (active parents will be trained on several topics, such as principles of community work to improve educational attitudes, prevention of early marriages, basic rights and obligations in education, etc.) and fieldwork;

 Work with teachers - strengthening the capacity of teachers using the model "learning through exchange of experience"; organizing local conferences and meetings and national educational conference; teacher training on EPA "Ethnic Folklore - Roma folklore";

 System change and tangible improvement in the quality of education of Roma children - for this purpose will be selected "principals - mentors" who will work closely with the directors of the schools involved in the project. Thus there will be a "principal - mentor" in every team of schools, who will work on the model and will assist other schools to successfully implement the elements.

The project also provides activities for forming a favorable social environment and changing public opinion to support the quality of education and educational integration of Roma children. Extracurricular initiatives will be organized to raise interest and activity in schools (eg. "Green" Schools, Roma Children Festival "Open Heart"). A number of new materials in the field of intercultural education, and manuals to improve the work of the parent clubs and school parliaments will be printed and distributed.

Brochure of the project see here.

Trust for social achievement (TSA) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to break the vicious circle of poverty by promoting opportunities that help the most disadvantaged citizens of Bulgaria to achieve educational and economic success. TSA supports programs, which for its integrity, growth potential and transparency help to improve the welfare of the poorest people in Bulgaria, with a special focus on Roma.