Deadline: 31-Jul-21
The Council of Europe has announced the Call for Applications for the Educational Institutions of Basic and Upper Secondary Education System to be part of the project activities for the school year 2021-2022.
The project aims to improve the quality of pre-university education in Albania by strengthening the capacity of the education system to develop students’ competencies for a democratic culture, in line with Council of Europe instruments and approaches.
The project aims to support the current reform of school curricula, based on the new competencies and approaches to education they include, as well as student-centered teaching methods.
Over three years, the project will support 75 pilot schools of basic and upper secondary education (divided into three cycles, 25 schools selected for each year), to develop and implement democratic culture, policies and practices for democratic governance in school, with the aim of creating an inclusive student environment and for all students
. Each of the three cycles will take place during a school year. The current call aims to select the second group of 25 pilot schools that will be part of the project1.
The selected schools will be merged into the Network of Democratic and Inclusive Schools created by the project.
Schools will be supported through the Small Grants Scheme for Organizations e Civil Society (CSO) to develop and implement proposed and led projects by the students themselves in their schools and communities.
Each year, schools will be offered a theme different related to the competencies, values, attitudes and knowledge of the Competencies Framework for Democratic Culture of the Council of Europe.
For the school year 2021-2022, the selected topic is “Environmental protection – part essential to a democratic culture”.
Selection Criteria
The following criteria have been developed for the selection of the first 25 pilot schools.
- Presence of inclusive educational practices: Schools must prove their ability to create inclusive educational environments, regardless of the different socio-economic, cultural, religious and linguistic composition of the area where they are located, as well as demonstrate the ability to embrace diversity through inclusive educational practices.
- Determination and willingness to further democratize the culture of school governance: Schools must show a commitment to further strengthen democratic governance through school and extracurricular activities, including the use of a community-wide approach. The school management staff presents the good practices of participation of students in daily school life and ensures that student government in school and representation in the Student Parliament is active and that their voice is heard.
- Promoting collaborative and interactive approaches to learning and teaching: Schools must show that they are willing to promote collaborative and interactive teaching and learning. Schools should show willingness to cooperate with Civil Society Organizations and implement projects proposed and led by students.
- Diversity considerations: The composition of the participating schools in this project should be as diverse and comprehensive as possible (economic, social, cultural, religious, linguistic, and urban / rural changes).
- Previous involvement in projects in areas related to culture and democratic school governance: Priority will be given to schools that have not benefited from projects organized by the CoE or from other organizations. However, in order to facilitate learning between schools, for the project would be valid if, at least, 5 schools of basic education and 3 schools of Secondary education have previous experience in implementing policies and practices that related to democratic and inclusive education.
- Commitment on the topic of the current call: The topic in the second call of the project, for the school year 2021-2022 is “Environmental protection an essential part of democratic culture”.
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