|
ONLINE VERSION |
|
|
PRINT VERSION |
|
Mozaik – a successful model for multicultural and preschool education
Bilingual groups have confirmed the power of communication
In seven kindergartens in five towns in Macedonia there is the quite impressive model for multicultural and preschool education of children between the age of 3 and 6, called “Mozaik”. Some of the parents who are familiar with this decide to send their child not to a classical group in kindergarten, but to a Macedonian-Albanian, Macedonian-Serbian or Macedonian-Turkish group and their relatives and friends are familiar with it, too. The gained positive experiences have been transferred to Kosovo for a year.
The official beginnings of the project Mosaic are related to 1st September 1998 when after a previous one-year preparation of the teachers and equipping appropriate premises it started as a pilot-project in the kindergartens “Orce Nikolov” and “Snezana” in Skopje and “Angel Sajce” in Kumanovo. In the beginning there were 16 children in the groups and at the end of 2006 the number of children was 510. The bilingual groups will this summer also welcome the young citizens in the kindergartens “Orce Nikolov” – branch “Orce Nikolov” 2, “25 Maj” – branch “Sinolicka” and “R.J.Korcagin” – branch “Pepelaska”, in Skopje (Macedonian-Albanian groups); “Angel Sajce” – branch Buba Mara in Kumanovo (Macedonian-Serbian and Macedonian-Albanian group); “8 Mart” – branch “Sonce” in Struga and “Brejsa” in Debar (Macedonian-Albanian groups) and in the primary school “Mustafa Kemal-Ataturk” in Gostivar (Macedonian-Albanian and Macedonian-Turkish group). The project is in its last phase of implementation, in a period when it is intensely thought about integration in the Macedonian educational system, which is its long-term objective.
“The whole idea in the beginning was to enable children from the early age to socialize with children from other ethnic community. The program was created by parents who wanted to give something more to their children, more attractive working conditions in the kindergarten, which the educational system had not provided. Mosaic has two components, the one is development-pedagogical and the other is bilingual. Through the first one, we provide the children with a flexible daily regime and there is an individualized approach in the work with them. It is particularly important that in this development-pedagogical component conflict resolution skills are included, too, the teachers being first to get trained” – says Vilma Venkovska-Milcev, manager of the educational program in the organization Search for Common Ground, located in Skopje and realizing the project. She says that since the beginning the project has been realized with an approval from the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy and the Ministry of Education and the information about its existence are spreading from a town to town, mainly through the gained positive experience from the parents whose children have already been into some of the groups.
“Parents can best witness how satisfied their child has been with his presence in the Mozaik group. Parents resistant to the social pressure usually send their children to such groups. The groups are unique and in 1998 they were equipped with a number of toys, didactic materials and computers. In the beginning informing was difficult but now we have 60-70 children on waiting lists as the number in the groups is limited from 18 to 20, proportionally representing children from two ethnic communities. Mozaik is a multicultural, bilingual project, as the communication is in two languages and we include communities’ languages, depending on how represented they are in the municipality. In this phase of the process of power decentralization, thus education decentralization, in our strategy we have included work with the local communities, too” – says the manager.
Kumanovo experience
The teacher Jadranka Simovic in the Macedonian-Serbian group in the kindergarten “Angel Sajce” – branch “Buba Mara” in Kumanovo, has been working for four years. With the children she speaks Serbian and on the basis of her previous experience working in kindergartens and pre-school groups, she emphasizes the Mozaik’s specifics.
“Mozaik significantly differs from the other groups. Here we work in two languages. Most attention is paid on the bilingual part and it is big advantage that the children, apart from their mother tongue, get familiar with their friends’ culture. The objective is not to learn the second language, but to establish communication between the children of different nationality. In spite of the fact that they do not speak the language, through games they understand and listen to each other. Kumanovo is a town where almost all children speak in Kumanovo dialect. Here they learn literary Macedonian and Serbian language and they broaden their knowledge. Since the very beginning I have been speaking only in Serbian and my colleague in Macedonian language and on the first day we explained to the children what kind of group they would be in. They do not have a problem with it, they manage quickly and understand each other, both in this and the Macedonian-Albanian group. They play the same game and they speak their languages” – says Simovic.
The teachers speak, read, tell stories both in Serbian and Macedonian, thus equally developing love towards the two languages. “In these groups children get familiar with the Macedonian, Serbian and Albanian culture. For certain religious holidays they visit children’s homes to see how Bajram, Easter, Christmas is celebrated” – says the teacher.
The parents pay for their children the same amount as in other groups in kindergartens in the country, but they are not obliged to buy materials for work. The fact that if the children do not want to, they do not have to go to sleep, but can play some “quiet games” is a big advantage. Children’s parents are also involved in the program and the teachers run workshops with them on various topics, often on the ways of management of conflict situations that occur between the children, and between parents and children. Parents have an opportunity to make various objects with their children and to spend a day within the group, too.
Zaklina Milenkovic, mother of Marko, the first pupil of the Macedonian-Serbian group, shared her experience with pleasure.
“Our first idea to send Marko in this group was the national component. In Kumanovo he does not have an opportunity to go to a Serbian school, we are Serbians and at home we use the Kumanovo dialect. I wanted my child to speak Serbian, but after I had realized the program’s essence, it became the most side reason why my child is here. The way of work, different age of the children, approach, teachers’ work are to be respected. I took my child here with pleasure, although I had a kindergarten in front of my block of flats. I work in a school in Serbian language outside the town and I can say that according to the program, the way of work, the working conditions, technical devices, these groups differ from the others to a great extent. Marko, except for the intellectual development, has also gained certain specific skills” – points out the mother.
Mozaik has expanded on Kosovo, too
Mozaik in Macedonia is carried out in cooperation with the Swiss Development Agency and the Swiss International Development Agency. The open bilingual pre-school groups as such are so far unique on the Balkans. “They might exist in some of the foreign languages, but they are unique in the local languages. Their value is that they enable people who live in one place, who are immediately close one with another, to understand each other” – points out Venkovska – Milcev.
The organization Search for Common Ground has signed with the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy a letter of intention, as a pre-contract for cooperation between the governments of Switzerland and Macedonia, which includes budget coverage of the working costs of the teachers by the Ministry, and it expects the municipalities to finance the teachers’ work. At the moment only one of them is being financed through the budget. Since the beginning of the realization of Mozaik the organization has been covering the overall costs of the program and the salaries of the other teachers, although it is expected the authorities gradually to be transferred to the municipalities, above all due to the different economic condition they are in.
At request of the organization “Save the Children” from Kosovo, the project has started being implemented on Kosovo, too. This year a Bosnjak-Albanian and Albanian-Turkish group was opened in Pec and Pristina.
“When we were building Mozaik, we were taking experiences from the Oasis of Peace in Jerusalem, where Palestinians and Israeli live together, and from Switzerland, too, but we never accepted them as ready-made patterns to apply them in Macedonia. We modeled them according to the specific context in Macedonia, so we use that model in Kosovo, and from September we are planning two more groups, Bosnjak-Albanian and Turkish-Albanian in Prizren” – says Vilma Venkovska – Milcev.
|
|
|
|
|
