Civil society organizations, active in educational process

Through projects children learn about ecology, their rights and conflict resolution

 
In Macedonian educational institutions a lot of civil society organizations’ projects are being implemented at the moment. They are most often projects for protection of children’s rights, ecology, various training courses and getting closer the differences between children in ethnically mixed schools. Through the Education Development Bureau, a state institution within the Ministry of Education and Science, most of the projects are being implemented, including those for education of Roma high school students and modules are found for realization of lessons in a creative way. Through the Macedonian Consumers’ Organization the project for protection of children-consumers is being realized, and through the Macedonian Center for Civil Society Education the project for children’s civil society education. The Conflicts Resolution Center is implementing the project “Same, similar, different” in ethnically mixed schools throughout the country, in order to improve ethnic relations and decrease differences between children. The project “Schools under risk” is being realized under the same topic and its objective is to relax relations and solve post-conflict conditions in our country. OHO organization has been implementing an ecological-educational project “We have no spare planet”.

In the Education Development Bureau they say that so far all projects by civil society organizations having a positive message for the children and evaluated in favor of developing children and in accordance with the National program, have been accepted. The Bureau gives its opinion about each project, after that it is submitted to the Minister of Education and his signature approves the realization.

“If the Ministry thinks that the project is good and in favor of children or teachers’ positive development, if it is aimed at them, it always gets a green light. There is a relatively small number of requirements for which commission is formed and gives positive or negative opinion. An opinion is required from the Bureau, too. Civil society organizations’ opinions are most often directed only towards realization of the project, not asking for financial help. They submit the materials to the Ministry’s archive, then the competent review them, consult those in charge of primary and secondary education and the final decision is made by the Minister. Since the projects are not continuous and are individually submitted, there is no special body in the Ministry that would constantly work with civil society organizations’ projects. The Ministry has a very positive attitude towards these organizations’ activities and they never come across resistance or refusal, on the contrary, most of them are accepted and realized”, says Suzana Dzamtovska, Ministry of Education’s spokesman.

The project “We have no spare planet” of the civil society organization OHO started in 1998 with calendars aimed at children from the fifth to eight grade, in cooperation with the Education Development Bureau, where the first positive opinion about the whole project came from. Before the children received the calendar, it had gone through several filters in the Bureau and the Ministry of Education, where its educational value as a didactical material had been determined. The Bureau distributes the calendars to the schools, in the beginning only few of them and nowadays all schools in Macedonia and most of the primary schools in Serbia and Montenegro. The calendar is a usable didactical material, its messages and drawings are well founded and the quality is its best card tracing its way to the final purpose, primary schools’ pupils. The eco-calendar, as well as the other materials in the same program of the civil society organization OHO, such as puzzle, memory, domino etc, included in the following several years, are the first materials for ecological education in our school system.

“Since 1998 almost every year we have been introducing something new in our program and going through the same procedure of quality evaluation. So far we have had good cooperation with the Bureau and we have very rarely had any obstacles. They were mostly uninterested individuals who have not tried to realize the essence of our projects and their real value. In most of the cases we have come across positive reactions, despite of the fact that a few structures of employed and heads have changed in the Bureau and the Ministry. I always want to hear the opinion of the Bureau’s experts because their critics, both positive and negative are relevant to me. The project is also accepted by teachers who contact us, want new materials, give ideas for bigger cooperation, which means that they definitely get us seriously”, says Aleksandra Mladenovska, program manager. She explains that through personal contacts with colleagues from civil society organizations in the neighboring countries the program has found its place in the educational system of Serbia and Montenegro, too. The program is being realized in 7 towns and this year it is expected the number of used didactical materials to be doubled. “In Serbia first we asked for a contact with the Ministry of Education, we went for an interview, we were well accepted and our project was evaluated as excellent and then its realization as an international project started. I have to point out that the quality of materials and the whole project was a crucial factor and no persuasions were necessary”, points out Mladenovska. In her opinion, the problems with the civil society organizations and accepting their projects is that they do not have any support and for each new project there is a need for re-presentation with great persistence that requires a lot of energy so that people could see the real value of the final product. “Every time we need to present ourselves, we send the materials to the Bureau and we wait for their reply with their remarks and proposals. Then we organize a meeting where we are to explain their and our attitudes and the final form of the project is defined. We sometimes receive the opinion promptly, but sometimes we have to wait longer. I think that for projects that are continuously carried out and have turned out to be of quality, there should be some bigger institutional support. The beauty of “We have no spare planet”, explains Mladenovska, is that it is far from politics and it is a real international project, the characters are designed in a way that children can easily identify themselves regardless of the age, nationality or sex. It is a completely Macedonian product exported abroad”.

In order to develop consumption awareness and consumption behavior, as well as to recognize young consumers with their rights and responsibilities, the Macedonian Consumers’ Organization has realized the project “First steps towards informing and education of children as consumers in the Republic of Macedonia”, in cooperation with the Educational Workers’ Association of the Republic of Macedonia. For that purpose a research team was formed with two target groups for pre-school and primary education, in order to realize certain aspects in the education of the child and the pupil, both as consumers. Publications such as “We are consumers, too” – a picture book aimed at pre-school children and “Child consumer” – a brochure for primary school pupils, grades I-IV came out of the project.

“First positive reactions for support were by the Ministry of Education and Science and the Education Development Bureau, followed by promotion of the picture book and brochure in a few pre-school institutions, in primary schools and a few pedagogical faculties in Macedonia. Simultaneous to these activities in the area of education of children and pupils we will also mention the project Jomag, educating both high school students and professors. Yomag.net is an online magazine where high school students in Europe write essays in fields close to the consumption issue. Two high schools from Macedonia have been actively involved, “Rade Jovcevski-Korcagin” and “Georgi Dimitrov”. They both gave excellent results and were publicly praised at the Teachers and Students Seminar in Berlin”, says Elizabeta Spiridonova from the OPM information department. She also announced preparation of a manual in cooperation with the Education Development Bureau, pre-school teachers, primary school teachers, experts from the legal and didactical-methodological field. It should introduce to the children the issue of consumer and serve as a first teaching aid for organization of educational and other methodological activities.