Call for Proposals: Integrated Education Fund (North Macedonia)

The Fund aims at increasing inter-ethnic interaction, understanding and integration among children and youth by motivating and financially supporting multilingual schools (primary and secondary), and/or paired monolingual schools, with different languages of instruction, as well as pedagogical institutes to implement joint curricular classes and extra-curricular activities.

Objectives

• The specific objectives of the IEF are:
  • To strengthen inter-ethnic relations among children and youth of different language and cultural backgrounds through joint curricular classes;
  • To encourage activities that provide space for inter-ethnic engagement in line with school curricula and ministerial guidelines;
  • To support sustainable initiatives that could be easily repeated in the future.
  • To instil mutual respect and overcome ethnic stereotypes and prejudices;
  • To develop a sense of community and belonging through universal values.

Building New Bridges

• The Building New Bridges (BNB) project builds on the 2014-2021 Building Bridges Fund (BB), which introduced a model for integrated education in North Macedonia by supporting schools, municipalities, and civil society organizations (CSOs) to pair children of different backgrounds and languages through joint extra-curricular activities.
• This new project further aims to build inclusive societies that cherish and take pride in cultural pluralism and respect for tolerance, dialogue, and co-operation, in a climate of mutual trust and understanding as the best guarantees of social peace and security.
• The BNB is currently supported by the Kingdom of Norway, the Republic of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the United States of America.

Funding Information

• Under the second call for proposals, the BNB Fund provides grants of up to 5000 Euro for eligible schools, teacher training faculties, and municipalities, between June 2024 and May 2025.

Eligibility of Project Activities

• Curricular Classes: Schools and Teacher Training/Pedagogical Faculties.
  • Joint curricular classes are mandatory for schools and teacher training faculties under the Integrated Education Fund.
  • Schools and teacher training/pedagogical faculties that apply under this Call must fill out sections I, II, III, IV and VI, VII, VIII and IX of the application. Please note that although section V (extra-curricular activities) is optional for schools and teacher training faculties, it is strongly advised to include some complementary extra-curricular activities as part of the application. Please note: The budget for extra-curricular activities should not exceed 250 Euro.
  • The Integrated Education Fund has a strong focus on joint curricular classes among children of different language of instruction and ethnic backgrounds in line with the “Guidelines on how to conduct joint curricular classes” developed by the Ministry of Education and Science. The implementation of joint curricular classes (e.g., Physical Education, English, Science, or any other elective subject that support emotional and social development) should aim at guarantying continuity and frequency of contact among the same group of pupils/students across two semesters on a weekly/bi-weekly basis.
  • Please note: Joint curricular classes must be in line with the national curriculum.
  • A flexible use of languages should be ensured throughout the implementation of joint curricular classes (and extra-curricular activities). In line with ministerial guidelines, during the realization of joint classes, teachers are encouraged to speak in their mother tongue without recurring to simultaneous interpretation but paraphrase relevant information instead so that students can follow lessons in different languages and be exposed to the language of the Other.
  • For this Call, participating students in the primary school must be between the 1st and 7th grade at the time of the application and in the 1st or 2ndyear of study for secondary school/faculty students. With regard to vocational schools, students should be in their 1st grade at the time of the application.
• Extra-Curricular Activities: Schools/Teacher Training Faculties and Municipalities (optional)
  • Schools and teacher training faculties are strongly recommended to complement planned joint curricular classes with some extra-curricular activities. Extra-curricular activities must be clearly justified in the way they support joint curricular classes. Extra-curricular activities can include debating clubs and competitions, preparing joint school newsletter, artistic performances.
  • Please note that extra-curricular activities involving parents of selected pupils/students will receive particular attention.
  • Extra-curricular activities can also be organized directly by an applying municipality to promote the project and participating schools without reference to a specific curricular subject.
  • Project proposals must also ensure that teachers of different languages are involved in the co-creation of joint curricular and extra-curricular activities that are “truly” mixed with:
    • An equal representation of children from different languages of instruction engaged cooperatively towards a common objective during joint curricular classes;
    • An equal participation of boys and girls, as well as those with special needs and active parents/guardians;
    • The exclusion of any political discourse during curricular and extracurricular activities.

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible for a grant, the applicant must be a public school, a teacher training/pedagogical faculty, or a municipality. If the applicant is a school with more than one language of instruction, then the applicant can apply as a single applicant, but must involve students from at least two languages of instruction among those in use in the school. If the applicant school is mono-lingual, the application must include at least one partner school with different language/s of instruction. The same rule applies if the applicant is a teacher training faculty – the application has to include schools with at least two different languages of instruction and/or a partner teacher training faculty with at least one different language of instruction.
• If funded, at the beginning of project activities, each grant recipient is requested to carry out a baseline survey to measure the initial degree of social cohesion among participating boys and girls. Specifically, the survey is intended to measure perceptions of belonging, inclusion, tolerance, and participation as important domains of social cohesion. The survey will be developed by the BNB Unit and carried out by grant recipients. Participants will be assured of confidentiality of the information provided in the survey. All data will be securely stored and maintained within the Mission’s server. The baseline survey findings will feed into the project’s final self-evaluation report.

For more information, visit OSCE.