site.btaBulgarian Educational Mediators, Teachers, Kindergarten Directors Undergo Training in Norway

Educational mediators, teachers, and kindergarten directors from 11 Bulgarian municipalities visited Norway to undergo training on lasting inclusion of children from vulnerable groups in the education process and preserving their cultural identity as representatives of various ethnicities. The participants also got acquainted with methods for building a safe and inclusive education environment, the Ministry of Education and Science reported Wednesday.

The training put an emphasis on intercultural education, the mediators supporting children throughout the inclusion process, and the work with families and parents' participation. The participants gained knowledge about building a comprehensive school approach to democratic education. they got acquainted with the Council of Europe's Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture and with the methods and approaches to its integration in their everyday work.

The Bulgarian group was led by Deputy Education and Science Minister Emiliya Lazarova. The visit was within a project on building capacity for educational and social inclusion, implemented by the Centre for Educational Integration of Children and Students from Ethnic Minorities in partnership with the St Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia and the European Wergeland Centre (EWC) in Oslo.

The training took place at the EWC. The participants visited local kindergartens and got acquainted in the field with work with children from immigrant families of various nationalities as well as with various forms and technologies for these children to learn Norwegian.

The participants also visited the Romano Kher Roma Cultural and Resource Centre for Roma culture and history. They learned practices for providing children and students from vulnerable groups with equal access to education and additional support for personal development.

The participating teachers, mediators and kindergarten directors were from Sofia, Plovdiv, Burgas, Kyustendil, Pernik, Samokov, Lom, Boychinovtsi, Muglizh, Nikolaevo, and Stamboliyski. They were joined in the training by the head of the project, Dr Lalo Kamenov, and Greta Gancheva, head of he Education Ministry's Inclusive Education Directorate. They were welcomed by Bulgarian Ambassador to Norway Dessislava Ivanova and EWC Executive Director Ana Perona-Fjeldstad.

The project is funded under the Local Development, Poverty Reduction and Enhanced Inclusion of Vulnerable Groups project of the EEA Financial Mechanism (2014-2021).