site.btaProject Providing Quality Education Covers over 780 Schools

Providing quality education for every child is a top priority for the Ministry of Education and Science team, Minister of Education and Science Prof. Galin Tsokov told representatives of the UniCredit Foundation and the global education network Teach For All (TFA). They announced a new phase of their cooperation with a three-year partnership worth EUR 5.5 million. The aim is to promote the idea of equal and quality education for all children in Europe, the press centre of the Ministry of Education said on Wednesday.

"More and more companies should pay attention to education and support it, because it is the most important for the future of Bulgaria," the Minister said, hailing the organisations for their initiatives. For Bulgaria, the foundation's partner is the "Teach for Bulgaria" foundation whose teachers work mainly in schools with students from vulnerable groups and use various tools to motivate them to attend school. With a funding of EUR 450,000, it is planned to expand support for teachers across the system over the next three years, affecting more than 35,000 pupils in over 780 schools, the foundation said.

Bulgaria will also work to strengthen the “Model Schools” programme to develop principals, experienced teachers and novice teachers, and to develop high-quality digital content for teachers to access modern pedagogical tools.

Minister Tsokov said that the Ministry of Education's partnership with “Teach for Bulgaria” in training young teachers is extremely valuable, especially for children from vulnerable groups and their inclusion in school. He highlighted their contribution to teacher training under the Young Talents in Education project.

The Minister noted that the main challenge in Bulgaria is the increasing GPA gap among children: there are few high-performing students and many low-performing students, especially from vulnerable groups. Therefore, supporting projects related to students from vulnerable groups, which the Foundation funds, is very important. He noted the Education Without Borders project (for mathematics education in the lower secondary stage), which enables teachers to develop educational resources that can be made available through the Digital Backpack platform to all students. Support for higher education and professional qualifications, including in higher education, is also important, Minister Tsokov noted. "For several months we have also been preparing in-depth analyses of students' results in order to overcome educational inequalities," he explained.

The new partnership between UniCredit and the global education network Teach For All (TFA) will focus on six countries where the bank operates: Italy, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia.

"I am delighted that we can continue our partnership with "Teach for Bulgaria". We have already implemented joint initiatives, with over 25 colleagues from UniCredit Bulbank being mentors and role models and supporting our joint work for the benefit of children. The start of our new partnership will reward all that has been achieved so far - not only through financial support, but also through even more active involvement of our colleagues as volunteers," said Tsvetanka Mintcheva, CEO of UniCredit Bulbank, during an event dedicated to the partnership between the two organizations.

The presentation was also attended by Natalia Miteva - Deputy Minister of Education and Science, Andrea Orcel - Group Chief Executive Officer of UniCredit, Wendy Sue Kopp, Co-founder and CEO of Teach For All, Trayan Trayanov - Executive Director of the "Teach for Bulgaria" foundation.