Activity report for 1999(PDF) - Soros Foundation Moldova

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SOROS FOUNDATION MOLDOVA
pre-school and primary classrooms, where children
could live the experience of mini-democracies while
developing critical thinking.
The program is officially recognized and recommended
for wide implementation. Its training certificates
are taken into account by the teachers’ accreditation
boards through a decision of the Ministry of
Education Experts Board (May 25, 1999).
1999 witnessed the results of profound changes
started in 1994 within the program component “Childcentered
Education: Pre-school”, followed by other initiatives
– “Primary School” and “Higher Education”
(1996), and “Infants and Toddlers” (1997). By integrating
all these components, the impact of the program in
reforming the whole process of pre-service and in-service
training for pre-school and primary education
became much deeper and more systemic. In 1999 a
large group of trainers – more than 30 teachers and
faculty – finalized their training. Many of them had the
chance, during these years, to attend numerous regional
trainings in Romania and the USA. These trainers
got actively involved in training teachers in Chiøinæu
and Bælfli training centers. By the end of 1999 over 230
primary and 500 pre-school classrooms were implementing
the program. The involvement with the program
helped many kindergartens to survive in places
where parents had choices, since they were clearly preferred
by the latter for the quality of education.
Between November 25-26, 1999, a theoretical-practical
conference marking 5 years of program’s existence
gathered a large number of top officials from the
Ministry of Education, World Bank, etc., as well as representatives
of the many institutions implementing
Step by Step and faculty. The concurrent thematic
workshops and the rich exhibition provided a good
framework for fruitful exchanges between specialists
from all program components.
A new initiative was launched in 1999: Integrating
Children with Special Needs. This is becoming an issue
of concern in Moldova, particularly in rural areas,
where the number of children with special needs is
increasing, while the number of institutions providing
special services is decreasing.
The 1999/2000 school year, being a final year for
the primary cycle for the first generation of children in
the program, is particularly important for Step by Step.
In order to ensure continuity to the educational technologies
promoted by the program and to facilitate
transition to secondary school, the Step by Step team,
together with another Soros Foundation program –
Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking (RWCT), initiated
a series of trainings for the Step by Step schools.
In 1999 the seminar for faculty from teacher training
universities and colleges continued its work. The
most essential changes in the curriculum (a new compulsory
course – Alternative Educational Systems: Step
by Step; Observation and Recording, etc.), in ways of
training teacher students and planning their practicum
took place in A. Russo State University in Bælfli, Bælfli
and Soroca Teacher Training Colleges, and in I. Creangæ
Pedagogical University in Chiøinæu.
For two years Step by Step has had as its strategic
partner the World Bank. Moldova Social Investment
Fund (MSIF) in its micro projects focused on schools in
rural areas – 38% of all micro projects. By the end of
1999, 30 schools were involved in this joint project;
197 teachers, school administrators, and mayors from
these villages attended trainings offered by Step by
Step.
The shared belief for this partnership is that
human investment is the most significant, absolutely
necessary and decisive for the democratic change of our
society. Since these teachers come from rural area,
some trainings were organized by Step by Step in village
schools implementing the program, which had a
greater convincing power for the trainees.
Step by Step supported these schools with various
educational materials for children and teachers, including
encyclopedic dictionaries, alternative textbooks,
other literature so badly needed under the circumstances.
All the materials are open-ended and stimulate
active learning, learning through doing and discovery,
and help promote critical thinking in children.
Preschool Education
New Initiatives
SbS – MSIF partnership got extended to include
kindergartens as well. Teaching staff from Budeøti
kindergarten (6 classrooms) and Petrunea, Glodeni Kprimary
school (6 pre-school and 4 primary classrooms)
are being trained. New educational institutions from
Cælimæneøti, Nisporeni and Varnifla will soon join in.
A new initiative – Integrating Children with Special
Needs – was launched. The first group of trainees
included kindergarten teachers and medical staff, as
well as special needs experts. A group of local trainers
for this initiative took part in a five-day regional training
with American experts in Poiana Braøov, Romania.
Continuous Training of SbS Teachers
Using the training base of the two program training
centers – Bælfli kindergarten #43 and Chiøinæu
kindergarten # 216 – the SbS core team, local trainers
and invited experts offered a total of 67 days of training
and guided observation for “1 to 3” and “3 to 7”
age group teachers (18 and 46 days), and administrators
(3 days) on a large variety of topics.
A total number of 1447people benefited from training.
Seminars for regional and central education
administrators for promoting education reform using
SbS model – 8 days (Chiøinæu #188, #146, Bælfli #43,
Cæuøeni #1, Sîngerei # 6, Chiøinæu #216)