Bulgarian students will be taught how to make their first million, how to manage a hotel, how to behave in high society, how to write screenplays and how they could become actors, photographers, journalists, star rangers and whatnot. This is only a small part of over twelve thousand extracurricular activities that have started in Bulgarian schools with the beginning of the second term of the school year in more than 1,300 schools across the country. These extracurricular workshops and clubs have been implemented within the framework of the project "School for self-improvement and aspiration to European horizons" (whose acronym in Bulgarian means Success), which is under the Human Resources OP.
The funds allocated by the EC amount to 100 million lev and will cover a three-year period. The first year covers about 80 percent of schools eligible to apply for the project and the free extracurricular activities will include over 150,000 students from the 1st to 12th grade.
We learn more about the objectives of the project more from its leader and expert at the Ministry of Education Assen Alexandrov:
”The acronym USPEH (meaning “success”) is already very popular across the country. The overall objective is to rationalize the leisure time of students in state and municipal schools. We hope that this will be helpful, especially to those students who need specific support. These are children at risk of dropping out, those who do not attend school regularly or have signs of aggression. We expect that the extracurricular activities will increase the motivation of students to participate in the educational process. Motivation increases when you do something interesting. The idea of this project is to offer children what they like to do. And when this hobby takes place in school, they will become interested and will enjoy going to school. Students need to develop additional skills and competencies that will surely happen among such a variety of activities. Lastly, the goal is to limit the number of early leavers from education and children who are aggressive”.
About 15 percent of all students are willing to join extra sports classes. Another 13 percent have expressed a preference for the workshop in Communication skills, including participation in a drama studio, writing a school newspaper or electronic media, public speaking skills and others. Another 8 per cent of children want to learn more about web design, to make various multimedia presentations and videos. Among the most common interests are also languages and entrepreneurship. According to Assen Alexandrov, all these activities aim to promote the personal development of children, to provoke the free expression of the inventors and adventurers in them. On the other hand, the project is an attractive center for teachers to realize their unconventional teaching ideas, the expert believes.
"Teachers in turn will be able to bring to school their hobbies, as well. They will focus on how they could impress their students outside the classroom. We often talk about how the fixed curriculum restricts the use unconventional methods. Funds have been provided to pay for their labor, and there are also funds for the necessary teaching materials. About 40 percent of the funds awarded under the project are earmarked for purchasing materials for these workshops. Another great benefit is that it will encourage reforms in the school administration. School principals are facing the challenges of earning, monitoring and managing European projects through a single electronic system. Simultaneously with running this project, school principals will learn how to manage European funds."
A special website has been created for the project, which is www.uspeh.mon.bg, which already has 40,000 visitors per week.
Translated by Rossitsa Petcova
