Which School Projects Will Receive Funding by Teach For Bulgaria’s New Program Learning Together?

The selected projects are going to support schools in different regions of the country: the village of Rumyantsevo (Lovech region), Kyustendil, Razgrad, the village of Topolitsa (Burgas region), Varna, and Sofia

Six schools from different regions of Bulgaria have been selected to receive funding in order to support school-level projects aimed at addressing the educational gaps caused by the pandemic. The funding is provided by Teach For Bulgaria’s new program – Learning Together. 

The program was launched in 2021 with the financial support of the America for Bulgaria Foundation. The goal is to stimulate schools to generate and implement working solutions addressing the educational gaps caused by the pandemic.

These are the selected finalists:

Primary School “Hristo Botev”, Rumyantsevo, Lovech 

High School of Mathematics and Science “Prof. Emanuil Ivanov”, Kyustendil

Primary School “Vasil Levski”, Razgrad

Primary School “Svetlina”, Topolitsa, Burgas

Secondary School “Kliment Ohridski”, Varna

The school projects which have been selected to receive funding address students’ educational gaps, their need for extra support for the upcoming external evaluation exams, and the development of social-emotional skills including identifying and building personal strengths. The projects also involve the integration of digital tools in the classroom, particularly for the development of mathematical and functional literacy in primary school students, etc. 

We received a total of 110 applications from schools all over Bulgaria. The applications were reviewed by a panel of experts who selected 21 projects for the interview round. The six finalists are going to receive a total of nearly 300,000 BGN to fund their projects.  

The projects are to be executed within a year starting from January 1, 2022.

“We believe that the finalists have the potential to address the current challenges of our education system. Our ambition is to disseminate the final products of each project, so that more schools would be able to implement them whenever they face similar challenges,” says Marian Rankov, Head of Educational Projects at Teach For Bulgaria.

After the projects are executed we are going to share all resources with the general public and hopefully, these resources will address all challenges of distance learning. These resources will be disseminated via Teach For Bulgaria’s communication channels and on prepodavame.bg.

Find out more about the finalists and their projects:

Primary School “Hristo Botev”, Rumyantsevo, Lovech

The project aims to support primary school students by developing their social-emotional skills and middle school students by providing them with extra tutoring for the upcoming external evaluation exams in Bulgarian language and literature and math. The project envisions the development of social-emotional learning curricula, teacher training programs, external evaluation exam workshops (including workshops outside of the school, in the neighborhood of Iztok). In an effort to engage students even further, they will be invited to participate in the decision-making process on a school-level. The results of the project and all resources will be disseminated after its successful execution. 

High School of Mathematics and Science “Prof. Emanuil Ivanov”, Kyustendil

The project will support 462 middle school students from the high school of mathematics and a partner school. The participants want to address the knowledge gaps caused by distance learning. Their main academic focus will be Bulgarian language and literature and mathematics. The two schools would also like to help their middle schoolers develop a growth mindset. The best practices and all resources will be collected in a series of handbooks. All handbooks will include methodological guidance, lesson plans, and learning materials. 

Primary School “Vasil Levski”, Razgrad

The project is entirely focused on developing sixth-grade students’ mathematical literacy skills by integrating Khan Academy in class as well as by organizing origami workshops for students and parents and inspirational meetings with alumni of the school. The project envisions the development of a website where best practices, lesson plans, and resources will be published. 

Primary School “Svetlina”, Topolitsa, Burgas

The project aims to address knowledge gaps and heightened anxiety among 4th and 5th-grade students. Some of the project activities involve diagnostic tests, the development of a platform for all specific learning activities, weekly meetings with students aimed at social-emotional learning, teacher trainings, and two summer camps. There is also going to be a website which will have all diagnostic tools, curricula, and lesson plans. 

Secondary School “Kliment Ohridski”, Varna

The project will support 60 students in 1st and 2nd grade. It aims to develop their functional literacy. The project activities include the development of a diagnostic tool, curriculum modification, and the development and testing of a functional literacy curriculum. All resources will be uploaded on the website of the project. 

77th Primary School “St. Cyril and St. Methodius”, Filipovtsi, Sofia

The project will support 147 students from 1st to 7th grade. It is inspired by the experience of KIPP in the US and aims to help students develop 7 “highly predictive strengths”. The project includes teacher trainings, 70 workshops focused on skill development, and 40 interventions for underperforming students. The school is going to partner with Primary School “Yane Sandanski” in Razlog for the execution of this project. The academic staff at Primary School “Yane Sandanski” have experience in implementing workshops focused on skill development and positive education. The results of the project will be published on a website together with all tools, workshops designs, video materials, and instructions.