Since its beginning in 1994, with technical and financial support from Open Society Institute (NY), Soros Foundation Moldova, Moldova Social Investment Fund (WB), Mott Foundation, OSF (London), UNICEF, ISSA, and in partnership with the MECR and local educational authorities, SBSM has implemented a series of projects aimed at the democratization of the country education system through the implementation of a child/learner-centered classroom model in kindergartens and primary schools. Visit SBSM website www.pascupas.md to find more about their organisation and projects.

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Project Summary:

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The project Strengthening SBSM Capacity for Promoting Child-Centred Education builds on and deepens the impact of the previous three phases of the project A Good Start in Life for Rural Children in Moldova. In the first phase of the named project, SBSM provided technical assistance (training and mentoring) to 65 newly created rural kindergartens and Community Centres (CC) and 33 in magnet raion-level kindergartens with established resource centres, guiding their staff towards the new professional requirements based on a child-centred approach. In the second phase, besides continuing to support the kindergartens and CCs whose staff displayed personal commitment to professional growth, SBSM focused on ways of ensuring the successful transition of children to primary school based on the continuity of child-centred practices, respectively providing trainings and mentoring to primary teachers. Further, the project supported the upgrading of pre-service teacher training practices and tuned them to the new requirements in teacher profession. The third phase aimed to strengthen the capacity of the national team of expert practitioners/trainers/mentors for implementing quality child-centred education and for promoting their understanding. Besides, SBSM advocated for a smoother and more successful children's' transition between pre-school and school. 

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Project Description:

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In order to strengthen its organizational capacity as an important player in promoting democratic changes in education, especially in Early Childhood Education, SBSM will seek the official accreditation as an in-service teacher training center and will explore new ways of supporting teachers’ continuous development responding to new demands in profession. 

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SBSM will also strengthen its strategic partnerships with the pre-service teacher training institutions and the respective (pre-)schools serving for student practice, so as to bridge the gap between Child-Centred Education theory and practice and to foster the development of new competences required for the new teachers’ roles. Among these are observation and documentation of child’s progress, (self-)reflection and critical understanding of the impact of own practices, while focusing on process-(rather than content-) oriented teaching. For this, SBSM will rely on its long-term experience in Child-Centred Education implementation and on the internationally recognized ISSA tools as reference for building a shared understanding of quality education.

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SBSM will continuous promote a whole-school approach to changes in education for the sustainability of changes at the classroom level, will collect/document good child/learner-centered practices, will disseminate and advocate for these as ways of fostering the Competences for Democratic Culture (targeted in the European Reference Framework), without which no real social inclusion, mutual support and respect for diversity is possible.

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Project Outcome:

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The overall objective of the current project is to strengthen the capacity of SBSM so they can further play an important role in promoting democratic changes in education, particularly in Early Childhood Education, through new ways of teacher training, focusing on a reflection-based implementation of the child/learner-centered approach. 

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Expected Outputs:

 

1. Adequate physical conditions ensured to meet the accreditation standards as a Centre for Continous Professional Development and new educational/course materials designed

2. SBSM human capacities for diverse ways of responding to new demands in teaching profession developed

3. Strategic partnerships between SBSM,  the pre-service Teacher Training colleges/ universities and (pre-) schools strengthened for a better preparation of the teacher students for Child-Centred Education