Interethnic Integration in Education Project QUARTERLY PROGRAM PERFORMANCE REPORT No. 9 January 1, 2014 – March 31, 2014 Student message in the spirit of integrated education Submitted by: Macedonian Civic Education Center (MCEC) under Cooperative Agreement No. AID-165-A-12-00002 USAID Interethnic Integration in Education Project QUARTERLY REPORT #9, January 2014 – March 2014 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1. Background 3 2. Progress Towards Objectives 4 3. Crosscutting Activities 6 4. Project Activities 10 4.1. Community Outreach 10 4.2. Capacity Building of School Management and Teachers 12 4.3. Demonstration Schools 20 4.4. Providing Incentives to Schools and Communities 25 5. Lessons learned 31 6. Activities to Increase Participation of People with Disabilities (PWDs) 33 7. Activities in the next reporting period 34 8. List of appendices 36 2 USAID Interethnic Integration in Education Project QUARTERLY REPORT #9, January 2014 – March 2014 MACEDONIAN CIVIC EDUCATION CENTER (MCEC) USAID INTERETHNIC INTEGRATION IN EDUCATION PROJECT (IIEP) QUARTERLY PROGRAM PERFORMANCE REPORT No. 9 Cooperative Agreement No: AID-165-A-12-00002 Progress Report No: 9 Reporting Period: January 1, 2014 – March 31, 2014 1. BACKGROUND On December 2, 2011, the Macedonian Civic Education Center (MCEC) signed the Cooperative Agreement with USAID agreeing to provide support to USAID’s Interethnic Integration in Education Project (IIEP). IIEP is a four-year, USD 5.2 million initiative targeting all primary and secondary schools in Macedonia. The main objective of IIEP is to build awareness and provide diversity training, technical assistance, and incentives to school boards, principals, teachers, and administration officials in support of interethnic integration in education. It will build broad public understanding on the benefits for all citizens as a result from integrating Macedonia’s education system. IIEP will also create the political, social and economic environment need for Macedonia to achieve sustained interethnic integration in schools, in other educational institutions and eventually all of society. Complementing this, the project team will strengthen the capacity of school staff, students and parents to address issues of diversity and equity in their schools and communities. Project’s approach is comprised of four mutually-supporting and inter-related components. 1. Community Outreach; 2. Capacity Building of School Management and Teachers; 3. Demonstration Schools; and 4. Providing Incentives to Schools and Communities. Students, parents, teachers, administrators and school board members in all primary and secondary schools across Macedonia will be the primary focus of project activities. Additionally, BDE advisors and education inspectors at national and regional level will also be central to achieving sustained change and will actively participate in capacity strengthening activities. Achieving success also demands that IIEP actively engage stakeholders in schools, communities and local governments in the integrated mix of project activities. MCEC is implementing IIEP on behalf of USAID in partnership with educational institutions in Macedonia (Bureau for Development of Education, State Examination Center, State Education Inspectorate, Vocational Education Center) and seven local NGOs (Center for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution, Loja, Sumnal, Multimedia, My Career, Macedonian Institute for Media and Youth Education Forum). 3 USAID Interethnic Integration in Education Project QUARTERLY REPORT #9, January 2014 – March 2014 2. PROGRESS TOWARDS OBJECTIVES During the reporting period the following was accomplished: Crosscutting Activities: . IIEP Work Plan for activities in the year of 2014 prepared; . Partner organizations’ annual performance evaluation for the year 2013 conducted; . Sub-grant contracts with six partner organizations, based on the IIEP Annual Plan of Work for 2014 renewed; . Coordination of the partners performed (Summary Partners Quarterly Reports – Appendix 1); . No-cost-extension of the Sub-grant contract with partner organization My Career approved; . Capacity building for mentorship to schools on IIE organized (workshop attended by representatives Loja and Sumnal). Monitoring and Evaluation: . Monitoring report for pilot schools completed; . Evaluation report for pilot schools completed; . Preparation for the monitoring of the second phase schools completed (documents, selection of mentors/supervisors, training); . Monitoring check lists for collecting data from the demonstration schools adapted; . Preparation for evaluation of the effects of the IIEP activities in Phase 2 schools started; . Development of an electronic survey application started; . Information sharing with MoES regarding IIEP/PMP. Component One, Public Outreach: . Two (2) meetings with Macedonian Radio Television (MRTV) organized; . IIEP Web site and Other Web-based Communication Resources updated; . IIEP activities covered by local and national media; . Production and dissemination of information materials for IIE developed and disseminated; . Collection of chronicles of the best practices from the creative workshops recorded; . Training of Trainers for implementation of creative workshops for teachers from the six (6) municipalities from the Phase 3 held; . Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue through 10 Creative Workshops in six (6) secondary schools from selected six (6) municipalities implemented; . Two (2) trainings for production of multimedia content in the context of interethnic integration in education (Youth-via-Media Program) implemented; . Forum Theatre workshop for the IIEP team, USAID representatives, partner organizations and master trainers organized and implemented; . Public Debate with the topic "Ethnically separated buildings (don’t) obstruct integration" at the debate club in Kumanovo held; . Short videos to present the IIEP activities to wider public produced. Component Two, Capacity Building of School Management and Teachers: . Forum on Interethnic Integration in Education at the Teacher Training Faculties in Macedonia held; 4 USAID Interethnic Integration in Education Project QUARTERLY REPORT #9, January 2014 – March 2014 . Meeting with the management of Teacher Training faculty “St. Kliment Ohridski” – Bitola held; . Instruments for Integral Evaluation revised and new school integral evaluation instruments and procedures developed; . Joint Students Activities continued with newly selected 10 primary schools; . Basic trainings of School Integration Teams from Phase 3 started; . Cooperation between the National Examination Center (NEC) and IIEP strengthened; . Guide for Interethnic Integration in Education prepared; Component Three, Demonstration Schools: . Five (5) school manifestations organized in three demonstration schools; . One (1) two-day training for school board members from all demonstration schools held; . Five (5) debriefing meetings (one in each demonstration school) with SIT and teachers, implementers of activities carried out; . Three (3) events for promotion of project activities (in each event two demonstration schools have participated) organized; . One (1) debriefing meeting with partner organizations and BDE advisors organized; . Eight (8) support meetings with monitoring and mentoring activities (two per demonstration school with two-three languages of instruction) held; . Three (3) one-day training for parents for taking school initiatives carried out; . Two (2) one-day trainings for SITs for team building and group cohesion held; . Two (2) one day training for teachers implementers of activities on production of multimedia content in context of interethnic integration in education organized; . Four (4) workshops for language acquisition with first grade students held; . One (1) workshop with SITs from partner demonstration school organized; . Memorandum of Understanding signed with Municipality of Ohrid and demonstration school from Ohrid. Component Four, Providing Incentives to Schools and Communities: . Technical acceptance of the project in PS Nikola Karev in Kocani completed; . First meeting for Phase 3 with Working Group for Component 4 held; . Methodology for ranking of demonstration schools and selection of three demonstration schools for participation in C4 in 2014 developed; . Information sent to the eligible schools regarding the announcement of the application process, and information posted on the IIEP web-page; . School applications for renovation collected; . Evaluation of submitted school applications by the Working Group members completed; . Top 20 applications evaluated with direct involvement of Capacity Building Component team; . 13 schools for renovation in Phase 3 selected; . Site visit of schools selected in Phase 3 stared; . Call for selection of Consulting engineering company to provide training and technical assistance published; . Joint Environmental Mitigation and Monitoring Plan (EMMP) prepared; . Cost-share documents for school renovation projects from the second year collected, prepared and signed by municipalities. 5 USAID Interethnic Integration in Education Project QUARTERLY REPORT #9, January 2014 – March 2014 3. CROSSCUTTING ACTIVITIES 3.1. IIEP Work Plan for 2014 The IIEP Work Plan for the period February 2014 – January 2015 was developed during the month of January. IIEP team worked jointly on development of the Work Plan of activities, whereas the activities were specifically planned in the framework of each component and the M&E activities. Identified needs