GPKT Education Committee

Phase I Activities

Following the Education Working Group meeting held in November 2004 (GPKT Meeting Report 11), the GPKT Education Committee was established. The Committee includes teachers, school directors/head teachers, municipal education officials, and parents who are linked to various kindergartens, primary, and secondary schools from all of the four municipalities and ethnic groups in the GPKT micro-region.

Beginning with the first collaborative event, a schools competition day (GPKT Activity Update 2) in November 2003, the Committee has met regularly over the last year to discuss common needs and problems, and to identify collaborative solutions. Members of the Committee also benefited from EWI training in basic computer skills (link to GPKT AU 6) and project cycle management (link to GPKT Activity Updates 8) in November and December 2004.

Activities in 2005 began with the GPKT Children’s Art Competition (GPKT Activity Update 13), held at the end of February 2005, and the first ever multi-ethnic event to be held in the ‘new’ partner municipality, Trgoviste (a predominantly ethnic Serb municipality which joined the GPK region in mid-2004): children from Albanian, Serbian and Macedonian ethnic groups from all four GPKT municipalities spent a day painting pictures on the theme ‘Friends Across Borders’.

Following the success of the Art Competition, a GPKT Schools Summer Sports Competition (GPKT Activity Update 19) was organised in Presevo in May 2005 for children from all four municipalities. Teams from six schools competed in football, basketball and athletics, and there was strong support for the proposal to turn the competition into an annual GPKT schools sports event.

GPKT Education Committee activities ended the summer with a series of collaborative theatre performances (GPKT Activity Update 26) in June 2005. Following proposals from the Committee and planning meetings (GPKT Meeting Report 18), GPKT schools from each municipality joined efforts to hold four performances, each comprising short dance, song or theatre components from the different schools, in each of the GPKT towns. With audiences from the communities as well as the host schools, and the performance of various traditional music and dance routines, this series of joint theatre events represented significant progress on encouraging cultural awareness and tolerance.

At the close of the first phase of project activity, the Education Committee met in August 2005 (GPKT Meeting Report 32) to look at strategic directions for continued cross-border activities going forward into the second GPKT cycle. As part of EWI’s internal monitoring and evaluation system, at the end of the meeting all participants were asked to complete questionnaire on their feelings about GPKT activities to date and what they hoped to see in the future.

Phase II Activities

The Education Committee started the second phase of the GPKT Project with a strategic planning meeting (GPKT Phase II - Education Committee Meeting Report No.1). Looking back at the achievements and challenges of the last year, and the results of the August 2005 evaluation questionnaire, Committee members identified common problems and needs, goals for their collaborative work and continued cross-border co-operation between teachers and children in GPKT communities, and planned a series of joint cross-border activities and training for the coming months.

March 2006 saw the first activity for the Education Committee, a 2-day training course on fund-raising (GPKT Phase II - Education Committee Meeting Report No.2), held in Brezovica, Kosovo and organised jointly by EWI and Catholic Relief Services. Based on application forms, ten selected teachers from GPKT schools attended, improving their skills for proposal writing, donor relations, methods, funding options, applications, information presentation and reporting.

The Committee’s next activity - a Cultural Exchange Day (GPKT Phase II - Education Committee Report No.3) in Kumanovo, took place in early April 2006. It involved primary school pupils from the four municipalities and their teachers, who visited cultural sites in and around Kumanovo. Cultural Exchange Days are planned to take place in all GPKT municipalities by the end of the year.