Discussion and Conclusions
Following introductions, the discussion moved
straight into discussion of proposed activities to be undertaken by
the Committee.
At the last meeting, the NGO Search for Common Ground had made a
presentation on their projects for multi-ethnic and multi-lingual
education in Macedonia, including multi-lingual kindergarten
teaching through their ‘Mozaik’ project, and multi-lingual education
programmes and theatre as part of their ‘Nase Malo’ project. This
had clearly sparked ideas among the GPKT teachers. As one
kindergarten teacher noted, “their presentation of activities
started me thinking, and we could do something similar”.
GPKT Children’s Theatre
The most popular proposal from the participants was to organise a
theatre performance with the children from the schools involved.
After discussion, it was decided that for a first step, ‘pilot’
activity of this kind, it would be better to have a multi-ethnic
performance overall, but to leave attempts to organise multi-lingual
performances until a later stage.
So it was decided that each municipality would put forward three
short performances from each age group, with the categories of
kindergarten, primary school and secondary school: in mixed
communities different languages could be used in the three
performances depending on the children performing. In this way, the
performance overall would be multi-lingual and multi-ethnic, but the
specific components would probably be in just one language.
Each municipality’s contribution would be around 45 minutes long,
and it would be up to the designated co-ordinators from each
municipality to discuss with the teachers and schoolchildren
involved in their municipality and come up with the three
performances of music, drama, dance, comedy sketches etc., depending
on what children were interested in performing.
The final programme of about three hours or so would then be
performed in all four municipalities, touring over a series of
weekends, and with the first performance in Kumanovo in April.
Parents, teachers, school children and communities would be invited
as an audience for the performances in each town.
EWI agreed to pay contributions towards the costumes and any props
needed for the performances, refreshment expenses and travel
expenses, and any equipment or heating costs needed for the
community theatre spaces in each municipality. EWI staff agreed to
send out a basic plan of action for co-ordination meetings and
confirm dates for use of the theatre facilities in each town, and to
help with logistics as necessary.
Additional Proposals
The Committee members also had other proposals for future joint
Committee activities, including sports and more integrated drama
performances, and support was given to the idea of linking more
closely with Search for Common Ground experts on possible future
multi-lingual theatre performances.
Trgoviste Art Competition
A final proposal for an activity was a children’s art competition in
Trgoviste. As the newest member of the GPKT micro-region, Trgoviste
had not yet had the opportunity to host an event or meeting, partly
because of its later involvement in the project, and also because of
the more challenging transport access to the town, particularly in
winter.
As a first event for Trgoviste, a children’s art competition was
proposed as a positive and neutral first GPKT event for the
municipality to host. Children would paint on the day in Trgoviste
at the town’s Dom Kultura and on the theme of ‘Friends across
Borders’. Participants would compete in three age groups: 7 to 10
years old, 10 to 12 years, and 12 to 14 years. Each municipality
would send three or four children for each age group, with their
teachers, who would together act as a GPKT teachers judging
committee for the winners.
The GPKT Education Committee members welcomed this suggestion, and
teachers agreed to act as contact points for the selection of
children to represent each municipality in the competition, and as
facilitators and ‘judges’ on the day. The possibility of Trgoviste’s
school children also performing some short musical piece to
entertain the visitors on the day was also discussed and welcomed.
The proposed date of Saturday 26 February was agreed on, and EWI
committed to funding and assisting with the organisation of
transport, funding refreshments on the day, art materials, T-shirts
and small rosettes or certificates for each young artist, as well as
small prizes for the winners.
MPLF micro-grants
As the last item on the agenda, the EWI/SEE Change MPLF micro-grant
programme was discussed. EWI staff answered questions and gave
guidance on different aspects of the cross-border grants and
application process, and the meeting broke up into ‘consultation
time’ for Education Committee members to discuss coalitions and
applications.
Participants at the meeting
|
