 Step by Step Program Foundation/Bulgaria is
a non-governmental organization working in the
field of the Bulgarian education since 1994.
Vision
Quality education for the XXI century.
Mission
As an educational model, the Step by Step Program
- Bulgaria spreads ideas concerning the implementation
of the following activities through using democratic
principles for education:
- Offering educational technologies and strategies
connected with interactive teaching methods and
organization of the school environment;
- Monitoring, evaluation and research of educational
projects;
- Developing specific projects in the field
of permanent education as well as training and
re-training teachers.
Connected to this, the Step by Step Program Foundation
conducts the following projects:
- Infant and Toddler Groups Project
- Preschool Project
- Primary School Project
- Higher Education Project
- Children with Special Educational Needs Project
- Boards of School Trustees Project
- Municipality - Model Site Project
- Special Schools Project
In order for the Foundation to successfully fulfill
its mission, the Step by Step Program works in
cooperation with governmental institutions and
non-governmental organizations from Bulgaria and
abroad. Some of the Foundation's partners are:
Ministry of Education and Science, Open Society
Foundation - Sofia, Open Society Institute - New
York, Bulgarian National Committee for UNICEF,
PHARE Program, Socrates National Agency, Catholic
Relief Services.
The Step by Step network in Bulgaria includes
57 kindergartens, 32 mainstream schools, 3 helping
schools and 5 pedagogical faculties evenly distributed
all over the country.
The Step by Step Program was approved by the
Ministry of Education and Science: - for Preschool
- act #92-00-185/15.05.1995
- for Primary school - act #92-00-48/28.03.1997
- for Helping school - act #06329/21.07.1999 and act #20655/28.12.2000
Qualification Activity of Step by Step Program
Foundation
Connected to the Foundation's main activities,
a project for qualification has been developed
and the basic thematic units for training are specified
in it. These modules include:
1) for principals - Philosophy and main
components of Step by Step Program, team work,
assessing the quality of the school work, self-support,
family involvement;
2) for teachers - Philosophy and main
components of Step by Step Program, interactive
teaching methods, thematic teaching, new educational
technologies, organizing a child-centered school
environment, individualization, observing and assessing
children's development, anti-bias, integrating
children with special educational needs and minority
children;
3) for parents - Philosophy and main components
of Step by Step Program, communication, parent
involvement, creating effective boards of school
trustees and advocacy.
Since we began our work, 25 faculty teachers,
440 student teachers, 92 principals, 1500 teachers,
45 nurses and 100 parents from the Step by Step
network have been trained on the specific training
modules. According to the Agreement between the
Ministry of Education and the Foundation (#599/18.11.1998)
more than 1000 preschool and primary teachers and
principals interested in the Step by Step methodology
have participated in training workshops. The preschool
and primary experts from the regional inspectorates
of the Ministry of Education have been trained
as well. Connected to this, 19 preschool sites
and 7 primary sites have been equipped and now
are functioning as training model sites where conditions
for training conducted by 25 Step by Step trainers
have been ensured.
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