
Amalipe Center urges the Ministry of Education and Science and the Agency for Intelligent Growth Operational Program to extend the Support for Success project for another school year
Amalipe Center urges the Ministry of Education and Science and the Agency for Intelligent Growth Operational Program to extend the Support for Success project for another school year, increase the salaries of educational mediators and provide a bonus to educational mediators who work at the first line during the closure of schools in December 2020. – January 2021 In a special letter to the Minister of Education Krassimir Valchev, the Executive Director of IA OPNOIR – Kiril Geratliev and to the project manager “Support for Success” – Greta Gancheva, the organization welcomed the successful implementation of the project “Support for Success” and the appointment of hundreds of educational mediators. social workers to schools. At the same time, the Amalipe Center insists on better pay and sustainable pay for educational mediators.
The project “Support for Success” has been implemented since April 2019, and in September 2019. over 800 educational mediators and social workers were appointed under the project. A year earlier, more than 200 educational mediators were appointed with the funds for work with vulnerable groups provided by the Ministry of Education and Science to schools in accordance with the ordinance on funding, Art. 52a and 52b. Educational mediators proved the need for their fieldwork very soon after their appointment. Their “baptism of fire” was distance learning in March-June 2020, when, at the risk of their health, educational mediators toured students’ homes without distance learning devices, making them the only link between many students and schools. Study of the Amalipe Center from June 2020. indicates that over 70% of schools with a concentration of vulnerable groups have actively used educational mediators to organize distance learning. The picture was similar during the second school closure in December 2020 – January 2021.
The Amalipe Center will continue to support the appointment of educational mediators, as well as their better pay and the sustainability of this position.