The projects under the “Desegregation and Prevention of Secondary Segregation” Procedure have been approved.
The Executive Agency “Education Programs” publishes the results of Procedure BG05SFPR001-1.008 “COMPLEX PROGRAMS AT MUNICIPAL LEVEL FOR SCHOOL DESEGREGATION, PREVENTION OF SECONDARY SEGREGATION AND AGAINST DISCRIMINATION (THROUGH SELECTION)” within Priority 1 “Inclusive Education and Educational Integration” of the PO.
The total amount of the approved grant for the 27 project proposals proposed for funding is BGN 15,810,742.57 (including BGN 12,944,561.40 from the ESF+ and BGN 2,866,181.17 from national co-financing). This represents just over half of the planned amount of nearly BGN 29 million.
The procedure is aimed at promoting the process of educational desegregation and preventing secondary segregation in schools.
The specific objectives of the procedure are:
– Support local communities to overcome prejudices and negative public attitudes in the process of desegregation in education;
– Support to prevent or overcome the processes of secondary segregation in schools.
The balance sheet from the application procedure indicates several things:
- Improved capacity of the Managing Authority (EAPO): Projects under the Procedure were reviewed and approved in an unprecedentedly fast manner – in less than five months. To this should be added the simplified reporting procedures (based on the so-called “flat rates”), as well as the relatively short deadlines for verification of submitted reports (within the framework of the previous procedures);
- Relatively low interest and the related underutilization of the allocated resources and low competition: Although desegregation is a topic that has been of interest for years, the number of submitted projects was relatively small – 33. As a result, the allocated resource of nearly 29 million leva was not used and the approved projects are worth only half of it. Almost all submitted projects were approved – an indicator of the low interest and a prerequisite for the low quality of some of the planned activities.
- Absence of NGOs as candidates for the procedure: The review of the submitted and approved project proposals indicates that the greatest interest was from schools (16 approved projects), followed by that of municipalities (11 projects). There is practically no project from an NGO – a trend that began with the previous procedure for competitive selection of projects “Promoting intercultural education…”. The majority of civil society organizations preferred not to apply for the operation or to do so only as partners.
This is one of the reasons for the low interest and the submission of a small number of proposals. It is well known that schools are currently implementing a large number of activities and projects – they are the main executors of the activities under the systemic projects of the Ministry of Education and Science (currently “Success for You” is being implemented, systemic projects for the implementation of the competency approach, digitalization of education are about to be launched, competitions are open for overcoming aggression, support for talented students, etc.), schools are implementing the national programs in education, etc. Let us not forget that currently STEM classrooms are being built in all schools under the PVE. Thus, the school system is closely involved in the implementation of activities and projects, which leads to low interest in preparing independent projects. The latter should be taken into account in the subsequent procedures for competitive selection of projects.
Many municipalities also show no interest in the “soft” procedures of the ESF and are engaged in infrastructure projects. This was also seen in the competitions under the ITI approach – municipalities included in their territorial investments primarily “hard” activities, and their interest in education and social inclusion was “meager” (to use the words of famous Bulgarian implementers).
Thus, in practice, civil society organizations turn out to be the main “launch rocket” of grant procedures – they could prepare quality projects, involve schools in the implementation (taking away the efforts for project preparation and reporting on it), as well as achieve the set results. After all, this is part of the usual work of NGOs. It is no coincidence that the creation of obstacles for NGO participation dooms the procedures for competitive project selection to failure. The latter was seen at the end of the previous programming period, and continues in the current one.
4. The existence of serious obstacles that hinder the participation of civil society organizations led to the lack of NGO applicants and to the other problems mentioned above: In my analysis “What hinders the participation of NGOs in the programs co-financed by the ESF+?”, published in May, I indicated that the main obstacles that hinder the participation of civil society organizations are at the national level – the lack of advances and the application of de minimis. This analysis was based on “Promoting intercultural education…”, an operation that is implemented with low interest, but still managed to use the allocated resource to the full extent. The problems mentioned remain and the procedure for supporting desegregation once again demonstrates their acuteness and that without their resolution, civil society organizations will not participate in the use of EU funds, in particular – the ESF+.
Currently, the Education Programme and the Human Resources Development Programme have announced or are planning to announce new procedures for direct selection of projects. This is an important positive trend, which reduces the practice from previous programming periods of using the programmes (especially in the field of education) primarily for redistributing funds to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, other institutions and municipalities. At the same time, we can confidently state that without resolving the above-mentioned problems, the new grant procedures will also be implemented on a relatively small scale and with very questionable results.
Both obstacles – the lack of advances and the application of “de minimis” are created at the national level. Overcoming them is entirely in the hands of the national institutions – the Managing Authorities and the Ministry of Finance. It also requires moderate political determination in order to “unblock” the procedures for competitive selection of projects and the operational programs themselves. Otherwise, it is entirely possible that Bulgaria will receive less funds during the new programming period, especially for education and for the development of civil society.
See: List of approved and rejected project proposals
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Author: Deyan Kolev