Getting to Know! Development Education in Bulgarian Curricula

Getting to Know! is a three-year joint initiative of six of the founders of the Bulgarian platform for international development (BPID) - Centre for Inclusive Education (CIE), Global Initiative on Psychiatry - Sofia, Bulgaria, Caritas Bulgaria, BlueLink Information Network, Gender Project for Bulgaria (GPF) and Cooperation for Voluntary Service – Bulgaria (CVS-Bulgaria). Getting to Know! is the first truly Bulgarian development education project, funded by the European Commission through thematic programme “Non-state actors and local authorities in development: public awareness and education for development in Europe”. It aims to contribute to the process of delivering development assistance by activating a clear mechanism for integrating a global development dimension in the curriculum of the education system in Bulgaria. The methods implemented in the project will allow children and young people to explore global links by participating in activities and classes organized in schools and universities. The initiative seeks to raise awareness of global development issues by promoting education for development as an important component of the curricula in Bulgaria.

The Centre for Inclusive Education manages the development of curricula and training materials to be used by partner schools and universities in the country and is responsible for and training of schools teachers and university departments in the country. As part of the capacity building a Training of trainers for teachers and university professionals from pre and in service training institutions was organized by CIE in the period February-April 2011. The training team in the 3 modules involved experts from BPID and UK. 17 teachers from the three educational levels and 7 representatives of university departments for further qualification of teachers acquired knowledge on the basics of development cooperation, the MDGs, links of development education and school curriculum and tools and training skills to deliver effective development education.

For further information: Nadya Boneva, National coordinator of BPID, nadya.boneva@gmail.com, Desislava Koleva, Program Officer Centre for Inclusive Education, d.koleva@cie-bg.eu

Information provided by Nadya Boneva, BPID