The EU Twinning light project in Macedonia is coming to an end

As you have been already informed, on 18 April 2016 in Skopje the Lithuanian and Macedonian Project teams launched the EU Twinning Light Project aimed at quality improvement of the Macedonian education system. The duration of the Project is eight months. The Project is financed from the funds allocated by the European Commission and is implemented by the Education Supply Centre (ESC) of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania, Ministry of Education and Science (MoES), National Agency for School Evaluation (NASE), Education Development Centre (EDC), European Social Fund Agency (ESFA) in cooperation with the National Examination Centre of the Beneficiary Country.

The aim of the Project is the evaluation of the current process of training and activity examination of school heads in Beneficiary Country and development of new programmes to meet today‘s needs.

The situation in Beneficiary Country relating to the subject matter of the Project aim has been analysed by now and the state-of-play report (situation analysis) with initial suggestions for target points to improve the situation has been developed. Expectations of the Macedonian party regarding priorities that might be given the greatest attention at the end of the Project have been also identified, the content of the final report containing future recommendations has been designed, future development scenarios have been started to be shaped, the analysis of the current legal basis in Beneficiary Country, Lithuania and the European Union has been carried out, and proposals for amending the legislation listed in the specification of the Project activities have been submitted.

Following the discussion with school heads, trainers and specialists of the National Examination Centre, the draft project on training and examination programme of applicants for the positions of school heads has been developed, where two alternative directions in the training course have been pointed out.

Meetings with school heads, specialists from municipalities and the NEC staff helped to identify specific needs in qualification improvement of school heads in Beneficiary Country.

During the missions, several variants of training programmes for school heads were considered. The option that provides more space for personal choice by school heads was selected as preferred.

The needs of future trainers were specified during the missions for identification of their needs. The process was aligned with priorities set in the Beneficiary country’s training system of school heads. 20 trainers learned to teach future mentors during the arranged workshops. Seminars for school heads who plan to become mentors were launched. As many as 90 school heads have taken interest in attending them.

The Final event where the project results and recommendations for future interventions in the area of management of primary and secondary schools will be presented is planned to be organised on 7th December.