The project “Integrated bilingual primary school” is part and result of the program “Dialogue and reconciliation” which the non-governmental organization Nansen Dialogue Center from Skopje has started to implement in Jegunovce Municipality in 2005. Jegunovce Municipality has been selected as a target municipality because it has been affected by the armed conflict in 2001 and due to the ethnic division in 2002 of the Macedonian and Albanian students from the Central primary school in the village of Semsovo and the neighboring schools. The program activities have been intended for the students from 5th-8th grade, their parents, teachers, the Mayor and the members of the Council of Jegunovce Municipality, as well as the Presidents of the local communities.
Through dialogue seminars and training on communication, cooperation, tolerance, team work and peaceful conflict resolution, conditions have been created for opening of 6 cabinets where students in mixed ethnic composition and bilingually will attend courses in IT, English, Macedonian and Albanian language. The use of bilingualism in the ethnically mixed groups from the courses and the quality of the curriculum in the courses have given big results in decreasing the interethnic tension in the Municipality, improving the cooperation between the parents and the students, as well as increasing the knowledge of the students. Each year, the courses have been attended by 130-150 students.
As a result of the successful realization of the project with the courses in 2007, NDC Skopje has begun with realization of the idea for opening of an integrated bilingual primary school. The project has included children which in September 2008 should attend school for the first time in the Zero group, as well as their parents. Since we are talking about a pilot project, the project has included parents and children from only 4 villages from Jegunovce Municipality (Ratae, Zilce, Semsovo and Preljubiste).
The integrated bilingual school is a school in which 3 programs are being implemented intended for the students, the teachers and the parents.
The project includes 41 students (23 Macedonians and 19 Albanians), their parents and 4 teachers. For realization of the programs intended for the teachers and the parents, lecturers/trainers from Macedonia and Norway are being hired.
The school has been named after the famous Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen due to several reasons: the magnitude and achievements of Nansen which have been recognized by awarding the Nobel Prize for Peace; the idea for opening an NDC Skopje office resulted from the project which has been created in the Nansen Academy in Lillehammer; the teams that work today in the Nansen network have been trained in the same Academy and also since 2000 until today, the support from the MFA of Kingdom Norway has been constantly continued – a support without which we wouldn’t have been able to realize the planned projects. In a way, we want the citizens of Norway to have the feeling that are part of this project and to be proud of this project just like the staff of NDC Skopje, the parents of the students and the students from this school are.
The integrated primary school belongs to the COU "Semsovo" in the village of Semsovo, i.e. it is a regional school and it has started its activities on 01 September, 2008 and the reconstruction and building of the school have been completed on 15 October, 2008 when the school has been officially opened.
The project has been financially supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kingdom Norway. The reconstruction and building of the school has been done with financial support from the MFA of Norway through funds donated to the Government of Republic of Macedonia – Secretariat for European Affairs. The Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Macedonia, the Bureau for development of the education and the Jegunovce Municipality are NDC Skopje’s partners in this project.
Vision
The vision of the integrated bilingual primary school “Fridtjof Nansen” is creating – making a quality and representative upbringing and educational model which will represent an adequate example for education of all ethnic communities in multiethnic environments and a mirror of the future contemporary upbringing and educational system in Republic of Macedonia and out of Macedonia. A model that fosters, encourages and integrates inside itself the multiethnic values, bilingualism, education and improving the knowledge of the students, as well as of the parents, the employees and the community through harmonious relations based on respecting the differences, building a cohesive multiethnic family at the same time.
Mision
The mission of the Integrated bilingual primary school is building a contemporary, successful, multiethnic upbringing-educational facility which will enable a quality bilingual education through extracurricular activities within the education. A team of competent and dedicated people who work in and for our school and takes care on a daily basis about a constant and quality education and upbringing of the students; discovering, urging and emphasizing the individual abilities and talents of each student in an environment of prominent multiethnic values, as well as for improving the own knowledge, skills and abilities and their personal and professional development; regular communication and cooperation with the parents and the families of the students, with the members of the community, the national bodies and their representatives. The school is equipped with the most modern technical and curricular devices for the purpose of providing a quality and successful work of the school.
Our school believes in:
Cooperation and dialogue which enable solving problems and bringing people closer
Respecting the families of our students and the communities they belong to through respecting their different national and religious orientation, language, culture, beliefs, customs
Creating a society where everyone is equally important and respected with fostering positive relations with everybody who belongs to the community
Our students will leave this school as persons enriched with skills and a capacity of knowledge with a desire to contribute to sharing the real values in the society such as respecting the differences, open communication, dialogue, tolerance, constructiveness when handling conflicts and overcoming stereotypes and prejudice
The fundament of the change is based on creating a community that learns, changes and enables the students to use and complement their knowledge through following the real values
With the purpose of realizing our vision, we have built a “family” of a magic triangle in our school and our community:
