Second open call for proposals for the integrated education fund
Open to: Public schools, teacher training/pedagogical faculties, and municipalities
Funding opportunity: Up to 5000 EUR per application/call
Implementation period: June 2024 - June 2025
Submission deadline: April 30, 2024
Guidelines for Grant Applicants
Building New Bridges
The Building New Bridges (BNB) project builds on the 2014-2021 Building Bridges Fund (BB), which introduced a model for integrated education in North Macedonia by supporting schools, municipalities, and civil society organizations (CSOs) to pair children of different backgrounds and languages through joint extra-curricular activities.
This new project further aims to build inclusive societies that cherish and take pride in cultural pluralism and respect for tolerance, dialogue, and co-operation, in a climate of mutual trust and understanding as the best guarantees of social peace and security.
The BNB is currently supported by the Kingdom of Norway, the Republic of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the United States of America.
Objectives of the Integrated Education Fund (IEF)
The overall objective of the Integrated Education Fund is to strengthen interethnic relations and social cohesion within school environments through increased integrated education practices and inter-cultural exchanges. The Fund aims at increasing inter-ethnic interaction, understanding and integration among children and youth by motivating and financially supporting multilingual schools (primary and secondary), and/or paired monolingual schools, with different languages of instruction, as well as pedagogical institutes to implement joint curricular classes and extra-curricular activities.
The specific objectives of the IEF are:
- To strengthen inter-ethnic relations among children and youth of different language and cultural backgrounds through joint curricular classes;
- To encourage activities that provide space for inter-ethnic engagement in line with school curricula and ministerial guidelines;
- To support sustainable initiatives that could be easily repeated in the future.
- To instil mutual respect and overcome ethnic stereotypes and prejudices;
- To develop a sense of community and belonging through universal values;
Under the second call for proposals, the BNB Fund provides grants of up to 5000 Euro for eligible schools, teacher training faculties, and municipalities, between June 2024 and May 2025.
The Application Package
To obtain the application form, please send an email to bnb.mk@osce.org and provide your contact information.
The Application package is available in Macedonian, Albanian, and English. Applications must be submitted in English. A version in Macedonian and/or Albanian can be provided in addition to the English one. In case of discrepancy, the English version shall prevail.
The deadline for the second open call is April 30, 2024.
Applications can be submitted directly to: BNB.mk@osce.org
Tutorial support: The Building New Bridges project team provides technical support to all applicants in the form of tutorials during the submission period. Please submit your request for technical support by writing to the above address. Your email subject line should be “BNB application tutorial support needed.” The email should state the type of support that is required.
Evaluation Procedure: Applications are first reviewed by the Executive Office of the BNB Fund to determine their eligibility. An independent Advisory Board will ultimately make awarding decisions.
For any questions regarding the open call you can contact our team:
Fljorin Redjepi | Tel: 070 358298
Email: bnb.mk@osce.org
Eligibility Criteria
1. Eligibility of the Applicant and its Partners
To be eligible for a grant, the applicant must be a public school, a teacher training/pedagogical faculty, or a municipality. If the applicant is a school with more than one language of instruction, then the applicant can apply as a single applicant, but must involve students from at least two languages of instruction among those in use in the school. If the applicant school is mono-lingual, the application must include at least one partner school with different language/s of instruction. The same rule applies if the applicant is a teacher training faculty – the application has to include schools with at least two different languages of instruction and/or a partner teacher training faculty with at least one different language of instruction.
If funded, at the beginning of project activities, each grant recipient is requested to carry out a baseline survey to measure the initial degree of social cohesion among participating boys and girls. Specifically, the survey is intended to measure perceptions of belonging, inclusion, tolerance, and participation as important domains of social cohesion. The survey will be developed by the BNB Unit and carried out by grant recipients. Participants will be assured of confidentiality of the information provided in the survey. All data will be securely stored and maintained within the Mission’s server. The baseline survey findings will feed into the project’s final self-evaluation report.
2. Eligibility of Project Activities
2.1 Curricular Classes: Schools and Teacher Training/Pedagogical Faculties.
Joint curricular classes are mandatory for schools and teacher training faculties under the Integrated Education Fund.
Schools and teacher training/pedagogical faculties that apply under this Call must fill out sections I, II, III, IV and VI, VII, VIII and IX of the application. Please note that although section V (extra-curricular activities) is optional for schools and teacher training faculties, it is strongly advised to include some complementary extra-curricular activities as part of the application. Please note: The budget for extra-curricular activities should not exceed 250 Euro.
The Integrated Education Fund has a strong focus on joint curricular classes among children of different language of instruction and ethnic backgrounds in line with the “Guidelines on how to conduct joint curricular classes” developed by the Ministry of Education and Science. The implementation of joint curricular classes (e.g., Physical Education, English, Science, or any other elective subject that support emotional and social development) should aim at guarantying continuity and frequency of contact among the same group of pupils/students across two semesters on a weekly/bi-weekly basis.
Please note: Joint curricular classes must be in line with the national curriculum.
A flexible use of languages should be ensured throughout the implementation of joint curricular classes (and extra-curricular activities). In line with ministerial guidelines, during the realization of joint classes, teachers are encouraged to speak in their mother tongue without recurring to simultaneous interpretation but paraphrase relevant information instead so that students can follow lessons in different languages and be exposed to the language of the Other.
For this Call, participating students in the primary school must be between the 1st and 7th grade at the time of the application and in the 1st or 2ndyear of study for secondary school/faculty students. With regard to vocational schools, students should be in their 1st grade at the time of the application.
2.2 Extra-Curricular Activities: Schools/Teacher Training Faculties and Municipalities (optional)
Schools and teacher training faculties are strongly recommended to complement planned joint curricular classes with some extra-curricular activities. Extra-curricular activities must be clearly justified in the way they support joint curricular classes. Extra-curricular activities can include debating clubs and competitions, preparing joint school newsletter, artistic performances.
Please note that extra-curricular activities involving parents of selected pupils/students will receive particular attention.
Extra-curricular activities can also be organized directly by an applying municipality to promote the project and participating schools without reference to a specific curricular subject.
Project proposals must also ensure that teachers of different languages are involved in the co-creation of joint curricular and extra-curricular activities that are “truly” mixed with:
- An equal representation of children from different languages of instruction engaged cooperatively towards a common objective during joint curricular classes;
- An equal participation of boys and girls, as well as those with special needs and active parents/guardians;
- The exclusion of any political discourse during curricular and extracurricular activities.
3. Budget
The BNB Fund does not disburse money but purchases the needed materials and/or services for the implementation of activities per the OSCE Mission to Skopje’s rules and procedures. The applicant must provide an estimate of the foreseen costs, after which the Executive Office ultimately decides on eligible purchases. Please use the budget document to compile your budget appropriately.
The Building New Bridges is a co-funded activity, relying on the applicant’s co-financing of costs, such as costs for office premises, utilities, in-house expertise, etc. The extent of the co-financing that the applicant will be able to provide will be one of the criteria based on which the Project will evaluate and award applicant/s.
4. Student Representative and Consultations with Students
Extra-curricular activities involving student representatives from selected cohorts must ensure that student representatives are directly and actively engaged in identifying, designing, and implementing the activities. Their input for the Narrative Report should be provided upon project completion. This requirement aims to ensure that proposals include activities that students themselves see as most feasible and interesting, ultimately supporting the development of a culture of open flow of ideas between teachers and students. If a project proposal involves multiple schools participating in extra-curricular activities, there must be at least one Student Representative from each participating school.
Inclusion of a Student Representative is not a requirement for proposals from primary schools if the project involves students from the 7th grade or below. Where possible, such applicants should consult with students while designing the project. The decision on what type of consultation activities will work best in a particular case is left to the applicant and partner schools, keeping in mind the specific circumstances (such as the age of children/students who will participate in the project). The school should obtain parental approval for all underage students who are involved in the project activities.
5. Notification of Decision
Applicants will be informed via e-mail of the BNB Fund Advisory Board’s decision regarding their application. If the application is conditionally approved, the applicants will receive the Board’s comments and recommendations on how to revise the application. If the application is rejected, the applicant will receive a rejection justification.
Applications that are most consistent with the objectives laid out in these Guidelines and have the highest quality, expected impact, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness will have the highest chance of being awarded. The Executive Office of the BNB Fund will provide much-needed capacity building support to teachers, administrators and students in the form of webinars and tutorials on project management and the practice of integrated education.
6. Advisory Board of the BNB Fund
The Advisory Board of the BNB Fund is the key body that evaluates applications. As the decision-making authority of BNB funding scheme, it evaluates project proposals and establishes award recipients. It is envisaged that the Board be comprised of the OSCE Mission to Skopje’s Deputy Head of Mission, the BNB Project Manager (Head of the Human Dimension Department), the Senior Gender Officer/GFP (or the Deputy Gender Focal Point, or another representative from the Gender Unit), the National Program Officer responsible for the education portfolio, the Senior Democratization Officer and one representative from the Monitoring Unit.