National Institutional Consultancy Supporting the Implementation of the Quality Standards for Primary and General Secondary Education Institutions from the Perspective of Child Friendly Schools in the Republic of Moldova

Project duration : August 2014 – August 2015

Implementing organization: Programul Educaţional „Pas cu Pas” /Step by Step Moldova

Implementing partner: UNICEF Moldova

Project goal: to support UNICEF and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Moldova in advancing the democratic changes underlying the education reform, targeting equitable, relevant, quality education for all, which is achievable through the promotion of the Child Friendly Schools (CFS) framework, as defined in the CFS Quality Standards, approved by the Ministry of Education.

The concept of CFS, having at heart a child-rights based approach, envisions a complex school transformation from a traditionally academic institution into a child-centered school that is acting in the best interest of the child, concerned about the “whole” child  and supporting the realization of each child’s full potential, inclusive of ALL children, with interactive, participatory learning processes, relevant content, centered on learner and with skilled teachers, with a decentralized school-based management and participatory processes.

In implementing the project, SBSM was building on its long-term expertise (since 1994) in promoting child-centered methodology in classrooms, in particular, and democratization of educational institutions and system, in general, on its experience in piloting, with UNICEF support (2010-2011), the CFS concept in 5 schools (including a suggested methodology for school self-evaluation) and then scaling  it up to a whole raion, Leova (all 33 schools) and partly to Orhei raion (5 schools), on its experience in designing standards – national consultant/co-author of the national child development standards (Early Learning and Development Standards/ELDS) and Teacher National Professional Standards, also its experience in developing the international QS for Community Schools (very close in spirit with CFS), as well as participation in the development of the Pedagogical  Standards of the International Step by Step Association (ISSA) and in promoting quality based on child-centerd methodology as ISSA reliable quality evaluator.

SBSM supported this process of school transformation into CFS, having the QS as guiding principles, through the following:

• developing a common understanding  of what is CFS by all the relevant actors – managers, teachers, parents, community, educational authorities, etc. For this purpose SBSM develop materials explicitating each of the CFS principles. At the end the project a Guide for CFS implementation will be produced, which will also include mini-case studies based on the success stories collected
• developing school self-evaluation tools and application methodology that will guide schools and partners into a participatory  school evaluation process and school development work plan elaboration
• training a team of national trainers (out of highly skilled SBSM experts /trainers/ mentors with rich experience in implementing child-centered methodology, as well as trainers who were trained with UNICEF support for the pilot  CFS in facilitating schools participatory self-evaluation) who will train 1300 managers from all primary and general secondary school in the country to become agents of change in their own schools
• training a cohort of 100 regional/local facilitators/monitors who will support the schools during the life-span of the project and will ensure the sustainability of the investment by becoming resource persons for CFS promotion, eventually mentors
• the national experts/ mentors facilitated schools’  self-evaluation, work plan development, continuously monitor schools  and finally evaluate the compliance to CFS in 175 selected schools (average 5 per raion), that became Resource Centers due to a more intensive mentoring; the 100 regional/local trainers/experts to support the other schools in their raions (the remaining 1125 schools)
• the expert team developed a final analytical report based on the final evaluation of managers’ ability to use the standards for school assessment and improvement, with a synthesis of the whole process, lessons learnt and recommendations to UNICEF and the Ministry of Education of further steps in promoting CFS framework

organized a concluding national conference on the results of the project implementation and launching of the Guide for CFS implementation