 The Center for Educational Initiatives (CEI)
is a unique association of parents, teachers and
other participants in the education process from
all over Bosnia and Herzegovina, gathered with
a view to organize, realize and support educational
activities and initiatives based on principles
of democratic civil society. Professional staff
of CEI develop and deliver training programs for
participants in the education system including,
among others, education experts, teachers, school
directors and parents. CEI has established a network
of six model training centers across Bosnia & Herzegovina,
which provides for rapid information exchange and
coordination of activities.
Staff from CEI have been developing and implementing
the Step by Step Program, the only early childhood
program to operate continuously in Bosnia in the
post-war period, since 1996. The program has helped
to rebuild the early childhood education system
that was badly damaged during the war, providing
comprehensive training and, initially, rebuilding
physical infrastructure in cooperation with other
donors. Step by Step is remarkable for its ability
to cooperate with local governments in all 11 cantons
of Bosnia. Experts from universities and ministries
throughout the country have agreed on basic standards
for early childhood education, an important step
towards creating a unified policy on the federal
level.
In addition to further development of the Step
by Step preschool and primary school networks in
Bosnia, CEI's new initiatives in 2002-2004 include
a full-scale reform project designed and implemented
in collaboration with UNICEF Bosnia. This project
will provide training for primary teachers in every
school across Bosnia & Herzegovina during the
3 year program period and will set up a sustainable
system of providing child-friendly training and
school improvement consulting on the basis of model
centers located in each canton. Ongoing projects
include:
- Extension of Step by Step to two Roma communities,
in cooperation with Open Society Fund B&H,
local governments and the Norwegian Embassy
- Implementation of the Reading and Writing
for Critical Thinking Project, a teacher training
project, which will be implemented initially
in upper grades in cooperation with the International
Reading Association
Partners
- UNICEF
- SOS Kinderdorf
- Catholic Relief Services (CRS)
- Open Society Fund Bosnia-Herzegovina
- Schools, Preschools, Universities
- Federal and Canton Ministries
Key Statistics:
-
346 Step by Step
program classrooms
-
8,600 children and
families
-
6 teachers training
institutions reforming curricula
-
1,700 retrained teacher
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