More than 10,000 children from different schools in Plovdiv will be involved in a large-scale project to improve the quality of education. The Project “Innovative Schools”, which will last for 5 years, started on the initiative of Municipality of Plovdiv and the Foundation World Education Forum Bulgaria.

The program is a series of methods for organizing a new way of education and the education environment. The aim of the applied innovative practices is to make all children active and involved in the education process constantly in order to increase their motivation, to develop their skills for analysis, presentation, positive communication, team work and to prepare for their successful realization after 10-15 years in high technology society.

The emphasis is on integrating students, supporting children’s various talents, and preventing aggressive events. The aim is to improve the quality of the education process, based on proven British education models.

In the first stage of the project are included eight schools from Plovdiv – Primary School “Rayna Knyaginya”, Primary School “Yane Sandanski”, Primary School “Aleko Konstantinov”, Secondary School “Patriarh Evtimiy”, Primary School “Kocho Chesemensky”, Primary School “Yordan Yovkov”, Primary School “Elin Pelin”, Secondary School “Lyuben Karavelov” with the active participation of their directors and more than 100 teachers. They will undergo special training to develop and implement innovative teaching methods.

The project is open to all other schools. Plovdiv Municipality hopes in the five-year framework of the project to support the introduction of innovative practices in at least 60% of the municipal schools and from each to have trained teachers to share their best practices with their colleagues.

In Plovdiv, the results of their implementation have been observed in the last four years at Primary School “Rayna Knyaginya”, where they were appraised by 500 students and 45 pedagogues. Not only has it achieved an increased motivation and excellent learning outcomes for all students but also reduced aggressive behavior, building a common positive culture of behavior and developing emotional intelligence.