Through this project TSA and its partners aim to create useful materials for teaching Bulgarian language at school for students at the initial stage, with family language (mother tongue) different than Bulgarian.
The developed tools will be tested with students and teachers. Teachers will be trained on how to apply the tools. After the materials and tools prove their efficacy, they will be published, promoted and distributed among interested schools.
For the implementation of this project the "International Association EducArt" (EducArt) will partner with the "Teach for Bulgaria" Foundation, which will provide access to teachers and school teams from "Teach for Bulgaria" cohorts, who teach children with different mother tongues than Bulgarian. In almost all regions where "Teach for Bulgaria" works, there are children with mother tongue other than Bulgarian. For the most part, these are Roma children, but teachers also teach refugee and Turkish speaking children. In almost all of them, teachers recognize a strong need for additional language support.
TSA joins the efforts of "Teach for Bulgaria" and EducArt, complementing their work and achievements so far and supporting specific project activities. Additionally, the knowledge, experience and resources in that field are limited, which requires broader cooperation and alliances. This will lead to greater innovative approaches and achievements compared to single-handed intervention of one entity. This cooperation will improve the legitimacy and importance of the issue before the state officials, which will lead to recognition and policy improvement.
The final goals is to provide the teachers and Ministry of Education and Science with working tools, which will improve Bulgarian language knowledge and skills of children with family language different than Bulgarian. This will in turn prevent them from lagging in other subjects. Additionally, it will improve the work of teachers and their interaction with parents.