WESTERN BALKANS – RYCO is pleased to announce that 100 secondary schools from the Western Balkans are selected to participate in the RYCO Superschools Western Balkans School Exchange Scheme in its 2nd year of implementation. The selected schools from the region will implement regional exchanges including more than 1500 students, while RYCO will offer various capacity-building opportunities for more than 100 teachers. Among these 100 schools, 18 are coming from Albania, 18 from Bosnia and Herzegovina, 7 from Montenegro, 11 from Kosovo*, 16 from North Macedonia and 30 from Serbia.
155 exchange proposals were submitted for the Superschools 2nd Open Call, 161 partnerships were created from which 17 are long-term coming from the 1st cycle, while more than 535 schools from the Western Balkans used the online platform www.superschools.net for networking with other schools. The selection committee had the difficult task of selecting the 50 best projects aiming at supporting the peacebuilding and reconciliation process in WB6 and intercultural learning and dialogue among schools, students and their communities.
The implementation of the projects will be divided into two rounds: The first round of exchanges will happen from April to June 2023 and the second round will continue from August to October 2023. Each partner school will organize one exchange visit to the partnering one lasting up to 7 days with a group of up to 12 students and 1 to 2 teachers. Through the exchange scheme, students and teachers will have the chance to travel, present themselves, their schools and customs to their hosts and learn new things about local communities all throughout the region.
We would like to express our gratitude for all the Superschools proposals and for the overwhelming interest in being part of this unique regional school exchange opportunity. As our world develops, innovation and new perspectives are needed to adapt to the ever-changing world around us. Therefore, it’s at the centre of the Superschool’s mission to equip young people of Western Balkans with the skills needed to make their voices heard in their communities, speak up, participate and share their meaningful input.
We are excited to see what the young minds of our region will present and organize during their joint activities through the diverse topics they will cover this year some of which are: Sustainable fashion, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, IT and Science, Art and Culture, and many others.
Background
About the Superschools programme
Superschools is a RYCO programme for school exchanges in WB6 with the objectives to support the peacebuilding and reconciliation process and intercultural learning and dialogue among schools, students and their communities. The programme is part of a multi donor project “Western Balkans School Exchange Scheme” co-financed by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) together with the Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO).
* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.