EU launches school initiative for Turkish Cypriots

The EU “Schools’ Initiative for Innovation and Change” Grant Scheme will give grants of between EUR10.000 and EUR50.000 to primary and secondary schools in the northern part of Cyprus. Overall, up to EUR600.000 will be available. The grants are financed from the EUR259 million EU aid programme for the Turkish Cypriot community.

This grant scheme will offer support to the modernisation of the Turkish Cypriot community’s education sector by funding a range of activities including, amongst others, training courses, study visits, upgrading of materials and equipment. The aim of such activities is to promote the development of modern teaching and learning methods, to raise the capacity of educational practitioners, to improve the overall management of the educational system and to encourage networking between stakeholders.

The grant scheme consists of two Strands: Strand A covers small-scale upgrading projects, whereas Strand B aims at long-term and capacity raising projects. Primary and secondary schools can jointly apply for activities under Strand A and B, if such partnership is considered as bringing an added value or higher cost-efficiency.

The full Guidelines for Applicants are available for consultation on the following internet site: http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/cgi/frame12.pl (please select search type “By Country”, and country “Cyprus“. Under “Status”, please tick on “OPEN” and “Grants” to obtain the open Calls for Proposals).

The deadline for submission of proposals is 21 April 2008, 16:00 Central European Time.

A first round of training courses for interested schools will be organised on 14 and 15 of March, and will be followed by a second round of training sessions between 25 March and 4 April 2008.

The exact time and location of the training sessions will be published in the local press as well as forwarded to all primary and secondary schools through local contact points.