Opening Conference of the project “Capabilities of a smart village“ held in Babina Greda
The Opening conference of the “Capabilities of a smart village” project was held on Friday, August 26, 2022, in Elementary School of “Mijat Stojanović” in Babina Greda. The public was addressed by Đurđica Babić, principal of Elementary School “Mijat Stojanović” and Anja Čović Bilbija, manager of the project ” Capabilities of a smart village “.
The project is funded under the EEA Financial Mechanism Programme 2014-2021, which represents the contributions of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, within the call ” Improved Skills and Competencies of Teachers and Other Educational Workers in Primary Education”. It will be implemented for 12 months. The total value of grants provided for the project is EUR 115,950.32 (HRK 875,830.76). The project “Capabilities of a smart village” will provide support to teachers and other educational staff of the Primary school of Mijat Stojanović. The goal is to strengthen the professional capacities of employees and to improve teaching skills and competencies in the STEM field and active citizenship.
The project Promoter is the Elementary School “Mijat Stojanović” from Babina Greda, and the Project Partner is Brundalen Elementary School from Trondheim, Kingdom of Norway. Project activities include education in the fields of STEM and active citizenship for school employees, study visits in Croatia and abroad (visiting partner institution), educational webinars organized by the Brundalen school and procurement of equipment for the school. Plava Vinkovacka television informed the public about the initial conference of the “Smart Village Possibilities” project. “STEM is an acronym consisting of the English words science, technology, engineering and mathematics. In school, this includes the subjects of biology, chemistry, physics, geography, mathematics, technical culture and informatics. STEM is important because it extends through all spheres of our lives, and it encourages children to think logically and learn interdisciplinary – emphasized Anja Čović Bilbija, manager of the project “Capabilities of a smart village”. “Our experience so far has been that we have been project partners and promoters of smaller projects financed by associations and initiatives of the Ministry of Science and Education, but until now we have never had the opportunity to receive such significant financial resources, completely non-refundable, which will benefit us regarding the training of teachers and equipping schools” – said Đurđica Babić, the director of the school, and added “Of course the teachers are delighted to participate in the project. Such financial resources, unfortunately, are not available to most schools in Croatia. That’s why projects like this are an excellent opportunity for schools to progress and improve the quality of their work.”
“Since our mentor institution is the Brundalen Elementary School from Norway, we will visit their school, and they will visit us in the spring. Through the visit to Norway, we plan to get an insight into the work of our partner institution, and in addition to the school, we will also visit the Trondheim Science Center, so I believe that we will gain valuable experience and see how we could improve our work,” she the project manager. The school director pointed out that the students are the ones that will benefit the most. They are the most important, and with this project they will certainly have the opportunity to keep up with educational trends.
