WESTERN BALKANS – Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO) is pleased to announce that 90 secondary schools from the Western Balkans are selected to participate in the RYCO Superschools exchange programme. The selected schools from the region will implement regional exchanges including more than 1300 students, while RYCO will offer various capacity-building opportunities for 90 teachers. Among these 90 schools: 16 are coming from Albania, 16 from Bosnia and Herzegovina, 5 from Montenegro, 8 from Kosovo*, 15 from North Macedonia and 30 from Serbia.
More than 90 exchange proposals were submitted for the Superschools 3rd Open Call, 113 partnerships were created from which 21 are long-term coming from the 1st Superschools cycle, while more than 579 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 45 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 two exchanges in two local communities of schools involved in single Superschools project, will happen from November 15, 2024 to April 15, 2025. Each partner school will organize one exchange visit to the partnering one lasting up to 7 days with a group of up to 17 students and 1-2 teachers. Besides two exchanges, each school will organize local outreach activity to spread information about the benefits of such projects, importance of non-formal education, youth activism and regional cooperation, etc. Overall, 90 local outreach activities, gathering more than 1800 participants, will take place throughout the region in the abovementioned period. 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 center 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: STEM, Sports, Environment, Science and Technology, Media Literacy, Sustainable fashion, Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, Culinary, Art and Culture, and many others.
Check out the shortlisted schools
Background
About the RYCO Superschools programme
RYCO Superschools is a 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, 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 RYCO.