Students could work out and implement projects for the educational institutions where they study. The initiatives will be chosen at a public contest that is part of the program “Participatory Budgeting in Schools”.
Contacted by IPN for details, Olga Manole, programs coordinator at Promo-LEX Association, said the practical activity is held outside the program of study. The students will identify problems experienced by the institutions and will formulate project ideas. Later, these projects will be promoted inside the institution for all the students to know what kind of initiatives they are. The voting procedure is the final stage. “There will be voted one or several projects, depending on the budget available at the institution for this exercise and the institution’s administration will later implemented the selected project,” stated Olga Manole.
“We will work with secondary schools and lyceums, including colleges and vocational schools. But participatory budgeting can be also implemented with the involvement of pupils from primary education,” she said.
The practical activity will last for two-five months, as the institution will decide. Each educational institution will design the own plan, program concept for the school in cooperation with specialists of Promo-LEX Association. The school’s administration will decide how much money it is ready to allocate from the institution’s budget, while the students will decide how to spend the given sum. Promo-LEX will offer training and mentoring to the institutions taking part in the program and will ensure the documentation and logistic implementation of the program. “We will guide the institutions to design their own concepts and action plans and each institution will decide these individually,” said Olga Manole.
The educational institutions will cooperate with the Center for Continuous Electoral Training in the adoption of students’ projects. The Center will be responsible for the organization of the voting procedure and will provide all the necessary equipment for simulating a voting process.
According to Promo-LEX, participatory budgeting is a method that develops understanding of school budgets, contributes to the development of leadership skills in students, directs funds to the pressing needs and innovatory ideas and helps the students to learn about democracy and civic engagement.
In 2022, the participatory budgeting program will be piloted in five pre-university educational institutions. To ensure its implementation, Promo-LEX signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Education and Research and a partnership agreement with the Center for Continuous Electoral Training.
