Bucharest, June 11, 2020 – Vodafone Romania Foundation and World Vision Romania Foundation announce the call for registration for schools in rural areas for the “School in a Suitcase” program. Interested schools are invited to apply until June 28 on https://www.scoaladinvaliza.ro/apel/. From the total number of applications, 35 schools will be selected.
The program is available only for schools that are located in rural areas and whose teachers can teach at least two digital lessons per week. More about eligibility criteria and applicant responsibilities are available at https://www.scoaladinvaliza.ro/apel/wp-content/uploads/Ghidul-solicitantului-SDV-2020-2021.pdf
The “School in a Suitcase” program aims to develop the technology skills of students and teachers in rural areas. Currently, approximately one year after its launch in schools, the program is operational in 22 educational units from 11 counties, with over 11,000 beneficiaries, of which 6,000 are direct beneficiaries (teachers and students).
The program has three main components. The first is to equip schools with mobile hardware infrastructure, offered free of charge where it is either absent or deficient. The equipment is developed based on the “Instant Classroom” concept and consists of a kit, in the form of a suitcase, which contains a laptop for the teacher and 30 tablets for the students.
The second component of the program is the training of teachers’ digital skills, with direct applicability in the classroom activity. The “School in a Suitcase” program thus responds to a systemic problem of secondary education in Romania, namely the lack of skills in terms of using technology for educational purposes.
The third component is represented by the platform www.scoaladinvaliza.ro and the educational resources available through it, i.e. digital lessons created by teachers, accessible to students both in class and at home.
School in a Suitcase means a 360-degrees approach to digital education. The project supports teachers and students in rural areas to develop their digital skills through free access to the e-learning platform www.scoaladinvaliza.ro, a technology kit provided with tablets and a laptop with Internet access, but also through continuous professional training of teaching staff. We help teachers to be more confident in their own strengths, to create and support interactive digital lessons, and thus, together with them, we support students to be prepared for a labor market increasingly dominated by technology. In this way, teachers transform the school, and students learn with more pleasure and develop themselves to cope in the future world. School in a Suitcase means accessible and quality digital education.
Vodafone Romania Foundation is a Romanian non-governmental organization, with charitable status, distinct and independent of the company’s commercial operations, founded in 1998. Over more than 20 years of activity, the Vodafone Romania Foundation has funded 1,168 programs run by 765 NGOs throughout the country, in the fields of healthcare, education and social services. These projects had more than 3 million beneficiaries – children, young and elderly people, physically, socially, or economically disadvantaged people. So far, the Vodafone Romania Foundation has invested 31 million euros in projects run by non-profit partner organizations. More details about the Foundation’s programs are available at fundatia-vodafone.ro, http://jurnaldebine.fundatiavodafone.ro/ and www.facebook.com/fundatiavodafone.
World Vision Romania is a part of the World Vision International partnership and is active in almost 100 countries worldwide. World Vision Romania is a foundation that carries out emergency humanitarian intervention, development and advocacy programs, placing the welfare of the child at the center of its activity. The foundation focuses on working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. The foundation works with the most vulnerable people in the world, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender. In its almost 30 years of activity in Romania, the foundation has helped over 500,000 children and adults from 400 communities in 8 counties. More details about the foundation: www.worldvision.ro, www.facebook.com/WorldVisionRomania, blog.worldvision.ro/.
