Donor: United States Institute of Peace (USIP).
The lead implementing agency is CISP, the international partner is The Center for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University and the local partner is CARE International, Bulgaria.
The Project is supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Bulgaria.
Timeline: November 2004 - May 2006.
The
goal of this project is to introduce inter-religious understanding and
tolerance into the teaching of religion in mainstream schools in
Bulgaria. This intervention is required at this historical point
because as it exists now, religious instruction is conservative and
doctrinaire, thus not helping to bridge the dangerous tensions between
Islamic and Christian communities. Moreover, students belonging to
either of the country's two major religions (East-Orthodox Christianity
and Islam) are instructed only in their own faith tradition, with
little if any reference to other faith traditions or religious systems.
As a result, the teaching of religion contributes more to widening than
to bridging the cultural divides between these two populations. The
project's activities are planned to move along three tracks:
- To
develop and articulate a module of religious tolerance for training
student teachers at the Higher Islamic Institute and the Faculty of
Theology at Sofia University, as well as for in-service teacher
training.
- To prepare a teachers' handbook on the issues of mutual understanding and tolerance in the teaching of religion.
- To
work out policy recommendations for the Ministry of Education related
to the preparation/reform of the curricula and syllabi concerning the
teaching of religion in schools.