EducationPromoting a Safe School Environment 2023-2026
Overview
SmartUp delivered a three-year national programme (2023–2026), strengthening safe, inclusive, and participatory learning environments in 50 primary and secondary schools across North Macedonia. As the consortium partner responsible for digital learning and school-based innovation, SmartUp trains teachers, school leaders, students, and municipal representatives on child protection, violence prevention, student participation, and inclusion — through design thinking workshops, online courses on its own EduLab platform, and in-school activities.
Results to date include over 100 student-created educational resources published in Macedonian and Albanian, three online professional development courses with more than 1,500 enrolments, nationwide webinars reaching over 5,000 education professionals, and classroom application by trained teachers now benefiting more than 20,000 students. Design thinking workshops across all 50 schools have engaged over 400 students and staff in co-creating school safety solutions.
Delivered through EduLab, SmartUp's own digital learning platform already used in prior national-scale education programmes, this project builds on SmartUp's track record running multi-year, consortium-based programmes that combine digital learning at national scale with hands-on school transformation.
The challenge
Schools often lacked practical knowledge, resources, and structured mechanisms for effectively promoting student participation, preventing violence, and ensuring child protection and inclusion.
Teachers and school staff needed accessible, high-quality professional development opportunities and practical teaching resources aligned with new legal requirements and contemporary educational approaches.
Limited institutional coordination and delays in national verification processes required alternative approaches for delivering digital learning resources while maintaining quality and nationwide accessibility.
Schools faced external challenges, including legislative changes, demanding school calendars, and national crises, requiring flexible implementation and continuous adaptation of project activities.
Activities and methods
1. Developed and published over 100 student-created educational resources on violence prevention, student participation, inclusion, children's rights, and safe school environments through the EduLab platform, making them freely accessible in Macedonian and Albanian to educators and schools nationwide.
2. Developed and published a comprehensive teacher guide on recognizing, preventing, and addressing violence against children, while promoting children's rights and gender equality in education, providing educators with practical methodologies and classroom resources for creating safer and more inclusive learning environments.
3. Developed and launched three comprehensive online professional development courses on EduLab, including one course on preventing and addressing violence against children and two ICT courses (basic and advanced level), enabling continuous, self-paced learning for educators across North Macedonia.
4. Engaged more than 600 teachers and professional support staff in the violence prevention course, with nearly 400 educators successfully completing the training, and over 230 educators applying the acquired knowledge in practice, reaching more than 4,000 students through classroom implementation.
5. Strengthened teachers' digital competencies through two ICT courses, engaging more than 980 course enrolments and over 570 successful course completions, while more than 220 teachers applied the acquired digital skills in their classrooms, benefiting over 20,000 students through interactive and student-centered teaching.
6. Organized nationwide webinars on child protection, student participation, violence prevention, and legal responsibilities, reaching more than 5,000 teachers, school leaders, professional support staff, and municipal representatives and strengthening the implementation of safe school policies across the country.
7. Implemented participatory Design Thinking workshops in all 50 project schools, engaging over 400 of students, teachers, and school staff in identifying school challenges and co-creating practical solutions that promote safer, more inclusive, and participatory school environments.
Impact and learning
The project has strengthened the capacity of 50 primary and secondary schools to create safer, more inclusive, and participatory learning environments by embedding child protection, violence prevention, student participation, and inclusive education into everyday school practice. Through school-based implementation, digital learning opportunities, and practical resources, educators have adopted new approaches that promote children's rights and student well-being.
By combining student-led innovation, teacher professional development, and digital learning, the project has created sustainable mechanisms that continue to benefit both project and non-project schools. The publicly available repository of student-developed learning resources, teacher guide, online courses, and webinars on the EduLab platform ensures that high-quality educational materials remain freely accessible, supporting continuous professional development and classroom innovation long after the project ends.
The project has also contributed to the practical implementation of new national legislation related to student participation, child protection, non-discrimination, and violence prevention, while strengthening collaboration among schools, municipalities, educational institutions, and local communities. Through widespread adoption of its digital resources and evidence of classroom application reaching more than 20,000 students, the project is creating lasting systemic change and fostering a culture of safety, participation, inclusion, and active learning across North Macedonia.
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