Written by Emil Žežov
Motivated by the desire to contribute to the development of chess, guided by the logo "Gens una Sumus" (we are all one family) and reading about the experiences in the USA, (especially in New York), described on the "Chess in Schools" website, I decided to volunteer in the project " Chess in Schools" in North Macedonia. The project is managed by Saša Bogdanović, The President of the Chess Federation, Agim Šemšiu, Vice president and Zoran Stojčevski, Executive Board member.
After mutual consultation, this year in August, the Ministry of Education of North Macedonia and the Macedonian Chess Federation incorporated chess as an optional subject in schools. The Macedonian Chess Federation prepared a program adapted for teachers who do not know how to play chess, to enable them to help children to quickly start using the positive benefits of the chess game. About 200 teachers were involved, mostly in the bigger cities of North Macedonia, like Skopje, Štip, Kumanovo, Gostivar, Tetovo.
My volunteer activity involved training teachers on how to teach chess to children in elementary schools, and was done with the help of the local governments:
- On September 13th, 2022 in Štip, training of 10 teachers and 5 directors.
