An agreement on cooperation on the project for the establishment of a regional scientific centre for primary education in the STEM area was signed on Tuesday by Ludbreg Mayor Dubravko Bilić and the heads of Varaždin and Međimurje Counties, Anđelko Stričak and Matija Posavec, respectively.
Newton rooms are classrooms that offer education within science, technology, engineering and mathematics through an inspiring learning environment.
"We would like this regional scientific centre to make Ludbreg a place that offers additional education possibilities for the entire north of the country," Bilić said.
He added that the project was financed with money from the so-called Norwegian fund in the amount of €3 million and that the city itself had contributed around €600,000.
Varaždin County head Stričak said that Varaždin County was working to connect education, culture, environment and tourism.
"We believe this is a way to make classes and school programmes much more interesting to students... In addition to this centre, there are also plans to establish another museum in this city," Stričak said.
Owing to the agreement signed today, 25 primary schools from Međimurje County will send their pupils to the Ludbreg centre, Međimurje County head Posavec said.
"There are only 45 Newton rooms in the world, and this projects puts the north of Croatia on the world map. This is what we aspire for - education that helps students acquire competencies in an appropriate way, empowers them, enables them to adapt to global trends and challenges," Posavec said.
He noted that Ludbreg as well as many other cities and municipalities spend significant amounts of money to finance or co-finance kindergarten care, stressing that it would be very important for the state to take over the financing of kindergartens.
"That would help even out standards with regard to pre-school education, enable cities and municipalities to save some of their budget funds, make kindergarten care free for parents, and enable the development of projects like this one, of regional competence and excellence centres that exist in the north of the country, to contribute to quality education," said Posavec.