What is the Enlightener Award?
The Enlightener is a Serbian teacher award. It was created in 2024 on the initiative of prof. Dr. Aleksandar Kavcic who decided to gather a team of educational experts and together with them designed this prestigious award for exceptional kindergarten, primary and secondary school teachers of the Republic of Serbia.
Who gives the award?
The organizer of this project is the Alek Kavčić Foundation, which with this award wants to honor and recognize the exceptional teachers of the Republic of Serbia.
What does the award represent?
The Serbian Teacher Award Enlightener represents the highest form of recognition and is a unique symbol of excellence in Serbian education. This award recognizes pre-university teachers and their individual efforts and dedication to the profession.
What is the symbol of the award?
The symbol of the award is the figure of a teacher woven from stars, from whose palm they emerge one by one, as symbols of children and students who, during schooling, are empowered to find their place in society. Through the symbol of this award, we highlight the teaching profession and its importance for the future of Serbia.
Vision
Serbia where those who educate are at the top of the social ladder.
Mission
By valuing and affirming teaching excellence, we are changing the status of the teaching profession in the Republic of Serbia.
Goal
To awaken the awareness of the widest social community about the importance of the teaching profession and respect for its immeasurable influence on the development and progress of Serbia.
Our Team
Zeljana Radojicic Lukic
Zeljana is a multi-awarded Serbian teacher, author of children's books and one of the best teachers in the world.She has come a long way, from the role of a village teacher to the assistant minister of education of the Republic of Serbia, in order to devote herself completely to the development of the concept of happy learning pedagogy.
Zeljana's educational philosophy:
Based on her own experience from childhood, in which she acquired extensive knowledge about various aspects of nature through interaction with it, Zeljana insists on the pedagogy of happy learning. She advocates for the creation of conditions so that every student gets the opportunity for experiential learning in a natural environment. Through the application of happy learning pedagogy, she strives for students not only to acquire knowledge, but also to develop a deeper understanding of the world around them, in order to understand the importance of having virtues and moral values.
Aleksandar Baucal
He is a full professor of developmental and educational psychology at the University of Belgrade and a member of the International Academy of Education. He advocates for improving the quality of education. He believes that such change can be created by teachers and schools with adequate empowerment and support provided by decision makers and experts from the research community.
Aleksandar's educational philosophy:
Despite the fact that the general situation in education in Serbia is unsatisfactory, despite the fact that the status of education is very low and regardless of the fact that the teaching profession is not valued in society, there are teachers and schools that, due to various circumstances, managed to create quality education for their students. That is why it is important that good examples become more visible and are promoted. They provide a roadmap and should be an important support in creating a better education system.
Borko Petrovic
Borko is a multiple award-winning English teacher from Paraćin and one of the best teachers in the world. His art of public speaking, through which he reflects the power of inspiration and motivation, has put him in the spotlight of media interest. Borko makes ample use of their interest by constantly drawing the public's attention to the position of teachers in society.
Borko’s educational philosophy:
Borko likes to live and work "contextually", and his context is his family, school, city and country. From that philosophy of his, one can draw the conclusion that he selflessly gives to his local community as much as to his own family, because he believes that an educator cannot turn away from the times and challenges in which not only he lives, but also the object of his obsession - the bright future he sees in his students!
Jelena Lukic
Jelena's life and career path is exciting and, one might say, very unpredictable - from her childhood in the Banat plain and the multicultural colorfulness of Kovacica, and her international career in different cities of the world, through her teaching work in the Arilje region, and back to where it all started. - in Kovacica.
Jelena’s educational philosophy:
Working at the school, Jelena combines and applies everything she has learned through her various life and professional experiences, making the teaching of the Serbian language alive, imaginative and creative, engaging her students in a wide variety of projects and manifestations and always looking for new ways to inspire and ignite them. their love for knowledge, culture and art.
Karim Salim
Of the numerous award-winning projects he created in the field of design and advertising, one of his favorite is the "Free Library" of the Alek Kavcic Foundation, which was declared the best Serbian website in 2021 in the field of education and culture. For more than 20 years, he worked as an art and creative director in international advertising agencies, and now heads his own creative studio. Graduate of the Mathematics High School and the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. The creator of the visual identity of the award and the creator of the Enlightener website.
Karim's work philosophy:
Merging the analogue and the digital world, the left and the right hemisphere, day and night, east and west. Openness to challenges. Constant learning and research as a way to keep up with a rapidly evolving profession.