We urgently need to discuss issues like pupils’ indifference and their lack of motivation towards education and school. Early school leaving is an even more severe issue. Education is the chance to respond to raising demands in the pupils ‘home countries and abroad. Each child and adolescent is entitled to be supported and positively challenged in an individual and constant way. However, this is far from reality in the countries participating in our project. The percentage of school dropouts is alarming: Netherlands (8,8%), Germany (10,5%), Hungary (11,5%), Greece (11,5%), Spain (24,9%), and Turkey (39,6%) [http://ec.europa.eu/education/policy/pdf. 31.01.2016]Goal: European countries have committed to decline the number of early school leavers to under 10% until 2020. We will work out strategies in order to prevent pupils’ indifference towards school. As well, we will reduce the high percentage of early school leavers. Participants: Teachers and students will be the main participants in this project. To be successful, parents, institutions (e.g. government office for youth welfare), municipalities, universities and teacher-training centers must get involved. The participating teachers will watch foreign classes, learn from each other, and work out strategies to be able to offer fair chances of development to all students. Except for the Netherlands, who take part in an international project for the 1st time, all participants have already gained experience in a Comenius project. To enhance the exchange, E-twinning is supposed to be an vital means in all 5 schools. Concerning this, there are also newcomers.Activities: Our project consists of several modules. Germany: “Giving fair chances of development for each child – achieving integration and equality of opportunity by building respect and tolerance” Greece: “Augmentation of Reading competence – development of different motivating techniques in order to gain and improve reading skills” Hungary: “Early performance measurement of language learners to prevent early school leaving”Turkey: “Reasonable use of Internet and social networks – the digital human being” Netherlands: Sports as important part of education and formation – Sports for mental and physical health”Spain: “Music and language learning – researchers say: ‘Absolutely’ “Results: By means of the strategic partnership we want to improve our school profile in a qualitative way. We want to learn mutually and profit from positive and innovative teaching practice.During the international meetings, results of the tasks concerning our project topic and teaching material will be presented, tested and evaluated in international groups.The main focus will be the development of the pedagogical manual as well as the modification of curricula according to our experience.During our project, parents will be frequently informed about the progress and results of the project. Thereby, they will be motivated and invited to participate. Feedback questionnaires and evaluations will inform about our work. It is our goal to motivate the teachers in the 5 countries to take over positive and successful methods and strategies. For that reason, trainings and information events will take place. Our students will be activated und spread their experiences and ideas. Language courses held during our intercultural meetings should motivate leaners and teachers to learn about foreign languages and cultures. Sustainability: We aim to publish our results broadly in different ways and by different media. People/ institutions interested in our work and material shall be supported and given advice by the participants of our project. That means we want to help and encourage spreading our contents and experiences. We will provide our results in a printed and digital way. During the 3 years we will be develop innovative material as a pedagogical manual as well as lesson drafts and methodologies. We will provide our material to universities and teacher-training centers. We aim to create new type of network between schools across Europe. It is important to evaluate the success of our strategies after the end of the project. By using e.g. different questionnaires and looking at statistics we will gain information on the rate of school leavers and the increase of reading competence after our project. As the goals are complex and must be dealt with from different perspectives, three years of Erasmus+ are appropriate. With our project we want to offer a chance for a prosper future for each child. We want to accompany and support children in becoming successful European citizens.
CONTEXT/BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT: In a society where work is still a key feature of social status, early school leavers have uncertain or poor educational and employment prospects. Our young people grow up in a time that requires flexibility, effort, performance and punctuality. But the reality is different: An increasing number of pupils who leave school without graduating is a serious problem. They sit unmotivated in the classroom, disturb other students and teachers alike, turn away from school and often refuse everything completely. The issue of unwillingness towards school not only concerns politicians dealing with education, but also professional organisations of schools and youth welfare services, and last but not least the teachers in the schools themselves. Early school leaving has become a challenge for our society, and it is an international problem, as the following data on the percentage of early school leavers in our participating countries in 2012 show: Netherlands 8. 8 %, Germany 10. 5 %, Hungary 11. 5 %, Greece 11. 5 %, Spain 24. 9 % and Turkey 39. 6 % (http://ec. europa. eu/education/policy/; strategic-framework/doc/esl-group-report_en. pdf. 31. 01. 2016) OBJECTIVE: We have set out to get to know about and develop strategies to reduce and in the best case avoid unwillingness towards school and dropouts among our students. As teachers from six nations, we want to learn from each other by showing, testing and comparing experiences and strategies. NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANT SCHOOLS: All six participating institutions are secondary schools with similar and different strengths and profiles. We share similarities and differences due to national education systems. Five state schools and one private school (Turkey) participated in the project. The same problem brought us together: behavioural problems and disinterest and unwillingness towards school. The respective coordinators of the project are German teachers. This fact prevented communication difficulties and misunderstandings. In the partner search we have taken care to cover almost every direction in Europe. In the south Hungary, Turkey and Greece, far in the west Spain with the island Gran Canaria and in Central Europe the Netherlands and Germany. That fact alone was exciting: working on the same topic - different conditions, cultures and religions. In the PISA comparison the countries have different results. MAIN ACTIVITIES: One of our main activities was the exchange of proven strategies. A large number of lesson plans and teaching methods were exchanged, analysed and evaluated by means of questionnaires, opinions, videos and statisticsin each partner school. We set ourselves the task of completing a pedagogical manual - a summary of our work. As a constant companion beside the manual we developed our project homepage (www. educationthekey. com). We uploaded results and connecting elements on the Erasmus+ project results platform and in eTwinning. Mutual visits beyond the project framework encouraged friendships and partnerships, which also plan joint activities for the future. RESULTS AND EFFECTS: Our international partnership should help to identify problems related to school unwillingness at an early stage, to benefit from each other, to adopt positive teaching practices and responsibilities from other countries and thereby improve the quality of one's own school profile. The Erasmus+ project enabled us to travel to our partner countries. The participants were able to get to know other cultures and school programmes. They carry these experiences and results into a wider community and thus act as multipliers. By publishing our results, our experience can be adapted to the needs of third parties, transferred to new areas, maintained at the end of the funding period and applied to future projects.