Over recent years, the situation regarding the participation of Roma children in the educational system in Greece, Romania and Bulgaria remains challenging. Despite the differences as to the structure of the educational system and how Roma are situated within the societies, Roma children continue to face difficulties regarding their access to the educational system, as well as to their advancement to higher educational levels as a result of the cultural differences, discriminations, absenteeism, underdeveloped skills and competences, as well as the limited in-service training of the teaching staff regarding intercultural education.The project will be implemented by a Partnership consisting of 6 organisations and in particular: a) Bolt International Consulting (GR), a private company with extensive experience in the management of large transnational projects and the implementation of social inclusion projects targeting Roma; b) two schools, Bacho Kiro school (BG) and the 2nd high school of Aghia Varvara (GR), with high percentage of Roma pupils and large experience in the implementation of activities which promote the inclusion of Roma children in education; c) Ialomita County School Inspectorate, which supervises 95 schools with high percentages of Roma pupils and implements various interventions for promoting Roma inclusion in the educational system; and d) two NGOs, the “European Association for a Better Life (AEVB)” (RO) and the “Amalipe Center for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance” (BG), with significant experience in the implementation of social inclusion projects targeting Roma, and particularly in the area of education.The Project aims at exchanging experience and best practices in tools and methods increasing school attendance and tackling ESL and disadvantage of Roma pupils, through the adoption of new tools and methods, the upgrade of the existing ones, the pilot testing of methods from one country to the others, the identification of factors allowing their replicability across national borders and socio-economic differences and the ultimate increase of capacity of the relevant actors to decrease ESL and disadvantage.The project activities include the organization of virtual and physical transnational project meetings as well as one study visit in each country, which will facilitate the exchange of experiences and good practices between the participating organisations regarding the developments in each country in relation to the inclusion of Roma in education, as well as tools, methods and activities applied or implemented by the partners and achieved positive results. In addition, experiences will be exchanged throughout the implementation of a small scale pilot which will test, at local level, selected good practices, based on widely known criteria, implemented by the partners in all 3 countries. Prior to the pilot, an online seminar will be organized for exchanging information regarding the methodology used for the implementation of these practices which promote Roma inclusion in education, while following the end of the pilot, an online workshop will be organized with the aim to discuss the outcomes of the pilot activity and agree on the methodology for documenting these outcomes in the “Transnational experiences and lessons learnt from the local implementation of activities for the promotion of Roma inclusive education” Report.The project will disseminate its results through the production and distribution of the project e-brochure, as well as of 7 e-newsletters. In addition to this a final dissemination event will be organized in Athens, aiming at promoting the project’s results to local, regional and national authorities, agencies and organisations. All project material will be uploaded at the partners’ websites and social media webpages as well as in the Erasmus+ project results platform.Following the end of the project, it is expected that each partner’s experience and capacity in cooperating with other national and transnational organisations, as well as with partners engaged in other socioeconomic sectors will be enhanced. Further to this, partners’ knowledge regarding the structure of the educational system in Greece, Bulgaria and Romania, the educational policies implemented for promoting inclusive education and in particular with regard to Roma children, as well as the methods and tools used in these countries for promoting Roma inclusion in education at local level will be increased. Moreover, the mobilization of other relevant organisations, at various levels, and the establishment of new partnerships for the implementation of relevant projects is also expected to be achieved. Finally, sharing good practices with relevant authorities and organisations could lead to new approaches for addressing the specific educational needs of Roma and the design and implementation of more efficient and targeted policies, delivering thus educational services of higher quality.
Over recent years, the situation regarding the participation of Roma children in the education system in Greece, Romania and Bulgaria remains challenging. Despite the differences as to the structure of the system and how Roma are situated within the societies, Roma children continue to face difficulties regarding their access to it, as well as to their advancement to higher education levels as a result of cultural differences, discrimination, absenteeism, underdeveloped skills and competences, as well as the limited in-service training of the teaching staff regarding intercultural education. The Project aimed at exchanging experience and best practices in tools and methods increasing school attendance and tackling ESL and disadvantage of Roma pupils, through the adoption of new tools and methods, the upgrading of the existing ones, the pilot testing of methods from one country to the others, the identification of factors allowing their replicability across national borders and socio-economic differences and the ultimate increase of capacity of the relevant actors to decrease ESL and disadvantage. The project was implemented by a Partnership consisting of 6 organisations and in particular: a) Bolt International Consulting (GR), a private company with extensive experience in the management of large transnational projects and the implementation of social inclusion projects targeting Roma; b) two schools, Bacho Kiro school (BG) and the 2nd high school of Aghia Varvara (GR), with high percentage of Roma pupils and large experience in the implementation of activities which promote the inclusion of Roma children in education; c) Ialomita County School Inspectorate, which supervises 95 schools with high percentages of Roma pupils and implements various interventions for promoting Roma inclusion in the educational system; and d) two NGOs, the “European Association for a Better Life (AEVB)” (RO) and the “Amalipe Center for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance” (BG), with significant experience in the implementation of social inclusion projects targeting Roma, and particularly in the area of education. The project activities included the organization of virtual and physical transnational project meetings as well as one study visit in each country, which facilitated the exchange of experiences and good practices between the partners regarding the developments in each country in relation to the inclusion of Roma in education, as well as tools, methods and activities applied or implemented by the partners and achieved positive results. In addition, experiences were exchanged through the implementation of a small scale pilot which tested, at local level, selected good practices, based on specific criteria, implemented by the partners in all 3 countries. Prior to the pilot activity, an online seminar was organized for exchanging information regarding the methodology used for the implementation of these practices which promote Roma inclusion in education. Following the end of the pilot, an online workshop was organised with the aim to discuss the outcomes of the pilot activity and the methodology for documenting these outcomes in the “Transnational experiences and lessons learnt from the local implementation of activities for the promotion of Roma inclusive education” Report. The project disseminated its results through the production and distribution of the project e-brochure, 7 e-newsletters, as well as through the abovementioned Report. In addition to this a final dissemination event was organized in Athens, aiming at promoting the project’s results to local, regional and national authorities, agencies and organisations. All project material have been uploaded at the partners’ websites and social media pages and in the Erasmus+ project results platform. The project resulted in the enhancement of each partner’s experience and capacity in cooperating with other national and transnational organisations, as well as with partners engaged in other socioeconomic sectors. As a result, discussions for new partnerships, among partners and other organisations, for the submission of new project proposals are currently under way. Further to this, partners’ knowledge regarding the structure of the education system in the three countries, the policies implemented for promoting inclusive education, in particular with regard to Roma, as well as the methods and tools used for promoting Roma inclusion in education at local level were increased. Finally, the dissemination of the project’s results, including those of the pilot activity, with relevant stakeholders provided them with information as to the transferability of these tools/methods/practices, which can be taken into consideration for the design and implementation of new approaches for addressing the educational needs of Roma as well as for more efficient and targeted policies, delivering thus educational services of higher quality.