The NEC4US project links partners from 3 countries – Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia, whose regular activity is preparation of educational programs and training for adult individuals that belong to the Roma national minority. The project will enable networking and creation of partnerships that will on a national level equalize and develop the process of social integration for Roma population. The partners in the project are active on areas where Roma population is widely spread and where the similar problems are constantly recurring and need to be systematically resolved. These includes the following problems: 1. dispersing of Roma population both in the programs of formal as well as the informal education, and professional training 2. low success of Roma in most of education, trainings and learning, and poor outcomes of learning 3. leaving educational problems for various reasons (poorly spoken national language, grapho-motoric problems, low self-esteem for several reasons, but mainly because of poor understanding of the national language, low motivation to gain motivation for reasons of having different life priorities, etc.) The aim of the partners, with regard of knowledge of poor life condition of Roma population and their problems, is to encourage them to be satisfied with their own accomplishments in several aspects of life – first of all - fulfilling the need for knowledge and education to enable proper social inclusion, because the goal is to increase the education level among the Roma population since it is a fact that most of them only finish primary education. The partners agreed on the fact that all types of education and raising the level of education among the Roma population are of paramount importance in order to give them a chance to leave the magic circle of social and economic poverty in which they have been living for generations. There are individual examples that show how quality approach actually completely integrated the Roma individuals in the life of its surroundings, but the key factor is their motivation and interest for success. Roma population is extremely emotional, their decisions are very often driven by emotions and current motivation, so working with them requires very subtle approach and a high level of understanding for diversity and specificity. This is very often the problem for teachers who work with them as adults because they do not have the knowledge nor the skills that are necessary. There is no formal program of education for future teacher which would show them how to treat and how to transfer knowledge to different national minorities in a way that respects their specific characteristics, whether they are material, linguistic or social. Another problem is that teachers very often don’t take into account the surroundings and conditions in which the participants of the program live, they do not know their culture and customs and have prejudices about the Roma population. The project will be dealing with those exact problems – how to develop competencies for teacher in formal and informal types of education to give them skills to work with adult Roma population and develop programs that will contribute to their better acceptance of work with individuals that belong to the Roma national minority. The program will contribute to: - knowledge of Roma culture, language, identity and habits; - better understanding of Roma topics regarding way of life, problems they encounter and that are following them because of life in Roma villages; - better understanding of social, ethic, linguistic and cultural diversity and recognition and adjustment of and to the same; - better understanding of andragogic and didactic approach that will be focusing on work with vulnerable target groups; - elimination of stereotypes and prejudices about Roma in education; - encouraging linking into partnerships of teachers from neighbouring countries and direct transfer of good practice in relation to educating Roma population; - encouraging multi-linguistic and multicultural environment in which we live and have an obligation to develop in all segments; - encouraging the motivation and satisfaction of teachers in everyday work. The program for educating the teachers will fulfil the needs and wishes of teachers to get more training, get new skills and knowledge in order to better provide their students with knowledge, especially to those that belong to the Roma national minority. The Training program and raising of competencies of teacher shall be based on former experiences and gained knowledge of adult trainers that have in the past encountered the problems of educating members of the Roma national minority. The program for increasing competencies of teachers will directly influence the fact that the educational system becomes more appealing to all participants, regardless to their opportunities and international networking and creation of strategic partnership between 3 countries
By implementing the project, we wanted to encourage the inclusion of adult Roma in formal and informal adult programs and reduce the rates of dropping out among members of the Roma national minority. Furthermore, we wanted to motivate them on the importance of education as the key factor in preventing the risk of poverty, and to increase inclusion in adult education programs. We also wanted to motivate andragogical workers to be more ready to work with members of the Roma national minority in the three partner countries. In order to easily identify the causes of dropping out and the lack of interest to be included in educational programs, Roma associations participated, mostly by conducting motivational workshops for students, lecturers and in creating social activation programs, and pointed out the specific problems facing the Roma population encounters in everyday life and the possibility of solving them in order to facilitate the functioning in the society. We encountered many obstacles in the project implementation, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, where the Roma population did not have access to education due to their poor social status and inability to use IT equipment.
After implementing the Give them a Chance project with our partners from Slovenia and Hungary, we came to the conclusion that it was necessary to further strengthen the capacities of Roma students in adult education as well as competencies and motivation of andragogical workers working with them. We applied the project having in mind that a big problem in the Roma national minority community is the lack of motivation to enroll in adult education programs, early withdrawal from the program, very low level of language, mathematical, and digital competencies among adult students of the Roma national minority. We wanted to achieve greater levels of motivation of lecturers working in partner countries in adult education. Most lecturers working with the adult Roma population in adult education have prejudices against working with the target group because they do not know their customs, culture, language and how it is to live in Roma settlements, which are often ghettoized in all three partner countries. In order to overcome potential obstacles, we formed a partnership between andragogical institutions and Roma associations, and by doing so we connected the needs of members of the Roma national minority and adult education institutions.