The COVID-19 epidemic is causing a particularly serious impact on the education of Roma children (beyond the existing problems), resulting in significant disadvantage; this involves not only a reduction in current learning outcomes but also the risk of permanent drop-out. Key aspect is that for many of these children, participation in digital education is challenging and is often an unfeasible task; in this matter, the fact, that plays a central role is the almost complete lack of digital teaching aids and methodological solutions that are linguistically and/or socio-culturally appropriate (eg. linguistically and methodologically adequate Romani or bilingual) for them as well as the lack of necessary essential digital learning competencies. Similar difficulties arise among educators who deal with them. The majority of Roma children have been able to participate in online education only to a limited extent or not at all, and thus they are increasingly excluded from public education. During the project, our central goal is to develop high-quality, linguistically and professionally authentic digital contents, innovative online resources and tools, and the development of the necessary methodological and digital pedagogical competencies. One of the main outputs of the project is the creation of a Romani-Hungarian regional digital educational-cultural children's dictionary, based on the different dialects of the Romani language, conveying them as a value, involving parents, teachers and the children themselves in the work, supporting the learning and development of both Roma and Hungarian children learning together. In addition, the dictionary is supplemented by a Romani pedagogical glossary, which contains important instructions, expressions, formulas relevant to Roma culture and child care, which supports teaching and learning, and by it’s conscious use, teachers who do not speak Romani, will also be able to establish a closer and more cooperative relationship with their Roma students. Since in everyday life they are becoming more indispensable, moreover in terms of the participation in digital education, IT and technological knowledge are directly unavoidable, one of the essential outcomes of the project therefore, is the creation of an IT glossary, that will make the concept set of Hungarian textbooks interoperable – along with the elements used in the Hungarian education – in Romania and Slovakia, supplementing all this also with the Romani version of the most fundamental concepts. In connection with the dictionary, e-learning material will be created, with the aim of offering accessible resources to children, students, educators and parents, where some of the content comes from practicial experts from several fields (researchers, kindergarten teachers, developmental educators) and the other part is the result of the collaboration between students, families, communities and schools. We want to create a multilingual multimodal library of tales in Romani, Hungarian and other environmental languages, also available in Romani, enabling school, home, individual and community processing the tales, as the role of tales is especially important both in the early development stage and in the in later learning / teaching, using knowledge from home as a resource, strengthening identity and attachment to culture, increasing self-esteem, and motivating children. In order to display all these contents and results, we aim to create a digital platform, which main purpose is to save values, share locally accumulated knowledge, present and share local folklore, natural and linguistic values explored by students, teachers and parents using experiential pedagogy. In addition to education, the explored local values also serve to promote rural tourism in the community. The project can bring both direct and indirect, longer-term results. In line with the objectives set, the three main expected impacts are: 1. Innovative digital content and tools are created which are based on students' linguistic and cultural resources, existing knowledge and local conditions 2. actors involved in the education of Roma children and youngsters (teachers, educators, heads of institutions, parents, etc.) acquire competencies-also digital competencies- that can be used to reach our goals and be applied more widely and with great confidence 3. a long-term knowledge sharing and cooperation network is established The planned outcomes will reduce and try to bridge the Roma students’ educational disadvantages which have occured by the COVID-19 virus. For many Roma children the project will ensure for the first time access to online education and provide them positive experiences. The innovative digital contents and equipments will become the sources of several benefits, which have been already widespread among the children from the mainstream society.
Through the implementation of the project, we intended to support Roma (Gypsy) students' educational access and learning opportunities in the following ways: 1) by creating linguistically and culturally reflexive digital contents, innovative tools and aids for the development of digital and learning competences, involving students' diverse linguistic and cultural resources and applying modern infocommunication and digital technology; 2) by enhancing the digital and other competences of those involved in the education and care of Roma pupils (teachers, educators, parents, heads of institutions, etc.), by organizing trainings and workshops actively involving their existing knowledge and local experience; 3) building a longer-term network for sharing knowledge and cooperation; Furthermore, through our activities, the generated contents, our engaging events and the platform itself, we also wished to contribute - to the shift in institutional perspectives that is essential to approaching and solving the problems; - to raise awareness of teachers and pupils who are willing to mobilise and are open to linguistic and socio-cultural diversity of all children; - to develop intercultural competences in participatory and collaborative ways.
The application was reasoned by the educational disadvantages of the significant Roma child population living in Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia, which represents serious challenges. Factors such as segregation, low school performance, high dropout rates, and negative self-esteem have a range of underlying general and local issues. The COVID-19 pandemic further aggravated these children's circumstances, with many being excluded from digital education. Moreover, the teachers' low digital competencies, the absence of bilingual educational resources, and an attitude that ignores the linguistic-cultural diversity and pre-existing knowledge of the children highlighted the need for improvement. Our goal was to develop and make available educational and methodological solutions that would improve the disadvantaged situation of Roma children in a culturally and linguistically sustainable way. These solutions were also designed to enhance the intercultural sensitivity of Roma and Hungarian children studying together. Additionally, we aimed to support the children and educators grappling with these challenges in the digital environment by providing tailored, participatory solutions that cater to local needs and the cultural context.