Give them a chance! Erasmus Project

Project Title

Give them a chance!

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Regional dimension and cooperation; Romas and/or other minorities; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project Summary

Statistical data from adult education organizations continue to show that the percentage of Roma enrolled in formal and informal programs, as well as vocational training in adult education is still extremely low, whereas the success rate of Roma in adult learning programs is even lower. Many of them drop out of education even before the program ends. One of the two major factors affecting the performance of Roma adults in adult education are definitely the Roma themselves. By knowing how to motivate and attract them, they will not abandon the education programs before the completion. The second factor are adult educators, who often, due to lack of work experience with Roma adults and lack of familiarity with the Roma cultural platform, as well as the situation in which Roma live, inadvertently make the mistake that drives Roma to drop out of adult education programs. The fact that Roma still do not perceive education as a value is not helping either. The project partnership has therefore decided to prepare a training program for those teachers, who teach adult Roma in IO programs and by this empower them to work with members of the Roma minority, and at the same time prepare a Roma Student Manifesto together with the Roma. The manifesto will clearly state what content and in what way Roma want to learn, underlined with the life story of a young Roma who, despite coming from a Roma settlement, succeeded in life. The main objective of the GEM project was clearly aiming at teachers in adult education and vocational training programs attended also by Roma ethnical minority, as to develop and raise competences for teaching adult Roma ethnical minorities. With this objective, we wanted to empower teachers for work with the Roma adults and for teaching. Through learning the specifics of Roma culture, identity, history, and language, as well as learning directly about life in the Roma settlement, while also upgrading their work knowledge with vulnerable target groups, primarily adult Roma. The indirect goal was aiming at members of the Roma minority, as it is precisely with trained adult educators that we want to influence on the performance of Roma adults in adult education in the long term, thereby increasing their employment opportunities and competitiveness in the labour market. Five organizations from Slovenia, Hungary and Croatia participated in the project. I.e., three Roma organizations: the Union of Roma of Slovenia from Murska Sobota, association Amrita OBK from Pécs (Hungary) and the association for Roma education – UZOR, from municipality Orehovica (Croatia), as well as two adult education organizations, i.e. the Public open university Čakovec (Croatia) and the People’s University Lendava (Slovenia). All organizations have many years of experience in working with members of the Roma community and are therefore familiar with the current situation in the field of adult Roma education, and consequently their success in the mentioned programs. The partnership also carried out a statistical analysis of the current situation, by interviewing Roma adults and educators teaching in the adult education programs, as well as decision-makers, who could influence the funding of the IO programs for Roma. The analysis included the integration of the decision-makers in the programs, the teacher-training program (adult educators) teaching adult Roma in adult education programs.The partnership published Preprosto enostavno: čas je za spremembe (Simply simple: it is time for changes by Sandi Horvat). The book was translated into three languages of the partnership. It is suitable for teachers who should learn the reasons, why Roma choose to drop out of education through the storytelling, as well as the motivation that Roma need to complete their education. The partnership also published the Roma student manifesto, done together with the adult Roma involved in various adult education programs. Apart from manifesto, we also conducted pilot trainings for adult educators and at the same time focus groups with teachers and based on their comments improved the program. We enabled teachers, who participated in the pilot implementation of the programs to put the acquired knowledge into practice, and discussed with the Roma within the focus groups the work of the teachers after the training. Extensive dissemination of the project, especially the stories in Preprosto enostavno: čas je za spremembe has contributed to the recognisability of the project, as it has been described as the life textbook by some media. Two primary schools and one secondary school in Croatia have decided to include the stories in the required reading. The project and its results supported Slovenian, Croatian and Hungarian Roma organizations, besides European Roma Association. In addition to the aforementioned results, we also carried out four international visits and a closing conference where we presented the most important results of the project.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 118645 Eur

Project Coordinator

Ljudska univerza Zavod za izobrazevanje odraslih in mladine Lendava & Country: SI

Project Partners

• Amrita OBK Egyesület
• ZVEZA ROMOV SLOVENIJE
• Udruga za obrazovanje Roma – “UZOR”
• Pucko otvoreno uciliste Cakovec