The NEC project networks partners from three countries – Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia, who through their regular activities are engaged in the preparation of education programs and training for adult members of the Roma national minority. The project will enable networking and the creation of partnerships to harmonize and improve the process of social integration at the international level. members of Roma minorities. Project partners operate in areas where there is a large Roma population and are repeated we encounter problems that are constantly recurring and need to be addressed systematically.
The problems are as follows:
- waste of members of the Roma national minority, both in formal and non-formal education programs, as well as vocational training
- Roma failure in most education, training and learning, as well as very modest learning outcomes
- dropping out of education for various reasons (modest vocabulary of national languages, graphomotor problems, low self-confidence for various reasons, but mostly due to poor understanding of national languages, lack of motivation for education due to different life priorities, etc.).
The aspiration of the project partners is, given the fact that we are aware of the poor living conditions of the Roma population and the problems they face, to enable satisfaction with their own achievements in several areas of life, but in the first place – social inclusion, because our goal is to raise the level of education among members of the Roma minority, given that the vast majority of Roma still complete only primary school.
The partners agreed that all forms of education and raising the level of education among the Roma population are crucial to enable them to break out of the vicious circle of social and economic poverty in which they have lived for generations. There are individual examples that with a quality approach it is really possible to fully integrate members of the Roma minority into the life of the environment in which they live, but their motivation and interest in success is also crucial. The Roma population is extremely emotional, their decisions are often based on emotional and current stimuli, and they require a very subtle approach and, above all, a high degree of understanding for diversity and uniqueness. This is very often a problem for teachers who educate them in adult education programs, because they do not have the knowledge and skills, nor the experience in educating members of the Roma national minorities. There is no formal education program for future teachers that transmits the skill of dealing with and transferring knowledge to different national minorities in a way that respects their specificities, whether material, linguistic or social. Likewise, teachers very often do not take into account the environment and living conditions from which the participants in adult education programs come, nor their culture and customs, and have prejudices about members of Roma minorities.
The project will address precisely these problems – how to develop competencies and skills for teachers in the adult education system and teachers in formal and non-formal education to work with the adult Roma population and develop programs that will contribute to their better readiness to work with the Roma national minority.
The training program will contribute to:
- knowledge of Roma culture, language, identity and habits;
- knowledge of Roma issues in terms of living conditions, shortcomings they encounter and which characterize them because of life in Roma settlements;
- better understanding of social, ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity and sensitization to the response to it;
- better knowledge of the andragogical didactic approach that will be focused on working with vulnerable target groups;
- elimination of stereotypes and prejudices about Roma in education;
- encouraging networking in partnerships between teachers from neighboring countries and the direct transfer of examples of good practice in teaching Roma;
- encouraging multilingualism and multiculturalism of the environment in which we live and we are obliged to improve it in all segments;
- strengthening the motivation and satisfaction of teachers in their daily work.
The teacher education program will satisfy the needs and desires of teachers to educate themselves, acquire new skills and high-quality knowledge in order to transfer their knowledge to students, members of Roma minorities. The program of training and raising the competencies of teachers will be based on past experiences and acquired knowledge of educators of adult education programs, who in their daily work encountered the issue of educating members of the Roma national minority. The Teacher Competence Raising Program will directly influence the education system to be more attractive to all stakeholders, regardless of their capabilities, and international networking and the creation of a strategic partnership between Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia will bring new importance and strengthen cross-border cooperation in education and intercultural dialogue.