The project TERNO (Teachers Education for Roma New Opportunities in School) is a project co-financed by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission (Key Activity 1: Roma Multilateral Projects) which aims to set up and implement special support centres in order to support the Roma children that attend the last classes of the elementary school to complete primary education and pass on to the secondary education.

The general objective of the project is to prevent the early school leaving of the Roma children and support the Roma children to move from the elementary to the secondary education. The project aims to improve the participation/maintanance in school for children with low living standard by overpassing the lack of interest towards traditional learning methods. The specific objective with which the general objective will be achieved is through the training of the teachers (or teaching assistants) that are teaching Roma in order to support the Roma children to complete the elementary education.

The main result that the TERNO project has developed are Centres for the provision of supplementary education for Roma children that are completing the elementary education and are preparing to pass to the secondary education. The organization of these centres was based on a methodology which has included all the important elements in order to help teachers of Roma children to better support children that attend the last classes of the school to complete elementary education and pass to the secondary education.

The consortium of the project is multi-actor, it has a great experience in the field and it has complementary competencies. It is constituted from 6 partners from 5 countries (Greece, Spain, Italy, Hungary and Romania). In the project they participate, 3 Roma Associations, one NGO led by Roma, a Research Institute which is specialized in the education research for the Roma people and an organization specialized in the development of research methodologies and management of LLP projects.

Tab 1 The Project

Tab 2 General Objectives and Activities

Tab 3 Main Results

Tab 4 Partners

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teacher training methodology

national research reports

Discrimination and poverty hinder Roma's access to education

In the field of education and training, discrimination based on ethnic origin has often
hampered the access of Roma people to quality education. This is a tremendous loss
as peoples’ futures are mostly shaped by their education and early experience in life.
When the educational element is missing there is little hope for the meaningful
integration of these European citizens.

Early childhood education and care is left wanting. Many Roma children do not complete
primary school education and many do not even begin at all. Sometimes this
situation is made even worse by the difference between the language spoken at
home (Romani or any other dialects) and the language of instruction. When children
eventually find themselves in school, their lives are made especially difficult as a
result of the combined effect of ethnic discrimination and poverty: hostility, stigmatisation
from fellow students and staff, the lack of adequate transportation, basic
pedagogical materials and textbooks, appropriate infrastructures, and ghettoisation
of existing schools, to name but a few. The figures for early school leavers in Roma
communities are well above national averages. Moreover, due to the prevalence of
traditional family values, an inordinate proportion of these early school leavers are
young girls, whose families expect them to leave school as soon as they are deemed
suited to marry. This is often very early.

Illiteracy and a lack of skills transferable to today's labour market severely compromise
prospects of finding proper employment when this is available. This situation,
combined with prevalent ethnic discrimination, means that Roma find it very difficult
to find a job. This generates even greater social exclusion for many Roma.

The difficulties Roma communities experience in the field of education as well as
the other related social fields – employment, housing and health – actually reflect
those that mar the general situation of the mainstream societies, especially in Central
and Eastern Europe. In other words, what is seen in these Roma communities most
affected by economic turmoil is a general situation, which ethnic discrimination and
negative cultural stereotypes intensify. The initiatives and actions to be taken in
favour of Roma communities at the European level were therefore, to be inspired
and guided by the goals of the Europe 2020 Strategy, i.e. smart, sustainable and
inclusive growth, together with better economic governance. Conversely, inclusive
growth could not possibly happen whilst excluding communities whose development
had been blatantly hindered by social exclusion and discrimination.

 

Source: Roma and Education: Challenges and Opportunities in the European Union

                                                                           © European Union, 2012

 

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This project is co-funded by the European Commission. This publication reflects the views of the author only and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use of the information contained therein.

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