Project KA2-2020-1-HRO1-KA204-077749 Increasing the language competences of the Roma national minority – “Better Tomorrow” within the Erasmus + program Key Activity 2: Strategic Partnerships implemented by partners from 4 European countries (Croatia, Italy, Slovenia and Serbia) with with the aim of raising the level of knowledge and skills for the integration of the Roma national minority into the local community.
As there is no multilingual content for teaching the Roma national minority in any of the partner countries, the project will create innovative online content for teaching and strengthening language competencies.
The result of the project will be an innovative web platform with modules that will have content in Romani on the one hand, and in Croatian, Slovenian, Serbian, Italian and English on the other.
The aim of the project is to provide innovative methods and content for teaching Roma in the field of raising language competencies.
Innovation is achieved through a multilingual web platform and multimedia content that will be created through the cooperation of all project partners.
The EU 2020 strategy has identified education as the driving force of society, innovation and development, and the development of an online platform and the application of information and communication technologies will have positive effects on society as a whole, and will help to reduce the unemployment rate.
The project also contributes to the implementation of the EU Framework for National Integration Strategies of the Roma National Minority, which aims to eliminate disparities between Roma and non-Roma in 4 key areas: education, employment, health and housing (European Commission, 2011). Strengthening the language competences of the Roma national minority contributes to their competitiveness and easier employment, both locally and internationally, and contributes to integration.
In October 2017, the European Council called for education and training systems to “adapt to the digital age”, while in May 2018 the Council’s Recommendations on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning stated that Member States should work to improve the level of standard language and other language skills.
The project adopts new and improved practices that meet the needs of disadvantaged groups, thus reducing their socio-economic inequality.
This innovative approach to strengthening language competences contributes to reducing the disadvantages of the Roma national minority and their socio-economic inequalities.
According to the recommendations of the EC Council on key competences for lifelong learning (2018), due to the lack of competences necessary for successful participation in society and the labor market increases the risk of unemployment, poverty and social exclusion. As digital development is increasing globally, investments in the development of information and communication technologies (ICT) are crucial, especially in adult education.
The renewed European Adult Education Program (EAAL) defines the focus of European cooperation in adult education policies for the period up to 2020 as one of the issues to be addressed in the program and states increasing the access of all adults to flexible and high-quality learning at any time in life. This priority also corresponds to increasing the competencies of stakeholders involved in working with the Roma national minority.
According to the Report on the Implementation of National Roma Integration Strategies for 2019 EC (Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council), measures taken by a number of Member States to educate Roma national minorities are aimed at improving education, combating early school leaving, encouraging the continuation and completion of secondary and higher education or providing support to compensate for lack of education or disadvantage, with an emphasis on desegregation measures. The report highlights the most important topics in the field of employment as ensuring an effective transition from education to the open labor market, combating discrimination against employers and ensuring matching supply and demand for jobs (especially among young Roma who are not employed,
The project consortium brings together experts in the field of work with Roma who have:
- many years of experience in education and knowledge of the Roma national minority as target groups: Bajaši, Sinti and other Roma groups
- 4 partner organizations employ Roma who are native speakers of Romani with university degrees in the languages of the partner countries and have the key knowledge to develop a multilingual platform.
The implementation of the project will achieve the following intellectual results:
- Needs analysis with recommendations for platform content
- Innovative web platform with multilingual language learning modules.
The main projects of the activities are:
- Conducting needs analysis
- Curriculum developed with developed content and topics that will enable the target group easier access to the labor market, and which will be developed in Italian, Slovenian, Serbian, Croatian and English
- Training of experts for 10 people who will increase their competencies for working with Roma
- Implementation of user training on the newly established web platform for language learning
- Organization of events with multiplier effect
- Transnational partner meetings
The project will include the following target groups:
- 10 experts working with the Roma national minority will be involved in the implementation of research, staff training and the development of an innovative web platform for strengthening language competences
- non-governmental and governmental organizations and associations dealing with Roma issues, stakeholders in the adult education sector,
- 120 members of the Roma national minority involved in the research and 50 involved in piloting the implementation of the program
- 100 participants in a multiplier event “Meeting to promote innovative methods in teaching language competences”; representatives of non-governmental and governmental organizations and associations dealing with Roma issues, stakeholders in the adult education sector
In order to ensure the availability of results obtained through the implementation of project activities and project dissemination, the research results and innovative web platform will be translated into English, and the content will be free and will be adapted for smartphones.
Inequality in social and economic participation of the Roma national minority compared to the rest of the population is caused by deep-rooted social problems related to poverty, low education, high unemployment, inadequate living and housing conditions and discrimination in many areas, especially access to the labor market.
According to the European Commission, the Roma are the largest minority in Europe from around 10 to 12 million, while in the European Union alone there are about 6 million and most have citizenship of a country but are still victims of prejudice and discrimination even despite the fact that the European the union has banned discrimination. The term Roma, used in this project and in other documents related to this minority, refers to all groups of Roma, regardless of who they belong to (Roma, Ashkali, Sinti, Boyashi).
