Purpose:
To address the inequalities in the education system through a “school promoters” project. The School Promoters aims to achieve full schooling, school success and the socio-labour promotion of Roma students and to promote the visibility and values of Roma culture within the school curriculum and the life of the school.
Stimulus/Rationale:
It is estimated that 10,000 Roma and Travellers live in Barcelona. Equal rights are declared in the constitution, but discrimination against Roma is common (access to education, housing, services, labour market etc.). Some of the inequalities faced by the Roma community in Barcelona include:
- The rate of illiteracy among the Roma population is almost 4 times higher than among the rest of the Spanish population.
- Unemployment is higher among Roma population (36.4%) than among the population of Catalonia as a whole (20.9%). There is higher unemployment among Roma men than women, who have become the family breadwinner.
The project is part of Barcelona's Local Roma Strategy, a document that sets out objectives and actions to promote inclusion, social cohesion, awareness and knowledge of Roma culture on the basis of equality and non-discrimination. In force since 2015, it has been progressively incorporated into the design of the city's intercultural policies. At that time, there was no municipal service or programme aimed specifically at the Roma population; there were only projects for school reinforcement or support for the promotion of Roma culture, but without a global framework of reference.
Process:
Promoters:
The team of promoters of the Socio-educational Promotion Service in Barcelona for the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 academic years is made up of nine Roma people.
The School Promoter is a professional member of the Roma people, who knows the elements that make up the identity of this people and others derived from the socio-economic situation, and the diversity of expectations of the families in relation to school. He/she is a positive reference point for the Roma community, knows the entities and people of respect, and maintains a good relationship with the families. This professional helps to promote the participation of the families of the Roma population in education, informs them about access to the educational and leisure offer, and creates links between the Roma community, the educational centre and its environment.
Main objectives:
- Providing teaching and social-work professionals with tools for educating children and young people from their cultural specialty.
- Raising awareness among professionals of the capacities and possibilities of success of Roma students.
- Raising awareness of the values of Roma culture within the school curriculum and school life.
- Raising awareness among parents of the need for regulated education.
- Monitoring Roma children enrolled at primary and secondary schools.
Intervention by field of action:
1. Educational centres:
Students:
- Research into ways of accompanying and engaging pupils and families, especially at changes of stage and monitoring the evolution of their schooling.
- Contribution to increasing expectations of school and socio-occupational success.
- Collaboration in the elaboration of the pupil's personal project and the planning of work and leisure time.
- Promotion of positive relationships among pupils and especially among the peer group.
- Follow-up in the continuity of pupils in the Secondary Education stage, especially for girls.
- Dissemination of good models of school success among families and pupils.
- Information to students, especially in ESO, about complementary school and leisure activities.
- Accompaniment and socio-occupational guidance for pupils.
- Actions for the reception of new students.
Teachers
- Diagnosis of the school situation of Roma pupils and planning, in agreement with the centre's management team, of preventive, intervention and follow-up actions.
- Actions to bring families and absent pupils closer to the school.
- Actions for the creation of family-centre relations.
- Facilitation of knowledge in the centre about the elements that make up the identity of the Romany population.
- Collaboration with the educational centre in the elaboration of strategies with the aim of designing an action plan aimed at bringing the absent pupils back to the centre.
- Elaboration of guidelines so that the centre's Reception Plan incorporates the specificity of Roma pupils.
- Actions to facilitate a good reception of Romany pupils from abroad, especially from Eastern Europe.
- Participation in the positive management of conflicts.
2. Families:
- Encouragement and assessment of schooling.
- Monitoring the continuity of children's studies, especially at changes of stage.
- Encouragement of daily class attendance and reminding families, when necessary, of its compulsory nature.
- Information on enrolment processes and timetable.
- Information on grants and scholarships for families in disadvantaged socio-economic situations and on the range of leisure activities on offer.
- Information, attention and monitoring of Roma families who have just arrived from Eastern Europe, regarding the schooling of their children.
- Promotion of participation in the cultural activities that are offered.
3. Education environment
Absenteeism is a complex phenomenon in which many factors intervene, therefore the actions have to have a more global character, understanding that they have to be related to the actions developed by the educational services, the network of services and surrounding entities, the local administration and the absenteeism commission in the area. network of services and entities in the area, the local administration and the truancy commission in the area.
In this area, the lines of intervention of the school promoter are as follows:
- Collaboration with educational services in educational projects in the area.
- Collaboration with the truancy commission of the municipality, networks of services, entities and programmes on truancy and schooling of Roma students that are organised in the municipality.
- Collaboration with entities in the area.
Impact:
The 2018-2019 school year saw 720 children assisted through activities.
Evaluations are annually carried out by the Education Department (Regional government).
Key reference documents: https://rm.coe.int/nuria-serra-i-busquets-community-participation-barcelona-spain/1680a6525c
