21/01/2022
FSG
The 24th of January is the International Day of Education. Under the theme "Changing course, transforming education", UNESCO is today calling for the necessary transformations to make everyone's fundamental right to education a reality. A key date on which the Fundación Secretariado Gitano focuses on the right to education of Roma children, which is not sufficiently guaranteed today in our country. Six out of ten Roma children do not complete compulsory secondary education and 31% of Roma students attend segregated schools
The Fundación Secretariado Gitano also takes advantage of this date to highlight the results of Promociona, a programme for educational guidance and support, which aims to reduce the high percentages of school failure and ensure that an increasing number of Roma students graduate from secondary school and continue their education. Promociona currently operates in 49 localities and supports 1,359 children (340 in Primary School, 963 in Secondary School and 56 in Basic Vocational Training).
According to Isidro Rodríguez, Director of the Fundación Secretariado Gitano, "with this programme we are making a significant impact in reducing the educational inequality gap for Roma students, however, guaranteeing the right to education is an obligation of the public authorities. For this reason, we are confident that the development of the new LOMLOE education law, the implementation of resources linked to the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, and the actions included in the framework of the new PROA+ programmes, can contribute to reducing the educational gap for Roma students".
Impact of a transformative programme that improves the academic performance of Roma students
During the previous academic year, Promociona worked with 1,551 students, 1,265 families and 483 educational centres. In a year marked by the pandemic, the Promociona programme managed to respond to the situation of inequality that was accentuated by the social and health crisis of the Covid-19.
Despite the challenges, 78.4 % of the students successfully completed their compulsory education. Ninety per cent of those who graduated enrolled in post-compulsory studies (90.5 % of boys and 89.6 % of girls). In many cases, they are the first generation in their families to reach this level of education.
In Primary School, 93.5% of the students managed to complete the year. And just over half of these pupils, 58.9%, passed all their subjects. 91.8% continued to Secondary Education. In Secondary, 69.2% of pupils passed the year and 56.6% did so with all subjects approved.
In the last two years, Promociona has shown that the implementation of specific measures, such as individual support and guidance for students and families, school support classes, or joint work with teachers are, among other actions, effective tools to achieve educational success for Roma children and youth.
Individual, group and socio-community actions are at the heart of Promociona's work.
The Promociona programme includes actions at three different levels: individual, group and socio-community. Individualised guidance and the development of school support sessions in small groups with Roma children, are a priority in the development of this initiative.
The main success factors are based on educational guidance through individualised tutorials with the pupils, interviews with the families, and collaboration and joint work with the educational centres. In this respect, during the last academic year, the programme's Educational Guidance Counsellors carried out 32,956 individual tutorials and 19,600 family interviews.
The Promociona Classrooms, which operate as group spaces for educational support outside school hours, and which are developed in all localities, have proven to be another key element for achieving good results. During the pandemic, they have been developed virtually, and throughout this school year the face-to-face activities have restarted.
The success of Promociona is due to a joint effort. The commitment of the families, the interest shown by the educational centres and the work carried out by the programme's professionals and volunteers, are all factors that have helped to turn around the figures of school failure among Roma students.
Reducing the digital gap among students, a priority of the Promociona programme
The digital gap among Roma students has not arisen as a result of the Covid-19 crisis. It is a structural inequality that has been exacerbated. That is why, for some years now, the Fundación Secretariado Gitano has been developing different actions to overcome the lack of access and use of Information and Communication Technologies by students and their families, incorporating computers in the Promociona classrooms, training the students and their families, providing materials (computers, tablets, screens, etc.) and facilitating internet access to families with financial difficulties.
Promociona, a programme that has been running for 14 years, is funded by the European Social Fund (Operational Programme for Social Inclusion and Social Economy) and is co-financed by the Ministry of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda, along with numerous regional and local public administrations and private entities.
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