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Description
In recent years, education legislation has been improved in Romania regarding the promotion of equal opportunities, the implementation of diversity and inclusion, and access to education for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Important changes have been made to school regulations and methodologies, aspects that facilitate the integration and school inclusion of children with special educational needs (CES) in public general schools. However, there are many situations where the families of other children, their parents, and sometimes even teachers or school leaders, are blocking or acting important to the integration of these children into the public general school system. The school counselors, coordinated by CMBRAE, have the responsibility to support, facilitate the integration in the school of children with special educational needs, children from disadvantaged, at-risk backgrounds. The school counselor, as an agent of change, influences the mentality and behavior of the entire community in the sense of developing pro-social attitudes, tolerance and acceptance of diversity. In the media, there are cases of parents or even teachers who want to remove children from the class: either with special educational needs or with disruptive, aggressive or violent manifestations. This can not be tolerated in a democratic society. It is also the responsibility of the school counselor to create a positive, positive environment in which learning, civicism and democracy manifest themselves correctly by respecting the rights and needs of others. Also, school counselors provide civic / social education lessons (2/4 hours of didactic norm) and more than half of Bucharest counselors teach Civic Education, in grades VII and VIII, a discipline that empowers students in democratic citizenship and the spirit of the values of democracy. The project is an excellent opportunity to develop skills and attitudes specific properly of democratic school.
Summary of project results
The experiences of discrimination against certain categories of students in school institutions, especially students with special educational needs, those from disadvantaged, vulnerable backgrounds are known from the media. The project is based on the need to develop skills in teachers and school counselors, in order to facilitate equal opportunities and school integration of these students, by developing a strong democratic culture in school and in the community. It also aims to build a friendly school climate and a positive learning environment based on trust, in which citizenship and democracy can be coherent.
By conducting the two mobilities, at The European Wergeland Center (“Building Democratic School Cultures- Training and study visit for school counsellors as Teacher Trainers”- Oslo/ October 5-10, 2018) and the Iceland Intercultural Center (“Diverse Society- Diverse Classroom Student’s diversity benefitting social diversity. Special focus on key competencies and cooperative learning in multicultural/ diverse groups"- Borgarnes, Iceland/ November 11-17, 2018) focused on increasing equality of opportunity, increasing tolerance, preventing discrimination and developing school inclusion. Through collaborative activities, the experts designed an educational project structure that could be adapted by each of the schools participating in the project. A total number of 24 schools, 4 schools from each of the 6 sectors of the capital, were chosen based on criteria such as: number of students with special educational needs, conflicts or difficulties in their integration, willingness to participate. From the 24 initial school units a number of over 2400 students and over 700 parents were involved in activities promoting equal opportunities, inclusion and prevention of discrimination. 72 teachers were part of the implementation teams as well as 24 school counselors and 24 school / high school managers. We underline that 24 school communities attended visible events (24 events). After the implementation of the activities, 24 activities were collected, becoming a good practice Guide, a resource of over 80 pages with teaching scenarios, posters / workshops that can be developed in any school in Romania that wants to implement programs to prevent discrimination against vulnerable children.