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Addressing the ECD Gap for Roma children in practice: Overview of the

A Good Start Project Conference on Early Childhood Education and Care for Roma Children

4th June 2012 Brussels

Szilvia Pallaghy, REFProject Manager A Good Start Project

Carmen AnghelescuInternational Step by Step Association (ISSA)Center for Education and Professional Development “Step by Step - Member of ISSA

to scale-up access to quality ECEC services for disadvantaged Roma children

to rise early childhood development outcomes to support the establishment of non-discriminatory policies

in the field of ECEC to support policy experimentation and testing of various

approaches to ECEC to raise the level of awareness and commitment of decision

makers on the issue to promote the culture of evidence-based, result-oriented

intervention

Call objectives - DG Regio

With support from the European Union

services provided for children aged 0-6 teachers and parents trained and empowered with regards to

child development outreach activities need based support - enrolment fee, nutrition, health service country specific possible policy implications analysed

AGS activities adressing key areas listed in the call

With support from the European Union

4With support from the European Union

International Step By Step Association Slovak Governance Institute Fundacion Secretariado Gitano

Cultural association of Roma in Slovakia Civic Association EQUAL CHANCES County Association of Roma Initiatives Methodological and Pedagogical Centre Bratislava

Ruhama Foundation Romani CRISS

National Roma Centrum Roma Education Center “Ambrela” Humanitarian and Charitable Association of the Roma KHAM

Romano Trajo Association Unity in Diversity Foundation College of Nyíregyháza

Evaluation and capacity building by the World Bank and UNDP

Partner organizations

With support from the European Union

With support from the European Union

DATA FROM THE HOUSEHOLD SURVEY ON ENROLLMENT OF ALL CHILDREN AGED 3-7 IN AGS,

2010number

of children aged 3-7

years

Aat home and not enrolled

Bmother/

child program

me

CCrèche

Dkinder-garten

Ecommunity

center

Fprimary school

Gspecial

primary school

Hother insti-tution

Slovakia 293 45.4% 8.2% 21.8%

21.8% 1.4% 1.4%

Romania 97 3.1% 56.7%

29.9% 9.3% 1.0%

Macedonia 282 72.0% 13.1%

0.4% 13.1% 0.4%

Hungary 381 5.8% 0.5% 88.5%

5.2%

With support from the European Union

lack of proper legislative framework capacity problem, lack of kindergarten facilities scarcity of ECEC services for age group 0-3 quality of ECEC services is often under the required

minimum standards segregation in kindergartens and school education

system channelling Roma children to special education, or to

zero classes insufficient preparation with the language of

instruction Poverty and material depravation, poor housing

conditions health status of children

Challenges in the 4 countries - addressed by AGS

With support from the European Union

AGS Zborov, Abranovce - capacity problems, language issue, inter-cultural relations community mediators empowered parents to enrol children* material support* tutoring for children attending zero classes* provided financial support to establish preschool services employed teacher, Romani teacher assist. and kitchen assist. informal preschool class for Roma children run by the church

AGS Martin, Banska Bystrica - capacity problems, transportation * above monthly kindergarten fee covered financing tutoring for children in zero classes open house events in kindergartens and primary schools transportation and accompaniment

Preschool as a bridge to mainstream education Slovakia

With support from the European Union

AGS Telechiu, Craiova - isolation, extreme poverty, lack of infrastructure community center established in the community –

temporary solution alternative, community-based and comprehensive

intervention: social worker, health mediator, education mediator and pedagogue

informal adult education (focus on mothers) nursery/ crèche for 0-3 established in the centre (in the

process of accreditation) liason between municipality and the Roma community

Community Resource Centres focused on ECEC in Romania

With support from the European Union

AGS Skopje, Shuto Orizari - issues with official documentation, capacity problems, extreme poverty

assisted registration of children to obtain birth certificates, and vaccinations

financing tuition fee material support for families evening meetings for mothers facilitate access to social services

AGS Eastern-Macedonian localities - transportation issues, poverty commitment of municipalities, joint investment in infrastructure

transportation provided, staff employed partly by AGS, partly by the municipalities

financing tuition fee

Supporting preschool enrolment in Macedonia

With support from the European Union

AGS 6 localities low quality of services in geographically isolated communities,

Home visits by the community mediators Meséd (Your Story) - literacy for empowernment developing parenting skills and knowledge to improve ECED outcomes for young childrentraining and engagement of local Roma as mentors and facilitators Home Pre-School Community Liasion program Focus on the mainstream society - theoretical and practical part

of teacher’s training modifiedcurricula adjustedobligatory practice module modified

Interconnected interventions in Hungary

With support from the European Union

Community Assessment

The application of the Household Survey

Database of beneficiary children

Continuum for Assessing Caregivers in Center and Community-based Programs

Applying regular monitoring tools

Instruments for evidence-based project implementation

With support from the European Union

More than 9000 home visits to families in the project 776 Roma children enrolled with support from AGS: 483 in kindergarten,

203 in primary school and 90 in other forms of ECD (mother-child programs)

172 Roma mothers and 451 children participated Your Story program 186 teachers and 36 paraprofessionals trained More than 300 students (future teachers) participated activities More than 800 children received material support In Macedonia, 351 parents and children obtained official documents/

birth certificates; more than 1000 children were assisted with vaccination About 100 community motivation events held Good-practice guides and policy papers in preparation

Outputs at the end of December 2011

With support from the European Union

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To promote high quality ECEC services based on ISSA Principles of Quality Pedagogy in center, community and home based learning environments

To build the capacity of professionals and paraprofessionals so that they are able to address the specific needs of Roma children and their families, to support the early learning and holistic child development

To promote principles and practices of social justice and intercultural participatory approach in the framework of inclusion

Promoting high quality services to Roma children and families by building capacity of professionals and

paraprofesionals - ISSA‘s role in AGS:

With support from the European Union

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Hungary – Partners Hungary Foundation

Macedonia – Foundation for Educational and Cultural Initiatives of Macedonia

Romania – Center for Education and Professional Development “Step by Step”

Slovakia – Wide Open School Foundation

ISSA members who provided capacity building activities in the project:

With support from the European Union

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Target groups:

Kindergarten and Primary School Teachers

Roma Teaching Assistants Mediators (community, health) Community center staff Family/Health Assistants Roma Parents Local authorities

In numbers: Teachers trained in all 16 communities: 186 Mediators trained in all 16 communities: 36

With support from the European Union

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Types of capacity building activities:

1-3 days training workshops (AGS

– EU funds)

Follow-up meetings, mentoring (AGS – Bernard van Leer Foundation additional funding support)

Thematic discussions during community evening events (AGS – EU funds)

With support from the European Union

Content areas of trainings:

• Child centered philosophy, child’s holistic development approach and child development in early years

• ISSA’s Principles of Quality Pedagogy – putting knowledge into practice following the seven Focus Areas of Quality

• Education for Social Justice – combating discrimination, understanding and celebrating diversity

• Parent support – strengthening parenting skills • Home-School-Community Liaison Program • Mentoring skills, mediation and whole

community approach • Integrated services for ECD of children from

birth to 3 years old

With support from the European Union

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Lesson learnt by providing capacity building activities in all four countries: The trainings alone are not effective if they are not accompanied by

assistance and support to practitioners through mentoring to improve their competences.

Building the capacity on the level of kindergarten/community center has to be accompanied by building strong local capacity on ECD of Roma and non-Roma professionals/experts to support the daily activities of practitioners.

The capacity building activities are just a piece of a greater system of support for improving children’s learning, development and their lives.

Building specific competences in workforce to facilitate better communication with Roma families and communities and to create a network of support.

Changing attitudes and shifting values takes time! The improvements might be slow but most important is to make them last!

With support from the European Union

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Creating a common understanding of what quality means, especially in poor environments

The prejudice that high quality is determined exclusively by expensive environments, not mainly by the quality of interactions, the teaching/learning strategies, building on children’s strengths and partnering with families

Lack of a platform for communication on the local level, limited institutional and professional cooperation

Assuring the consolidation of the changes/improvements seeded through the capacity building activities during the project time.

The biggest challenges:

With support from the European Union

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What makes the difference for long lasting capacity building investment?

Create a pool of professional-anchors on the local level

(Roma and non-Roma) Providing on-going support/mentoring for professionals and

paraprofessionals working in communities through professional-anchors

Providing professional resources that can help practitioners in their daily practice

Meeting the specific needs of families, communities and also of practitioners working in those communities

With support from the European Union

ISSA Principles of Quality Pedagogy: The Competent Educator for the 21st Century

A self-assessment/assessment/monitoring tool aiming to nurture the understanding of quality practices in early childhood services: Assessing Quality Practices in Inclusive Early Childhood center/community /home based learning environments, Scoring Sheet

Instrument for monitoring child’s progress following the child’s holistic development approach: Child Assessment Instrument, Scoring Sheet

Building Opportunities in Early Childhood from the Start: A Teacher’s Guide to Inclusive Early Childhood Services

ISSA resources used in the projects and developed for the project:

With support from the European Union

Two years of subsidized or free kindergartens for all Inclusive and integrated approach to ECEC Variety of basic quality services (home-based and

community-based services for children 0-3/ kindergarten for children 3-6)

Quality human resources (teachers, health workers) Community empowerment with focus on mothers Greater focus is needed in urban settings

Lessons learned

With support from the European Union

Contact:Szilvia Pallaghy, REFEmail: szpallaghy@romaeducationfund.org

Carmen Anghelescu, ISSAEmail: carmen.anghelescu@stepbystep.ro

With support from the European Union