ADVANCING PARTICIPATION AND REPRESENTATION OF ETHNIC MINORITY GROUPS IN EDUCATION

The aim of the project was to advance the participation and representation of ethnic minority groups in education systems in the Western Balkan countries by promoting good practices and supporting local initiatives. The project “Advancing participation and representation of ethnic minority groups in education” aimed at empowering students, teachers and parents to build initiatives that advance the participation and representation of ethnic minorities in primary education (forced). The project has started from quality research to seek the opinions of parents and other community members to current practices of school parent-community school involvement strategies regarding the creation of an inclusive participatory environment, namely efforts to engage parents belonging to national minorities in governance at school level. National and regional studies were published in a review in English and in the languages of the region. The results are summarized and discussed at regional level. The collection of good practices of education stakeholders to reduce inequality and increase the quality of education was conducted in parallel with the above activities. It involves a review of the various types of interventions implemented through the participation of stakeholders (schoolchildren and parents in particular), with the aim of advancing educational inclusiveness and quality at local community and school level, and to provide mechanisms for horizontal learning and exchange of best practices by supporting sustainable initiatives at institutional and local level. The final product was a book of best practices. After that, local communities engaged in activities planning to convey their views on inclusion and quality of the program at local level. These local initiatives, with the aim of promoting inclusion and quality culminated in regional conferences, in which the project results were discussed.

Key results:

1. A functional regional network was built for the advancement of educational inclusiveness;
2. Relevant information on the participation and representation of minority ethnic groups at school level were leaked;
3. Good practices to ensure participation and representation are collected and distributed;
4. Local initiatives to improve participation and representation were encouraged.