It aims to focus on improvement and strengthening of Roma children’s Macedonian language competences, as well as to boost their confidence which is much needed as a preparation for elementary school, all through informal educational and developmental stimulation. The approach we will use is based on the “Step by step” educational and pedagogic methodology which aims to achieve the following goals:
The children that we chose to work with come from a very vulnerable group of families. A large number of the parents that are involved in this project are illiterate, they spend their whole day outside looking for an alternative way of subsistence, or have multiple children, so they aren’t able to pay enough attention to all of their children and help them with their struggles at school. As a result of this, and of the lack of motivation that parents show for education, we are facing a decreased interest and understanding for the classes at school, at a time when the school curriculum is being altered to fit the Cambridge program which is much more complicated and advanced and will definitely make the educational process for Roma children even more difficult.
At the Educational Centre Nadez we make sure our children understand the subjects and lessons they learn on daily basis, and we do this every day for a few hours. During this time, we provide alternative education that is interesting for the children, comprehensive, and most importantly focused on smaller groups of children – something that can’t be established in the Elementary School that these children go to.
The project encompasses the following activities:
(March 2014 - August 2015) Foundation "Step by Step" | (September - December 2015) The Embassy of Switzerland in Macedonia
40 Roma children from Shuto Orizari aged 4 and 5, coming from poor and socially endangered families, young parents, single-parent families, families who get social benefits and large families.
March 2014 – December 2015