21/10/2019
FSG
Ten years have passed since the start of Promociona, a program launched by the Fundación Secretariado Gitano in 2009 to combat school failure and dropout in Compulsory Secondary Education and facilitate continuity in studies. "Promociona helps me to have more desire to study and move forward," says María Fernández Flores, former student of the program.
Promociona promotes equality in education. An equitable education in which all students find the support they need. To this end, it offers orientation and educational support to Roma students and their families, working closely with schools, through educational itineraries adapted to each student. The professional teams of the program, educational counselors and teachers, work every day to ensure that this joint effort leads to educational success. All this with the conviction that education is the main tool for Roma youth to break the circle of poverty and exclusion that the vast majority suffer, and access a future with more opportunities.
10 years celebration of Promociona
Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG) celebrated on October 21st an event in Madrid to share and celebrate with the students, their families, educational centers and public administrations the results and lessons learned through this decade of the Promociona program. The program is cofinanced since its inception by the European Social Fund and the Ministry of Health, Consumption and Social Welfare, through the IRPF, as well as administrations and private entities at regional and local level.
“We know that without the title of Secondary education, a person is condemned to job insecurity, and this inevitably leads to poverty and social exclusion. We know that what works as a lever of change for personal and labor development is to ensure compulsory education and continue studying, ”said Pedro Puente, president of the FSG during the inauguration, together with Mª Luisa Carcedo, Minister of Health, Consummers and Welfare Social functions.
Participants of the Promociona have been the protagonists of the activities of the Day. Personal testimonies, experts table, debates and collective creation activities have starred this festive day to show the impact of our work in these ten years.
“The Roma School Desk”, icon of the last awareness campaign of the FSG, has also been present to remember some of the causes of school failure and dropout and ask the public authorities for a reform of the current Education Law that really promotes education inclusive, with attention to the specific situation of Roma students, a plan of clash against school failure and measures to prevent and reverse school segregation.
Results and impact of the Promociona
Despite the advances made in recent years, the educational levels of Roma youth are below those of the general population as a whole: 64% of Roma students between 16 and 24 years of age do not complete compulsory studies compared to 13% of the population as a whole.
For this reason, the Fundación Secretariado Gitano, with the presentation of the results of its Promociona educational program, wants to remind the public authorities of their obligation to guarantee the right to education, thus promoting equal opportunities. The results and the impact of the ten years of the program show that when the necessary measures and resources are put in place, educational success and continuity in the studies of Roma students are possible.
In these 10 years, 1,300 Promociona students have obtained the secondary education degree (87% of those enrolled in the last year), and out of them, almost 90% have continued to post-compulsory studies. Promociona program is working in 49 cities in Spain. 4,693 students (55% girls) have participated in the Promociona Classrooms. 80.5% of students in 6th grade promoted to secondary and 74.4% promote to the next grade.
1,670 young people have participated in the State Students Encounters that have become an annual event to share experiences with other Roma students who are already role model of educational success. In addition, 221 mentoring sessions has been carried out with 180 companies, which have put boys and girls in touch with the job of their dreams to boost motivation and promote their continuity in studies. 1,532 training and sensitization actions aimed at educational professionals and many other awareness and socio-community actions that have contributed to the good results of Promociona have also been launched.
In 2012 Promociona was recognized as a Good Practice by the Council of Europe and in 2017 it received the National Education Award.
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