Enhancing the participation of migrant and refugee children in primary school

Nowadays, one of the main challenges of educational systems in Europe is the inclusion of students with a migrant background in school. Very often migrant students tend to have lower educational performance and are more likely to leave school early compared to native children. Starting the inclusion process since the first phases on their educational path is crucial to counteracting on these phenomena.

Schooling and support of educational achievement are ones of the best, most effective migrant integration strategies.

E-COURSE is a new European project aiming at enhancing the professional development of teachers in dealing with migrant and refugee learners and diversity in classrooms through applying these strategies.

On the 14th November, representatives of all the partner organisations met in Oerlinghausen (Germany) to discuss on the aims and activities of the project and the strategies to be adopted in order to effectively impact on the inclusion of migrant learners in primary schools as well as in the community they live in.

In order to to enhance the access, participation and learning performance of newly arrived migrant, refugee and migrant children in primary school education, E-COURSE will target:

  • teachers, school leaders and non-teaching staff;
  • students with a migrant background;
  • parents/families, especially of migrant and refugee students.

We wil develop an educational support model piloted in primary schools in Germany, Greece, Italy, France and Cyprus to manage diversity and to facilitate effective inclusion, support and success of migrant and refugee students thus minimizing ESL risks in the longer term.

Furthermore, we aim at strengthening the collaboration among all members of the school community – school leaders, teachers and non-teaching staff, learners, parents/families – in this process, which will have positive effects on the integration not only of the migrant and refugee children, but also of their families. Thus, inclusion in the school community will be a first crucial step towards the inclusion in the hosting country society.

E-COURSE – EnhanCing the ParticipatiOn and Learning Performance of Migrant and RefUgee Children in PRimary School Education – is a project co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme, Key Action 2: Strategic Partnerships for school education.

The project involves 8 organisations:

If you are interested in knowing more about the project, please contact giulia.tarantino@cesie.org.