Schools for all

The project

The main objective of the project “Schools for All” is that refugee children are integrated in Greek schools that are safe and inclusive for all.
Through the project, school directors and teachers are trained to create safe and inclusive schools and classrooms where refugees are welcomed into a learning environment which aims to provide quality education to all.
The training aims to equip school directors, teachers and students’ parents with the tools, competence and confidence to manage controversy and deal with issues concerning intolerance, discrimination, racism and hate speech in school and the local community. Throughout the school year, school teams of school heads, teachers and parents’ representatives are trained and mentored by experienced trainers. The whole school is involved in school activities and workshops. The goal is to include 150 schools to become Open Schools throughout the duration of the project.

Even though legal and structural provisions are in place, there is not always the necessary support for all the schools where refugee children are enrolled once they are there. The daily difficulties and obstacles encountered in the implementation of the legal framework for an inclusive education of migrant and refugee children but also children with learning difficulties has urged the need for creating a necessary framework of information and appropriate training to the school community. 

The impact of the good practice

The training of trainers is provided by the experts’ team to the tripartite school team composed by the school director, a school professor, and a parent of the school’s student. Themselves will have to provide workshops and training to the rest school community teachers and parents. The innovative element is that the project targets the whole school community in a collective way and not just teaching staff. Therefore, the core values and tools towards an inclusive education is being diffused within the local school communities in a holistic manner.  

This practice provides the opportunity to provide valid and reliable information about migrants and refugees and break the negative stereotypes that afloat in resistant school communities. Additionally, it provides technical capacity building to educators for adopting appropriate teaching methods for an inclusive education. 

According to the an expert of the project, many good initiatives have been taken by several beneficiary-participant schools such as the creation of a keychain with indicated significant words for the non-Greek speaking student in order to be able to communicate with its teacher in cases where there weren’t any other means (DYEP class was not yet created etc.) or the creation of a multilingual translated menu in several languages in the school canteen and several other activities such as school visits in museums and other educational institutes.