Project Objectives

Early school leaving is one of the major problems of Europe. As of 2014, the rate of early school leaving in Europe is 15%. Our project aims to contribute to achieving, the priorities set out in the EU 2020 Strategy, which as one of its headline targets aims at reducing school drop-out rates below 10 % by studying with common EU countries.

"Many young people at risk of ESL (early school leaving) lack a sense of identity or connection with the school. Extra-curricular activities provide opportunities for young people to develop such a sense of belonging. Extra-curricular and out-of-school activities should be compatible with educational aims to avoid potential disconnection between school and out-of-school life experiences." says the final report of the Thematic working group on early school leaving by European Commission. (November 2013)

Early school leaving is linked to unemployment, social exclusion, and poverty. There are many reasons why some young people give up education and training prematurely: peer pressure, bullying, language learning difficulties, or a fragile socio-economic situation. The way the education system is set up and the environment in individual schools are also important factors. That's why all the stakeholders of our project are responsible for setting a connection between the students who are at risk of early school leaving and their school environment. Through the extra-curricular activities that will be conducted in and out of the classes, students are aimed to achieve openness in the school environment leading young people's creativity. Our project is around the topics of Otherness, Personal Development and Intercultural Learning, which will give participants the possibility to reflect on their meetings with the 'other' on different levels.

Our project has been grounded on the aims of finding the right keys to open the gates and be a part of what is behind those gates. For years, we have been confined to see through the key holes, which caused us to misconceive the big picture. It is high time we found the right keys and opened the doors. When we pass through the gates, we will be able to complete the missing parts in our minds. In order to take our place in the big picture and touch it to better understand , we, 8 partners from different countries and backgrounds, came together and had the idea of this transnational project which will give us the clues to be able to find the keys in the maze.

In order to overcome social isolation especially among the immigrant children, fear of being different, social and mental ostracism, our school and partners who have the same concerns with us determined the activities which will clear all the barriers away and prevent early school leaving by building social dialogue among different groups . Our goal is to develop activities, working methods that will build the attitude of openness and tolerance to wide-range differences (resulting from culture, religion, financial status, disability, gender, older age) to counteract prejudices, xenophobia.

We first aim that the students will be encouraged to think about their aims for future and guided to develop their self-esteem and self-confidence through different creative activities. The positive results will be shared with partners by examining studies on the prevention of early school leaving in Europe. As a result individuals, who have high-awareness, will contribute to the formation of consciousness in a society.

This project secondly aims to explore the meaning of tolerance in multi-ethnic European societies, measured through people's attitudes, perceptions and practices towards ethno-cultural diversity. Lack of tolerance is what causes social exclusion and early school leaving. The project is based on the idea that transnationalism, measured both through practices, identities and orientations and through perceptions of the practices of others, is a key explanatory factor for differing levels of tolerance towards diversity.

The project thirdly aims to focus on the problem of (in)tolerance and social exclusion. During each project meeting students and teachers will deal with one topic related to tolerance, culture and social exclusion (respect, people with special needs, physical appearance, religion, bullying and school dropout).

Fourthly, due to the increasing influence of mass media on the young people's knowledge and perspective on the life of the 21st century, we aim to compare reality with mass media; students and teachers will analyse different aspects of reality in the first year of the project (similarities and differences between the participating countries, case studies of social exclusion in their local communities, failure and school drop-outs) and during the second year students and teachers will analyse different social issues presented in mass media.

  All our activities focus on active student participation and mobilities in all stages.