The project TERNO (Teachers Education for Roma New Opportunities in School) is a project co-financed by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission (Key Activity 1: Roma Multilateral Projects) which aims to set up and implement special support centres in order to support the Roma children that attend the last classes of the elementary school to complete primary education and pass on to the secondary education.

The general objective of the project is to prevent the early school leaving of the Roma children and support the Roma children to move from the elementary to the secondary education. The project aims to improve the participation/maintanance in school for children with low living standard by overpassing the lack of interest towards traditional learning methods. The specific objective with which the general objective will be achieved is through the training of the teachers (or teaching assistants) that are teaching Roma in order to support the Roma children to complete the elementary education.

The main result that the TERNO project has developed are Centres for the provision of supplementary education for Roma children that are completing the elementary education and are preparing to pass to the secondary education. The organization of these centres was based on a methodology which has included all the important elements in order to help teachers of Roma children to better support children that attend the last classes of the school to complete elementary education and pass to the secondary education.

The consortium of the project is multi-actor, it has a great experience in the field and it has complementary competencies. It is constituted from 6 partners from 5 countries (Greece, Spain, Italy, Hungary and Romania). In the project they participate, 3 Roma Associations, one NGO led by Roma, a Research Institute which is specialized in the education research for the Roma people and an organization specialized in the development of research methodologies and management of LLP projects.

Tab 1 The Project

Tab 2 General Objectives and Activities

Tab 3 Main Results

Tab 4 Partners

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teacher training methodology

national research reports

Professional education of experts for better future of intellectually disabled Roma

Whilst the difficulties faced by Roma in general are well identified – the dangerous
combination of illiteracy, widespread unemployment and failing health and housing
facilities, issues of disability are often overlooked, especially in the context of extreme
poverty. Roma with intellectual disabilities are doubly marginalised because of general
discrimination targeting Roma and because of their ethnic origin. Moreover,
intellectual disabilities are not adequately -addressed by therapeutic care or adequate
treatment. This issue is a particularly sensitive one, given numerous reports
of widespread misuse of and misdiagnosis within special needs education, which
has been the case over the years in parts of Central and Eastern Europe. There is a
major risk that actual and proven cases of intellectual disability amongst Roma
children of school age go unreported and that essential opportunities for proper care
are missed addressing their special needs in an inclusive educational environment.

This project, bringing together stakeholders from countries with a sizeable Roma
minority, undertakes to offer adequate and pragmatic training to professionals and
social workers in addressing the combined discrimination affecting Roma and children
with special needs.


An innovative pedagogical curriculum has been elaborated specifically to improve
training and give expertise to professionals involved in treating and caring for intellectually
disabled Roma. They are taught to adapt their counselling to the Roma
context. The hope is that families may gain a better insight into intellectual disabilities
so as to treat these children with special needs on an equal footing with any other
child in the family circle.

Coordinator: Center za izobraževanje in kulturo Trebnje, SI
Tel.: +38 673482101 | Website: www.ciktrebnje.si
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | Contact Person: Mrs Patricija Pavlič

Source: Roma and Education: Challenges and Opportunities in the European Union

© European Union, 2012

This project is co-funded by the European Commission. This publication reflects the views of the author only and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use of the information contained therein.

Supported by the DI-XL project related with the dissemination and exploitation of LLP results through libraries