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Qualitative Info |
The Third Report on Portugal published by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) highlights some initiatives taken to encourage school attendance by Roma children, as the creation of posts of socio-cultural mediators who act as a liaison point between families and schools and initiatives taken by the Alto Comissariado para a Imigração e Diálogo Intercultural (ACIDI) [High Commission for Immigration and Intercultural Dialogue] designed to raise the awareness of non-Roma teachers and pupils to Roma culture.
According to the report Complementary Data Collection - Contribution from Portugal to the Annual Report of the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union (2009) the Gabinete de Apoio à Comunidade Cigana (GACI) [Cabinet for Roma Communities Support] was created in 2006 within the structure of the High Commission for Immigration and Intercultural Dialogue with the mission of intervening and participating in projects, and developing field activities to empower Roma associations, train social intervention technicians and teachers, as well as Roma mediators. The cabinet has promoted the schooling of Roma children and suppported the training of teachers in Roma culture and history to facilitate their work with children and their families.
According to the same report, in order to facilitate intercultural teaching and learning the Ministério da Educação [Ministry of Education] and the Alto Comissariado para a Imigração e Diálogo Intercultural (ACIDI) [High Commission for Immigration and Intercultural Dialogue] provided the schools with intercultural material. The Ministry of Education provided the General guidelines for the Teaching of Portuguese as a Second Language for secondary education, an Handbook for Citizenship and a Reference Book of Portuguese for speakers of other languages. The High Commission for Immigration and Intercultural Dialogue created two websites dedicated to the theme of interculturality: Entreculturas (for an adult public) and entrekulturas (for a younger audience), and produced a leaflet on cultural diversity to be distributed in schools. All these measures are developed in the ambit of the Plano para a Integração dos Imigrantes (PII) [Plan for Immigrant Integration].
The I Plan for Immigrant Integration (2007-2009) and the II Plan for Immigrant Integration (2010-2013) adopted several measures accross various policy areas. For the I Plan for Immigrant Integration the "Education" area of intervention included among other measures on intercultural education (pp. 16-19):
- Training of teaching staff in interculturality;
- To revise the criteria of the school network to guarantee well balanced classes with regard to the distribution of students coming from the same groups/neighbourhoods as well as suggesting school boards to take into consideration the needs of schools to have a balanced “ethnic make up” in classes;
- Providing appropriate welcoming strategies and help the integration of student children of immigrants into schools, namely by taking into account the age levels of students, language ability and length of stay in Portugal;
- Involvement of immigrant families in school;
- Involvement of socio-cultural mediators within the school context, in collaboration with immigrant associations;
- To give importance to the role of the teacher in the welcoming and integration of students of immigrant descent;
- Equipping schools with pedagogical materials for supporting intercultural and anti-racist education;
- To expand and encourage the training and research in the field of intercultural education;
- To publish an Information Guide for foreign students containing useful and necessary information for welcoming and integrating foreign university students.
For the II Plan for Immigrant Integration covering the period 2010-2013 the "Education" area of intervention includes among other measures on intercultural education (pp. 20-23):
- Reinforcing Training in Intercultural Dialogue as part of Continuous Teacher Training, by strengthening continuous training in the form of short-term vocational training and training workshops organized by teacher training centres;
- Defining and implementing recommendations for the constitution of balanced school classes and bringing school strategies into line for the welcoming of foreign students and descendents of immigrants;
- Integration of intercultural mediators in the school context as part of the “Educational Territories for Priority
Intervention” (TEIP) programme;
- Informing schools of intercultural teaching resources for intercultural and anti-racist education;
- Dissemination of best practices in the welcoming, aid and integration of students who are descendents of immigrants;
- Support for the welcoming and integration of foreign students and students who are descendents of immigrants in Portugal.
Source
ACIDI (2007), I Plan for Immigrant Integration (2007-2009), http://www.acidi.gov.pt/_cfn/4d346c9b80687/live/Consulte+a+versão+do+Plano+2007-2009+em+inglês+, Date of access: 26.01.2012.
ACIDI (2010), II Plan for Immigrant Integration (2010-2013), http://www.acidi.gov.pt/_cfn/4d346c9b80687/live/Consulte+a+versão+da+Plano+2010-2013+em+Inglês, Date of access: 26.01.2012.
ACIDI, (2010), Relatório Final: I Plano para a Integração de Imigrantes (2007-2009), http://www.acidi.gov.pt/_cfn/4d346c9b80687/live/Conheça+o+Relatório+Final+do+PII+%282007-2009%29, Date of access: 26.01.2012.
Dias, B. Ralha, T. and Silva, E. (2009), Complementary Data Collection - Contribution from Portugal to the Annual Report of the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union, Vienna: European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.
ECRI (2007), Third Report on Portugal, Strasbourg: Council of Europe, http://hudoc.ecri.coe.int/XMLEcri/ENGLISH/Cycle_03/03_CbC_eng/PRT-CbC-III-2007-4-ENG.pdf, Date of access: 27.02.2012.
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