Summary
In Europe around 15 million children have Special Educational Needs (SEN) . They frequently leave school with few or no qualifications, before moving into specialist training. People with disabilities or SEN are much more likely to be unemployed or economically inactive, and even those who are relatively successful in the job market often earn less than their counterparts. The child with SEN remains far behind in reading-writing or reckoning in comparison with his/her intellectual abilities, with the amount of home and school exercises.
Unfortunately, there is a huge number of cases of children with SEN in the partner countries and also a constant increase of the teachers’ requests to be provided with training and informative sessions on this topic. In fact, according to a survey conducted by the Communication Department of the applicant FSLI, 32.452 teachers would like to receive information and best practices on children with SEN, and 8697 of them want to take part in a training course in the next 6 months. The greatest interest relates to new teaching methods and the use of compensatory instruments in didactic activity (83 % of respondents).
Furthermore, in Romania, at the beginning of 2016, was adopted the Law 6/2016 on the education of people with specific learning disabilities for the completion of the National Education Law no. 1/2011. According to the law (art. 473), a Methodology should be developed within 90 days to provide the necessary support for pupils with learning difficulties to enable the law to be enforced and to change the status of these children in the Romanian school. It is the first time that dyslexia, dyscalculia etc are recognized by a law in Romania.
In Greece, when a child is diagnosed with a Specific Educational Needs, depending on the extent of the problem may go to a special school, which are either private or public (Special Education and Training Schools – SMAE). Nevertheless, for various reasons, many children remain to the normal schools, leaving the problem to be solved by the teachers, without having, in most of the cases, the proper specialization or tools.
Also the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research expressed the need to provide teachers with pedagogical tools and methodologies in order to acquire more articulated and cohesive skills and competences required to respond to the formative needs of subjects with SEN.
While the numbers of teachers in the Irish education system, including SEN teachers has increased over the past 15 years, many teachers lack adequate training on SEN to enable them to identify and effectively support students with dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties/disabilities.
Given this situation, the main objective of MAGIC SENS is to enhance the skills and competences of teachers, teachers trainers and all those subjects from the educational chain in dealing with young people with Special Educational Needs such as specific learning disabilities, specific language problems, ADHD deficit (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), ASD deficit (Autistic Spectrum Disorders) and Borderline Intellectual Functioning.