20th June 2011: Final regional seminar, Bologna
Monday, June 20 in the afternoon, the final workshop of the YES Project was held at the Legislative Assembly, under the terms provided (since the expiry of the two-year project was June 30, 2011).
The school exams, which began June 15 after the closing of the school year 2010-2011, and intended to last for the entire month of June, made it difficult for the Regional Education Department and the partner schools to confirm the presence of a representative. Unfortunately, despite several individual confirmation received, only the representative of the Institute Bodoni was able to intervene on behalf of the academic world of the Emilia - Romagna Consortium.
However, thanks to the active participation of Mrs. Annalisa Martini, teacher of “Bodoni” high school (Parma) and Mr Roberto Pasquali of AIPI Association (Bologna), this seminar was an opportunity to share ideas and thoughts on the concluded project, and future prospects of collaboration with the partners of Iasi known through YES. Mr. Criserà, in charge of the External and International Relations Department of the Legislative Assembly, offered copies of the final publication of the YES, provided by the project itself as an important tool for reporting and dissemination of results of the partnership. "Now the partners - he said, after expressing his satisfaction with the quality of their work – have in front of them two roads: one is to verify the possibility of a project in Europe to further enhance this experience, the other is that to empower the network created by the project regardless of an active role of the Legislative Assembly who coordinated YES "
Ms. Martini in this regard noted the launch by her school of contacts with the Teacher Training Centre of Iasi for a common project, and recognized the importance of YES in stimulating involved schools in a regular work of documentation of projects to then share them with partners. In fact, common custom for schools, for the succession of different professionals as project reference, is to lead many projects of merit without recording progress and methodically collect outputs and outcomes, which is very essential, in the eyes of the teacher, both for the quality of the next school interventions, both for the ability to offer good practice for other similar initiatives. The Comenius Regio Programme, through direct involvement of the regional public authorities can also offer this update of school activities to policy-makers. What would be necessary to ensure the compatibility of the institutional organization of the two consortia in comparison, to make possible the reproduction of good practice.
Mr. Pasquali, joining with expressions of satisfaction expressed by all speakers, added that the value of an exchange like this and the advisability of requiring all teachers and trainers participating in at least one European project, since this experience, as pointed out by Annalisa Martini, is the best possible refresher course. The proposal that AIPI shared with the Teacher Training Centre of Iasi of a web platform between Italian and Romanian students on the theme of living abroad, is a path on which they intend to continue the work, and then this exchange with the Romanian realities from where many students in our school come, was actually very useful and highly informative. From another point of view, this highlights, however, being in the urgency to investigate the best practices of integration of foreign students, the opportunity to work with countries more similar to Italy, who have already experienced the problems of immigration in their territory.
Mr. Diana, considering key messages emerged from the discussion on the current crisis in the schools and the precariousness of the work of many teachers that makes planning difficult, added that another factor of weakness in the development of good practice, is the difficulty that schools encounter in dealing with the marginalization of their students outside school. Another weakness of the project was the lack of involvement of political bodies in various stages of the project, however, due to the experimental nature of the Comenius Regio and its initial configuration: in fact, the new addresses have emerged in the EU conference in Bordeaux have dictated the importance of active participation of top politicians in the future, as it will give more points to projects that provide it.
In parallel, in Iasi the final seminar of the project was held, which offered to partners of the Romanian Consortium the opportunity to reflect on the partnership with Emilia - Romagna and future prospects of cooperation: the conclusion of YES shall not divide the network, which will remain as an opportunity to continue and build new paths of a joint research.
