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The region of Andalucia in Spain is running several programmes that aim to improve the level of integration of migrants in its schools. Within this autonomous community alone there are 13 227 migrant children enrolled in the education system. The majority of migrant pupils are of primary school age, closely followed by secondary school age. Higher education is not mandatory and therefore many students leave school to begin working, so the number of migrants enrolled at this stage is lower.
One of these school integration programmes is the ATAL Classroom: an initiative that supports foreign students with learning Spanish as quickly as possible in order to be able to attend regular schooling in Spanish. It started as a pilot project, and has been so successful that a number of schools elsewhere have now joined in. In the province of Sevilla, for example, there are already nine teachers teaching Spanish to migrants via the ATAL Classroom initiative. In addition to being run in schools this programme is also available to children that live in the refugee centre in Seville. The centre offers its resident asylum seekers integration and family-centred support from the moment they arrive in the country.
It takes migrant students different lengths of time to learn Spanish, depending on their country of origin. For those coming from Latin American countries, integration in Spanish schools is a much faster process than for those whose mother tongue is Chinese or Arabic, for example. Most of the foreign students in Spain come from Morocco and speak Arabic, and therefore find it particularly difficult to integrate within the school system in Spain. According to the teachers of the ATAL Classrooms, learning Spanish will ensure that they have a good foundation for full integration.
ATAL Classrooms also serve another objective: the promotion of interculturality. Children from many different backgrounds share both a classroom and the common objective of learning a new language, and are offered a safe environment in which to share their experiences. Teachers receive specific training in order to be ready to teach these mixed groups of migrant students.
Find out more about recent developments in ATAL Classrooms here.
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