Learning by playing with an innovative teaching method that uses creativity, art, 'problem solving' and new technologies to achieve school learning objectives in urban areas at high risk of dropping out. This is the idea with which the Istituto Comprensivo “Radice Sanzio Ammaturo” in Naples has restarted “Proud of You”, the project aimed at students from the suburbs of Naples, promoted by the social promotion association Next-Level, which deals throughout the country (from Turin to Naples) with accompanying the educational path of young people (and their parents) in the most disadvantaged areas in an inclusive and innovative way.
Reduced annual absences in places with high school dropout rates and doubled average grades in key subjects such as mathematics among the students involved, are the important numbers of the first 'pilot' edition of "Proud of You", which last year involved one hundred children from Scampia, right in the schools between the Vele. This year, more than two hundred children (between 8 and 11 years old) have already begun the educational path of the second edition of "Proud of You" for the 2019-20 school year, in another area of the Neapolitan suburbs that experiences a strong condition of marginalization. That of the neighborhoods (Capodichino and Poggioreale) and the Rioni (Amicizia, Battisti and della Bussola) located in three city municipalities where the volume of educational opportunities other than strictly scholastic ones is lacking and where the risk of school dropout is high and social criticality is strong.
The beneficiary of the project, made possible thanks to the “Fund for charity and social and cultural works” of Intesa Sanpaolo and Gesac, the management company of the international airport of Naples, is, in fact, this year the Comprehensive Institute “Radice Sanzio Ammaturo”, which operates in an area that has school dropout rates of up to 19%, a reflection of serious social alarm if compared to the national average of 14%. “Thanks to this project – says the school principal Filomena Nocera – we are managing to make the outskirts become the 'center', filling with afternoons at school those serious gaps in structural and social organization (in the sports and cultural fields) of the neighborhood”. And the results of “Proud of you” are already growing. “We are very happy with this new edition – explains the president of Next-Level, Caterina Corapi – because we have increased the number of participants, increased the training of the staff and improved the attendance of the children in the project: in the first two months of activity, 85% of the students have participated continuously and the comforting fact is that those who participate are truly committed”.
The secret of the success of this project, according to the teachers involved, lies in the inclusiveness of its pedagogical methodology, which aims to consolidate what has been learned in class during the year with an educational path built as a "treasure hunt", capable of combining reading and active participation, in the form of quizzes, puzzles or simple challenges to overcome, aimed at practicing grammar, syntax, logic and vocabulary.
A long educational path (two days a week until April 2020, for a total of 32 annual appointments in each school complex of the “Radice Sanzio Ammaturo” Institute) that takes advantage of the precious scientific collaboration of three large centers of academic excellence in Southern Italy: the “Renato Caccioppoli” Department of Mathematics and Applications of the University of Naples Federico II (which deals with the planning and development of mathematics teaching), the Department of Educational Sciences of the Suor Orsola Benincasa University (which provides its 'young teachers' as educational tutors) and the Department of Psychology of the University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli” (which deals with the impact assessment of the project).
“Having fun while learning and learning while having fun is the first rule of effective teaching”, underlines Annamaria Palmieri, municipal councilor for Education who has visited the schools involved in the “Proud of you” educational project several times. A project that is growing also and above all thanks to the sensitivity of the social commitment of an important Neapolitan company like Gesac. “The right to study – highlights Roberto Barbieri, CEO of GESAC – is a primary right, incompressible for all citizens and this is why Gesac is alongside those who work and is committed to making it a real and concrete right. Defeating school dropout in the most socially complex neighborhoods is a commitment of social responsibility of Gesac”. A commitment that has already produced important results.
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