The BRAVEdu project, “Breaking the Poverty Taboo: Roles and Responsibilities of Education”, funded by the Erasmus+ Key Action 2 Programme of the European Union, has its premises in the fact that poverty and social exclusion limit opportunities of individuals to achieve their full potential by affecting their wellbeing and lowering educational outcomes.

The PISA 2015 reports and results confirm that students’ socioeconomic status (SES) has a significant bearing on performance, with those coming from low-SES households much more likely to be low achievers.

The 2015 PISA results reveal that there is progress across Europe in reaching the EU benchmark of less than 15 % of low achievers in PISA. Estonia is preforming especially well and in science the percentage of low achievers is the lowest in Europe, at 8.8%.

The overall objective of BRAVEdu proposal is to strengthen the capacity of schools to support disadvantage learners from low SES in active participation in school life and in achieving better learning outcomes through exploring and analysing policies and practices implemented in Estonia that enabled it to severely reduce the effect of low SES on student achievement and drawing lessons from it.

An analytical report on the Estonian policies is issued and an innovative school policies and practices handbook for dealing with poverty in education is published in English. The Hand Book is also published in Albanian, Croatian,  Macedonian and Slovenian.

The project started in September 2017 and end in August 2019.

The Network of Education Policy Centers (NEPC, coordinator) cooperated with seven partners from four different countries:

CROATIA

Forum for freedom in Education – www.fso.hr
Elementary school dr. Vinka Žganca – http://os-vzganca-zg.skole.hr

ESTONIA

Praxis – www.praxis.ee

MACEDONIA

Foundation for education and cultural initiatives Step by Step – www.stepbystep.org.mk
Elementary school Dane Krapčev – Skopje

SLOVENIA

Educational Research Institute – www.pei.si
Elementary school Tišina – www.os-tisina.si