Introduction

Gymnázium A. Vrábla (GAV) Levice is situated in the south-west part of Slovakia, in an area with several types of industries and a new industrial park continuously expanding. The region is a part of Slovakia´s agricultural heartland.

Our school comprises 705 students, 8% of which have special learning needs and some with various multicultural backgrounds, and 52 teacher staff. Education in our school is aimed at several fields of study: languages, science, environmental issues, mathematics and preparation for the school leaving exams. There are plenty of extracurricular activities: volunteering, charity events, sporting competitions, etc. We have already participated in several Erasmus+ projects, which is our reason to continue improving in the internationalisation of our school.

Our motivation for participating in this project is to continue working towards creating a modern educational institution by improving awareness in the matters of migration and extremism. The primary motivation for delving into such a complex matter has its origins in the secondary school simulated parliamentary elections of 2016 and 2020, where the extremist party gained the votes of more than 10% of young voters across the country. Young people who are or will be first-time voters in our elections soon, who will one day become creators of legal systems and keepers of democracy in our country. Looking at the current complicated situation in Europe regarding migration and extremism, we believe that education in this field should start at school.

By means of this project we are attempting to raise our students´ awareness of migration and its many causes, as well as the nature and origins of extremism. We will then proceed to educate the students not only to tackle these problems, but also to explain and educate to significantly mitigate extremist points of view. Extremism and migration are some of the most important issues in public life on an international scale. This is where we feel we have the potential to make a change - through education.

The key people involved in the project will be the school management: the Headmaster, the two Deputies and the Project Coordinator

The project team:

English Department: two English teachers

IT, German, Civics and History teachers (one teacher for each subject).

The school has long-lasting expertise in the various types of Erasmus+ projects, with good praxis, highly skilled English-speaking students and devoted teachers of various subjects who have already participated in Erasmus+ programme projects (more than 40 staff members out of 52).