Cariñena - Spain

Some in Class, Some From Home

Add-on support for students of the regional programme for second chance school education in distance mode

CPEPA Ricardo Sola is the adult education centre of the town of Cariñena, 45 kilometres from Zaragoza in Spain. It serves a predominantly rural district of 70 kilometres in diameter, with an overall population of 30 000 who mostly live in small, remote settlements. The region has high percentage of school drop-outs, young unemployed, and people without a lower secondary degree. For them, the Autonomous Community of Aragón offers an e-learning programme on lower secondary level, called ESPAd, but students enrolled there often have problems because they lack individual support. The experimental course presented here is an attempt to tackle this problem. We organised special tutoring groups for them, both in presence mode in our centre, and in distance mode for those who cannot attend in person. Key factors for success of this course were flexibility, adaptability, multiplicity of forms of support, close relation between teachers and students, and the provision of resources custom-made for the learning process.

Group sessions took place once a week. For people who could not come to the centre, online meeting opportunities were offered.

A full report on this experimental course is published in our book "New Ideas to Promote Literacy".