The main challenge of the RAOLLLA (Raising Awareness and Opportunities of Lifelong Learning for Low Achievers) was to exploit all the available resources at the EU and national level to achieve EU Education and Training 2020 goals. The main emphasis was paid on the EU benchmark of ”reducing the percentage of students who fail to achieve the basic level of reading, math and science literacy in PISA”. The reason for choosing that benchmark was twofold. On the one hand Slovenia does not successfully reach the benchmark, since the Slovenian results in reading literacy are below the EU average. On the other hand research suggests that low achievers are the most vulnerable group in the current financial crisis and therefore require and deserve special attention.

The project was implemented by the Educational Research Institute in Slovenia, the central institution in Slovenia for research in education in cooperation with various associated partners, responsible for development of education in Slovenia.

During the different stages of the project the recommendations for tackling low achievement were prepared on the basis of theoretical backgrounds, secondary analyses of the international comparative assessment studies, EU guidelines and best practices and with respect to particularities of Slovenian context. The first proposals were tested and agreed by the wide range of different stakeholders involved in the project activities (researchers and experts, policy makers, headmasters, teachers, students, non-governmental organisations) in order to ensure policy relevant and practically feasible final recommendations. Additionally wide variety of dissemination activities were carried out to raise media and general public attention to the given problem. The short term goal of the project was therefore publication of comprehensive recommendations for tackling low achievers in Slovenia. The focus was mainly on identifying individual factors as well as those related to the family, school and wider social environments, which are associated with student achievement. Special attention has been devoted to developing approaches whose ultimate goal is oriented towards improving individuals” learning achievement. Simultaneously these approaches are also efficient at addressing all the participants directly or indirectly involved in the educational process (i.e. teachers, students and their parents) at different educational levels and through different content-related and interactive means.

The long term impact of the project is seen in the improvement of the low achievers results and therefore increasing their opportunities on the labour market and in the knowledge society on the basis of the improved and high quality educational practices, coherent policy strategy and general public awareness about the problem.