New school books and teaching materials Until 1997, minority schools employed the educational materials used all over the country and written for native Greek speakers. Forty new textbooks have been designed at primary level covering Greek as a second language, history, geography, the environment and civic education. Supplementary material such as an electronic method for teaching Greek as a second language, a 6,000-entry children’s Greek-Turkish dictionary, interactive educational applications both conventional and electronic, and songs have also been produced. All the materials respect the children’s ethnic identity and are interactive, playful, colorful, and ‘user-friendly’. At secondary education level, new materials have been developed for use in conjunction with existing ones covering Greek as a second language, literature, history, mathematics, physics and geography. The main thrust of the new material is active learning and the encouragement of critical thinking. Extended teaching programme Spending more time in school is another way of fighting social exclusion. More teaching hours have been added to the standard secondary level program. Trained teachers offered afternoon classes to more than 1,000 students per year. Teacher training For an average of 120 hours per year, both primary and secondary teachers were trained in bilingualism, didactic and pedagogic skills, use of the new materials, social and gender inequalities, classroom dynamics, identity issues, discriminations and the negotiation of differences. Trainers also systematically visited teachers at school premises. New teacher-training materials have been developed on salient themes pertaining to minority education, broken down to 34 booklets. These are also available on the Internet. A documentary film on the dialectics of identity in Thrace has been prepared and was used as a teacher-training tool, offering trainees a way to break the silence over conflicting issues. Research and work with the community Owing to the lack of reliable information and population statistics, a number of surveys and qualitative studies were carried out on pupils’ and teachers’ socio-educational profiles, the educational and social backgrounds of parents, language use and language assessment, Greek-language competence, dropout rates from the compulsory nine-year schooling period, attitudes towards education, and representations of ethnic identity. Parents, teachers, and representatives of the community as a whole joined open children’s workshops that marked the end of each school year. International conferences brought together experts from other bilingual, multicultural and conflicting contexts. Members of both the majority and the minority have had the opportunity to realize that their situation, no matter how difficult, is not unique in the world, and changes may be difficult but are possible. To keep the dialogue open meetings were held regularly with leaders of the minority, local MPs, local authorities and majority and minority teachers’ associations. Press releases were regularly sent out to the community. The Community Centers and the mobile units