Mytilineos S A : “I’M IN!” the MYTILINEOS Group social programme, to combat school drop-out, is continuing for the 2nd year

Press Release

26/1/2017 "I'M IN!" the MYTILINEOS Group social programme, to combat school drop-out, is continuing for the 2nd year

For the second consecutive year, MYTILINEOS Group is implementing the programme "I'M IN!", an innovative social programme that aims to address the school drop-out phenomenon. The programme's first cycle, implemented as a pilot, was successfully completed at the end of the school year 2015-2016. The programme's continuation demonstrates once more, in tangible terms, the Group's wish to support the children's right to education.

With the social programme "I'M IN!", MYTILINEOS Group chooses to actively contribute to the efforts to address one of the major social and political issues facing Greece today - that of ensuring the quality of education in a particularly difficult period for the country. According to data of the Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs, in 2016 and in the region of Attica only, around 2,800 pupils from all three gymnasium forms (i.e. 3% of pupils in Attica) did not continue their school studies.

Thus, by ensuring that pupils continue their learning progress in order to complete their basic education, the "I'M IN!" programme makes a positive contribution to tackling poverty and unemployment in the long term, and also develops a strong social solidarity network against educational and social exclusion, in the medium term.

The social programme "I'M IN!" is an initiative of the MYTILINEOS Group and is implemented with the Group's full financial backing, in cooperation with the Association "TOGETHER FOR CHILDREN" and with the valuable assistance of the non-profit organisation "MERIMNA", the "Prolepsis" research organisation, and the team of volunteer teachers from the 2nd Experimental Lyceum of Athens and the Centre for School Psychology Research and Applications of the University of Athens.

More specifically, a key objective of the programme is to help identify and address the main factors/causes which, under specific conditions, may lead to school drop-out, i.e. children quitting school early, before completing their basic education.

Given the above, and at the demand of all the stakeholders involved and, most of all, of the pupils themselves, the programme "I'M IN!" is continuing for the school year 2016-2017, in an expanded format. Two pupils' classes have been created (one second-form gymnasium class and one third-form gymnasium class): these currently cover a total of 60 pupils and also help strengthen employment, by creating 13 jobs for 9 months for psychologists and special education teachers, in order to ensure the programme's enhanced and more complete implementation. The

Group's intention is for the pilot social programme to be continued and further expanded in the future.

So far, the social contribution made possible by the implementation of the programme's first cycle in the area of the 7th School Community of the Prefecture of Attica has been significant, as it involved the following:

• Employment for a total of 20 persons from 4 different social organisations.

• Provision of 40 hours of counselling by experts in school psychology, who offered guidance to the educators to work as teachers in the programme.

• Implementation of 240 hours of supplementary teaching.

• Distribution of 1,300 nutritious and healthy meals, as well as of school supplies, new shoes and other material goods to the pupils participating in the programme.

• Implementation 5 experiential actions in the classroom.

• Continuous availability of psychological training sessions for the pupils' parents and inclusion of five (5) financially disadvantaged families in a programme of free meals for a period of six (6) months.

MYTILINEOS Group is a leading Greek industry active in Metallurgy & Mines, Energy and EPC Projects. Established in Greece in 1990, the Group's holding company, MYTILINEOS HOLDINGS S.A., is listed on the Athens Exchange, has a consolidated turnover in excess of €1.3 billion and employs directly or indirectly more than 2,700 people in Greece and abroad.

For more details, please visit the Group's website at: www.mytilineos.gr.