School Daze

The Slovak government is examining the treatment of Romani youngsters in school. But is it asking the right questions? [Also in Russian] by Kristina Magdolenova 5 January 2006 Few would argue that Romani children in Slovakia have a hard time getting a full education. Romani children attend school less regularly, and, compared with the majority, a much higher proportion fail to complete basic education.

The debate over Romani education tends to fall to a simplistic level, influenced by the often-heard view that specific aspects of Romani culture are behind the alleged lack of interest by Roma in their children's education. Such a view can justify Slovak society's failure to integrate Romani children, but it ignores the real problem: the substandard education these children receive.

THE STIGMA

Poverty is one root of the bad conditions Romani kids face in school, but poverty has changed in Slovakia and so has the general view of poor Roma. Poverty ravaged the Romani community under communism too, but conditions in democratic Slovakia brought a new kind of poverty as jobs in state industries withered away. Poverty among the Roma came to be seen as a social stigma rather than an individual failure.

People in the most disadvantaged parts of Slovakia were hard hit by the changes of the 1990s. Among the Roma especially, joblessness and poor schooling fed each other in a vicious circle.

In some areas, usually segregated settlements in poor areas of eastern Slovakia, where the average income is far below the national average, the unemployment rate for Roma reaches 100 percent. Perfect conditions for a poverty culture to take root, according a report by two think tanks, the Institute for Economic and Social Reforms (INEKO) and the Slovak Governance Institute.

No wonder school offers Romani children little of relevance to their daily lives, focused as they are on survival in basic living conditions. It is true that many children come from a non-motivating home environment where parents do not provide an example to their children. Add to this that they often go to school hungry, ill-clothed and with poor knowledge of the Slovak language, and meet teachers who are underqualified, even overtly hostile. In conditions such as these the disheartening statistics on Roma educational achievement look all too natural. Early school problems lead to a chain of failures, eventually prompting children to become withdrawn or even aggressive to teachers or to avoid school completely - the first step in their permanent social exclusion.

COMMUNICATION BARRIERS

The government's moves to step up its efforts on Romani education should be acknowledged. Two years ago the Education Ministry came out with a report on the education of Romani children, and in 2004 the ministry issued a concept paper on integrated education. And in early 2005 the government released its plan for implementing Slovakia's part in the regional Decade of Roma Inclusion initiative.

The Education Ministry's 2003 report states, “We observe that during the implementation of projects or programs, communication barriers and mistrustfulness of Roma are very hard to overcome.” Such views, it could be argued, are themselves a "communication barrier" between officialdom and the Roma.

The report presents a barrage of troubling statistics.

Only about 5 percent of Roma attend kindergarten. Eleven percent attend the first grade. In the 2000-2001 school year almost 5 percent of first-graders failed, and nearly three-fourths of them came from troubled environments and neglected families.

One modestly encouraging finding is that the number of Romani children attending school is rising by about 6 percent annually.

The authors of the report put most of the blame for Romani children's problems in school on their poor attendance rate, typically around 50 percent.

Yet the study also fails to draw any conclusions from findings such as that Romani children receive only 11 percent of the praise awarded by teachers to students but account for almost 70 percent of the reprimands and lower grades given to students.

The report states laconically that “another irreplaceable agent in work with Romani pupils is the teacher. Teachers can be successful only if they know and particularly want to work with the pupils, if they know and understand the mentality of Romani children and of this ethnic group. These children require much more love, understanding, patience and more motivation than the rest of the population to form and strengthen their self-confidence.”

However, the report also refrains from comment on the statistic that 23 percent of teachers surveyed by the ministry lacked qualifications. Among first-grade teachers this figure rose to one in three. People in the education system comment that many, if not most, unqualified teachers are assigned to Roma-only classes. This is hardly a sign that the education authorities are serious about improving conditions for Romani pupils in their first formative school years.

The ministry says it is committed to integrated education and put forward its principles in a 2004 concept paper. Its goals look unrealistic, though, because they fail to take into account the harsh realities on the ground, where some successes in integrated schooling have been achieved only by a few private experimental schools. To implement these principles depends on whether and how the education system will be able to free itself of stereotypes and solve its own problems.

A NEW DECADE DAWNS?

The year 2005 marked the opening of the Decade of Roma Inclusion, a major effort pushed by the World Bank and Open Society Institute across much of Central and Balkan Europe. Approved by the government in January 2005, Slovakia's "national action plan" for the Roma Decade stresses that integration hinges above all on the majority's learning to change its negative attitudes toward the Roma. This will entail systematic changes in the education system, the plan states.

The coming decade will see remarkable progress in Romani education, if the plan's goals are met. Among its targets are that by 2014 all Romani children will be capable of completing elementary school. By 2012, all Romani youngsters will attend nursery schools and kindergarten. The plan also wants to help more Roma continue in post-primary education. By 2015, 15 percent of Roma will be attending high school and half will be enrolled in vocational schools and specialized high schools.

The government also wants to cut the number of children in "special schools" by 15 percent by 2015. Roma are strongly overrepresented in "special" primary schools for children with learning or behavioral difficulties. Recognizing one of the most damaging practices of local school authorities, the plan says that no child should be labeled as learning disabled or otherwise unprepared for regular schooling merely as a way to concentrate Romani children in "special schools."

If these targets are to be met, all parents need to have more information about local schools in order to make informed choices on their children's education.

In the words of the Education Ministry, teachers are indeed irreplaceable. Education authorities must ensure that teachers at all levels are qualified and trained to work with pupils from diverse backgrounds. Those working with Romani children should be motivated for such work. They should have special training in the history and culture of the Roma and receive a solid grounding in child psychology and the legal rights of children. Lifelong learning and refresher courses for teachers in all these areas can help them keep up with the changing needs of minority pupils.

Only when officials, teachers and parents are committed to working together will the barriers that now block the educational path of most Romani students come down.