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Fighting Discrimination in Education of Romani Children. The Bulgarian Model.
The Roma, also known as gypsies or “travelers”, are the greatest ethnic minority group in CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) countries today. They are often described as a nation of pickpockets, thieves and fortunetellers by the non-Romani population and are usually targets of discrimination and exclusion from non-Romani societies. Roma across Europe live in segregated ghetto neighbourhoods in the suburbs of big cities. They are often rejected job positions because of their ethnic origin. Romani students attend segregated schools – either the low quality schools in their ghetto neighborhoods or the so-called “remedial” schools for children with mental disabilities. Numerous NGOs, such as the Open Society Institute, the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), the European Roma Information Office (ERIO), are trying to attract attention to the unfavorable situation of the Roma. Although they achieved some partial success, the organizations and activists keep on encountering both governmental and societal unwillingness to integrate Romani people. The Roma are still the most discriminated against minority in Europe.
Discrimination is a complex issue and should be fought on many fronts. Right now the focus is on desegregation of education. “Without better education, Roma aspirations for equal opportunities and a better life cannot be met. Breaking the cycle of social exclusion and discrimination requires active support for education as the single best way out of the Roma’s current impasse.” (James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank). Education, and more specifically desegregation of schools, is a powerful tool with which to fight discrimination and poverty in Roma communities – an integrated school system will help both reduce racial tension between the Roma and non-Roma and will provide the Roma with a better education and ensure them better opportunities for employment later on.
Desegregating schools in CEE won’t be easy due to both Romani and non-Romani groups unwillingness and to governments’ inaction. Non-Romani parents oppose inclusion of Romani children in the “regular” schools, because they are afraid it would result in a lower quality of education for their own children. The segregated neighbourhoods Roma live in are used as an excuse to put Romani pupils in separate schools close to their homes. As a result, if they attend any school at all, Romani children study in their ghetto-Romani neighborhoods, where the quality of education is really low and the conditions of rooms and equipment are much worse than those of regular schools.
Romani parents, on the other hand, are reluctant to send their children to non-Romani schools, because they are afraid of racism on the side of non-Romani pupils and parents. Even if this fear is overcome, most of the Roma families lack the finances to send their children to faraway integrated schools, to buy them winter clothes and textbooks. What aggravates the situation is the fact that some of the Romani children speak only the Romani language, which is not available at schools. Also most of them don’t go to school because of the lack of monitoring on Romani’s children attendance.
Another trend of segregating schools in CEE (Central and Eastern Europe), is putting mentally healthy Romani children in remedial schools. In the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria about more than of the students attending “special” schools are Roma. Research made by EU Monitoring and Advocacy Program (EUMAP) of the Open Society Institute and the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) showed that the IQ tests conducted to place children in remedial schools are unreliable – first, they are linguistically-based, and most of the Romani children don’t speak the language of the country they live in; and second, non-Romani children are given much more chances to remain in “normal” schools and try to keep up with their peers. The first successful attempt to integrate Romani children in education took place in the Bulgarian town of Vidin and it is now known as the “Vidin model”. Its success lies not only in the effective activities of Drom - the NGO that initiated it, but also in the way that NGOs used the national government, international pressure, and community-based methods to gather resources and put pressure on the local school administration to change it's practices. Drom provided free bus rides from the Romani ghetto in the city to the non-Romani schools there. It worked with both Romani and non-Romani parents – to raise awareness about the importance of education in the first place and also to promote racial tolerance with the others. It hired special councilors at the segregated schools, who monitored the Romani pupils’ performance and attendance, dealt with acts of racial offence from non-Romani children, and trained the teachers in charge of the desegregated classes. The initiative succeeded in integrating 400 Roma children into regular schools in the first year. Now there are many more subsequently, and 8 other Bulgarian cities adopted the model. Students in the desegregation programs go to school regularly, get higher grades, and have better prospects of continuing on to higher education.
Apart from developing and implementing an integrated school system on a local level, Drom started advocating their cause on national and international level. In partnership with WITNESS, an American NGO, the organization produced a documentary on the success of the Vidin model. Emphasizing the importance of NGOs in fostering collaboration and implementation at the local level, the video calls on the Bulgarian and European authorities to fully endorse nation-wide policies in support of educational integration of Romani children.
The large-scale campaign Drom launched turned out to be a complete success. As a result of the improvement in performance of Romani children attending integrated schools and the elimination of racial tension in mixed classes, local authorities in Vidin started funding the program, which before that relied only on private donations. Under the pressure of the EU, and triggered by a screening of the documentary on government level, Bulgarian government was forced to put into practice a Framework Program for Equal Integration of Roma in Bulgarian Society –the first governmental implementation of a strategy for school desegregation. Before that government help came as additional funding to Roma ghetto schools which only deteriorated the Roma situation in the long run. Funding segregated schools doesn’t help fighting discrimination, it just promotes further segregation. “In order to accept each other, we need to know each other. We can't get to know each other when we live isolated from one another" (Donka Panayotova, Organization Drom). Fighting desegregation in Bulgaria has turned into an organized system acting on both local and national level, which reaches enormous success.
What is revolutionary about the Vidin model is its exhaustiveness. It is the first one focusing entirely on, and achieving actual results in, integrating schools rather than trying to reform the ghetto Romani schools. On the one hand, it is a link between students, parents (Romani and non-Romani) and teachers, it offers monitoring, workshops and rewards for all the groups related to the program. On the other hand, by using media and the statistics of its successful implementation, the model raises demands for both local and national authorities to take part in fighting discrimination. If the model is adopted on international level, it cam be the first major step towards ethnically tolerant society in CEE countries.
The Vidin model provides “the essential rules” which would ensure promising future for Romani students across Europe:
1. Romani-led desegregation action: The program was put into practice by Romani activists. They served as role models to the rest of the Romani population. Having somebody belonging to their ethnical group who actually makes a difference, Romani people start having faith in reforms and become active in improving their own situation. Support by Romani leaders teaches the minority groups that they are those who can make an impact on society and put an end on discrimination.
2. All-inclusive desegregation campaign: Desegregation in education is a complex issue and should not be considered only as sending Roma children in “regular” schools. What ensures the success of the Vidin model is a multi-layer work, including both Roma and non-Roma parents and students and training teachers for working with minorities. Making the two ethnic groups get to know each other’s culture and habits breeds tolerance and decreases racial tension. The model also offers specific training for teachers to work with Roma children, provides additional classes for students who cannot keep up with the material and appoints councilors to deal with racial harassment at schools. These innovations are a prerequisite for Romani students to regard school as a safe environment, to develop a feeling of ethnical dignity and to achieve higher performance in classes.
3. “Carrot and stick” monitoring system: Roma students going to integrated schools are under constant monitoring. If they fail to meet the requirements of the program, they are cut the financial aid for transport, clothes and textbooks they get. If they make an exceptional performance at school, they are rewarded by going to mixed summer camps. That monitoring system encourages Romani children to improve their performance and attend classes on a regular basis. It may present a solution to high unemployment rates among the Roma, most of whom are uneducated by now. Better education will present them with the opportunity to find a better job and achieve a higher standard of life.
The combination of these three aspects of the program on international level is the most promising path towards fighting discrimination in education and building a tolerant multicultural society.
In terms of raising awareness, the current situation in Europe offers a good opportunity for promoting the Vidin model across borders. On 14 November 2008, in a momentous decision for minorities across Europe, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights ruled that segregating Roma students into special schools is a form of unlawful discrimination that violates fundamental human rights. Moreover, in February is the third anniversary of the Decade of Roma Inclusion – an OSI initiative, aiming to fight discrimination of the Roma in Europe. With the focus shifted on Roma issues on an international level, I think the Vidin model faces great chances to be adopted and implemented in CEE countries.
To sum up, education is the first at most important step towards fighting discrimination against Romani people in Europe. School is not only “a natural territory of tolerance” (Prof. Georgi Lozanov, Sofia university) – i.e. the most promising field on which we can deal away with racial tension and prejudice. Access for quality education would also provide the Roma with better chances in future, It would solve the poverty and unemployment issues this ethnic minority is facing. Implementing an effective integrated school system across Europe, a system including all layers of society and providing both moral and financial support for Romani children, is a process very likely to result into a Europe of racial tolerance and quality life for minorities.
Yana Lukanova
Yana Lukanova is a student of English and American Studies at Sofia University, Bulgaria. For a year she studied at Bard College, New York as part of the Bard Program for International Education and particpated in the Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program in New York City. In Fall 2007, she held a position at Witness as a Program intern in the Eastern and Central European Department . Yana is interested in comparative literature, linguistics and human rights.
