Historical Background

The position of teaching assistant was introduced as one of the measures to increase integration of Roma in Croatia in 2000. Between 2000-2003 there were three Roma Teaching Assistants (RTA). In 2003-2004 there were twelve RTAs in elementary schools and six in pre-school. Most of the RTAs are employed in schools in the area of Medjimurje and Varazdin, which are areas heavily populated by Roma.

The RTAs are employed in about ten elementary schools and six preschool programs for Roma children and are paid from the budget of the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports. RTAs employed in elementary schools for eight hours a day receive 400 Euro a month, which is 50% of the pay of teacher with 25 years of teaching experience and 40% of pay of teachers at the beginning of their career. RTAs employed in preschool receive 200 Euro per month for 3 hours work per day. The RTAs are employed as consultants. Their contract, entitled Ugovor o dielu allows payment of all social benefits, but the RTAs do not have a status of a Ministry/School employee.

RTA Job Description

RTAs cooperate with the school and the domicile environment of the students, both in the settlements and in homes, with parents. RTA is a representative of the Roma community in school, and a representative of the school in the Roma community.

Roles and Responsibilities of a RTA is to assist Romani children to:
Integrate more quickly and easily in the Croatian Educational System
Acquire an adequate level of the Croatian language, as the official language of the community at large
Successfully satisfy the specific educational requirements children meet in primary school
Acquire school curriculum more easily, through providing specific aid in learning and obtaining academic knowledge and skills
Improve communication between teachers (who usually don't speak Romani) and Romani students (who usually speak poor Croatian)
Assist the teacher in maintaining work discipline in the class
Improve communication between home environment of Romani students and schools they attend, particularly the parent/school communication.

The RTA must:
- Work together with the teacher
- Work ½ time in the classroom
- Work ½ time in the settlement
- Provide a connection between the Roma family or community and school

Requirements for the RTA position

All the above-mentioned roles and responsibilities derive the specific requirements for a RTA:

- Excellent knowledge of the local Roma community and settlements, that is children's home environment
- Comprehensive knowledge of Roma and Croatian languages
- High School Diploma
- Highly communicative and willing to learn more and apply acquired knowledge about both sides in the educational process, the school and the Roma community
- RTA must be of Romani origin and speak Romani

Legal Framework

Croatian strategy for improvement of the situation of Roma, the National Program for Roma.

RTA Training

There is no official education held for RTAs, so their title could still not be included in the Work Certificate (Radna knjizica) and therefore they cannot achieve the aforementioned status of regular employees.

Experiences from the RTAs practice (Professor Župan, Pedagogue of M. Središce Primary School, Medimurje County)

The best solution is for the RTA to work in the classroom 2 to 4 hours per day,- helping students in acquiring new contents. Another approximately half an hour per day, RTA should spend receiving children coming to school, taking care of them entering the school in disciplined and orderly manner, and properly disposing their clothes; at sites where there's organized transport of children to and from school, the RTA would often travel with them.

At the time of arrival to school, RTA should talk to the students, give them a chance to express previous days events, organize a didactic game, and have a conversation on current problems and possible solutions. In this way, the children would be relieved of some of the burden they take to school and usually cannot talk about to anybody else but the RTA.

Helping with the homework and studying should take about an hour of time after school. Gathering the students after school starts with the 1st grade, usually having the least classes. As the older grades finish their classes, they join the group. Then the student group transforms into a sort of a combined class: one group is doing the homework; others have reading, discussion, language, and activities. As a result of this type of work we could get joint drawings, posters, decorations for the classrooms; or those products could be used for the days of integrative teaching aimed at intercultural relations development (which is easy to organize in cooperation with the teachers having Roma students).

The optimal case is when the school has a room dedicated to these after school gatherings; a room arranged and maintained by RTA and her/his students in the way they deem best. Our experience tells us it's better if Roma students stay in the school longer, with 1 RTA per 25 students, and eventually a teacher - building a form of whole day school.

In the work of an RTA, approach and the role of school psychologist/pedagogue is of particular importance. She/he plans the work process with teachers and RTAs, also providing them, the students and the parents with professional assistance. Therefore, RTA actively participates in all of psy/ped activities with the Roma students and community. RTA is the person with the best insight in socio-economic situation of respective Roma families, maintains constant communication and information sharing between the school and home environment, attends (often as a interpreter and a moderator) individual conversations of psy/ped and parents, mediates in communication with students (translating and intervening in crisis situations, in regular work of psy/ped with students, in groups an individually).

It's good to maintain daily work and counseling meetings of teachers, RTAs and psy/peds. It's also commendable to develop a permanent RTAs' working schedule. Every teacher has her/his own working timetable; parallel with that timetable and in agreement with other teachers having Roma students in their classes, an RTA's timetable should be produced. It serves as a reminder to the RTA when and where her/his assistance is needed, and also helps to equally distribute that assistance to all those in need of it.

In all of the above mentioned situation, RTA has to bare in mind that she/he is an active member of a psy/ped-teacher-child-parent team, and that her/his role in that teams meeting, communicating, improving the children's academic success, improving the school's intercultural capacities, etc, is a very important and vital one.

How to establish cooperation with students' parents and close environment - experiences (Professor Župan, Pedagogue of M. Središce Primary School, Medimurje County)

RTA also organizes free time activities of her/his students in their settlements; some RTAs even include the parents. There are schools whose teachers and psy/peds maintain quite close relations with the local Roma communities (several cases in our county).

The above are the situations of a real intercultural cooperation that improves and initiates academic advancement of children and cooperation between majority and minority communities; but we cannot expect this high level at all of the locations.

RTA should be presented to the parents at the 1st parental meeting of a new academic year. And particularly in the cases of parents stubbornly denying cooperation, she/he should persistently try to establish cooperation and understanding with those families.

In relation with that, practice shows that a friendly, neighborly approach produces best results. It's enough just to establish the practice of direct communication with the parents on usual, ordinary problems to later achieve satisfying parent/school communication.

RTA catalyzes parents' interest for coming to school and asking about their children's academic successes and problems, as seen from all participating sides. RTA informs parents of important school notices, acting as a representative of the respective school. On the other hand, he/she mediates in the parent/school relations, articulating their needs, serving thus as the representative of parents' and children's interests.
Working with parents, RTA must necessarily establish cooperation with the local authorities in the settlements from which her/his students come. These contacts are of great assistance in solving social and schooling problems. RTA often cooperates with the Centers For Social Welfare in solving specific family and social problems.

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