From RPP Reporter, May 1998

A brief overview of the educational situation of Roma children in Europe reveals some characteristic features. Firstly, most Roma children do not start school on time and as a consequence, they are older than the other children in their class or group. This age difference inevitably causes conflicts, and is problematic for such older pupils, who are more advanced mentally and physically, yet behind their younger peers in educational progress. These differences manifest themselves in drastic underachievement, as in most European countries, children start a two-year pre- school program at the age of four. For most Roma parents it is impossible to let their children leave the safety of the community at such a low age.

The next step, whereby the children begin their formal schooling, is very difficult for most Roma parents. They do not find it at all easy to entrust their children to the care of people who are strangers to them, who do not belong to them and whom they do not trust. Roma parents often cannot see a direct link between an education in school and the future: they see no essential connection between the material well-being and security of the family and formal educational achievement. Their every-day experience reflects this, for even school-educated Roma who have trained for a job, face widespread discrimination, racism, unemployment and degradation.

Many Roma children give up school after four to five years of attendance. Thus, they find themselves without the necessary qualifications or skills to compete in the job market and driven to seek unskilled labor. The majority will be unemployed for much of the time, subsisting on government aid, and in a situation of total dependency. Four to five years of schooling are not enough to acquire the basic knowledge and skills necessary for establishing an independent, unaided existence in our post-industrial society. There is an urgent need for specific skills-training programs. So far, however, there have only been a few such pioneering projects to train interested, young Roma who have not completed school, for specific careers.

Many Roma children have a school-attendance level of 50 percent or less. There are various reasons for this low attendance, which teachers are often unaware of or which they misjudge. One significant reason is that the language spoken in school is not the children’s mother tongue. For the Roma children it is either their first foreign language or their second language. As a result, many Roma children find it difficult to follow class progress. They notice that the other children are more advanced. Frustrated and reticent about asking questions, embarrassed and fearful of mockery, they can find the classroom a hostile and alienating environment.

Another factor inhibiting school attendance is poverty. Books, pencils and paper are all expensive. What little money there is has to go on the most basic necessities for the family. The importance of books, training clothes and all the other expenses that schooling involves is not immediately obvious to hard-pressed parents. Poverty dictates that non-attendance at school, rather than the burden of these extra expenses, is the chosen option.

Parents are often uneasy, or in disagreement with topics taught on the school curricula. Problems may also arise over issues like sport and swimming for girls in co-educated groups, or sex education. Unwilling or afraid to discuss these matters with the teacher, most Roma children fall into non-attendance as a result.

For the most part, teachers fail to understand the reasons for low school attendance among Roma children. The children are constantly pressured for explanations. Forced to explain the disputes with their parents to the school, the children find themselves caught between, and embroiled in, the conflict between home and school. School and home are seen as two different and distinct parts of life, totally independent of one another. The children who have been unable to establish any feeling of trust with the teachers will not tell them the real reasons for non-attendance and instead offer the explanations the school will accept: sickness, doctor’s appointments, etc.

As a result of this low level of attendance, a disproportionate percentage of young Roma attend special schools for pupils with learning difficulties. But, these children do not have learning difficulties: rather they have missed out on crucial teaching and schooling opportunities. In short, what the schools offer is failing to reach Roma children.

Before answering this question, we must remember that the history of the Roma is one of persecution. From their arrival in Europe some 600 years ago, their history and their lives have been determined by expulsion, persecution and dependence. Laws which have restricted their freedom of movement and stripped them of their independence. The aim of much of this legislation pertaining to the Roma was, and still is, exclusion. Such punitive legislation made it virtually impossible for the Roma not to become law-breakers as basic survival strategies often made violation of the law a necessity.

The Roma have never instigated rebellion or revolution. Instead they developed a means of resistance, necessary for the safety of their lives and everyday existence. A minority group, disenfranchised and dispossessed, without territory or political power, protects itself by closing itself off. One aspect of this resistance lies in the importance accorded to the family, as it must take over all those functions normally fulfilled by governmental institutions. Until recently, it was within the family that boys learned their future trades, and where girls were prepared for their future role within this sphere. For centuries, the family has taken care of the education and training of their members. Thus, very many Roma perceive attendance at a public educational institution in two ways: first, such schooling is a luxury, depriving the family of earning power; second, such education heralds the capitulation of their tradition of familial education and training. Attendance at school is seen as a threat to the protective and strong family structures, exposing the children to a strange and unfamiliar form of education. State schooling is perceived as a threatening intervention in Roma culture, undermining structures, norms and values.

In the case of Hungary, the history of Roma mistrust in state education has its roots in eighteenth century decrees which prohibited speaking the mother tongue, prohibited intermarriage, made state education compulsory and took Roma children away from their parents to be raised by Hungarian farming families. As in other European countries, the explicit aim of public schooling was to re-educate the children, undermine family structures and destroy Roma culture. Until the 1970s, government policies across Europe still reflected these aggressively assimilatory aims. It should come as little surprise that a consequence of this legacy is a deep mistrust in public educational systems.