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When the children return to the kollégium they continue
with informal lessons as well as helping out with
domestic chores. The idea is that the children take
responsibility for the place that they live in during
the week. Each evening the children gather together
to discuss their day at school. At the end of every
term prizes are awarded to those children that have
done well at school and at the home.
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The scheme is already showing encouraging signs of success.
Children who could not read or write upon arrival three years
ago all learned to do so by the end of their first year. The
program has built trust between the children, their teachers
and parents. “There is still a very long way to go but barriers
are being broken” says Lázár. Talking to some of the children’s
parents in the Belegrosol settlement confirms this view.
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Although some parents were skeptical at the outset, the
majority is positive about the scheme and what it’s doing
for their children. Perushka Godyens has three children
at the school. “Péter Lázár has done more for our school
than anyone else has ever done.” As the unofficial spokeswoman
for the settlement she points to the dilapidated army barracks
where eighty Roma live. “We want our children to have something
better . . . Education is the only way that they can escape
from this life.”
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Like so many of the parents in the settlement,
she finds it difficult to provide her children with all they
need for school. “We rely on the school to support our children,
but we trust these people . . . We know that they are acting
in our children’s interests.” As well as the children’s program
there are now opportunities for the adults to return to the
school and complete their education. Tidi, father of two children
at the school was persuaded by his daughters to attend adult
classes. “It is important that my children see that I am interested
in their schoolwork and the only way I can do this is through
learning more myself.”
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Since the children started attending the school,
relations between Roma and non-Roma parents have improved. For Perushka
there is now something positive to discuss with other families.
“They realize that we have the same concerns and ambitions for our
children.” She recognizes that more needs to be done to strengthen
relations between Roma and non-Roma children at school, “this will
take time, but as more Roma teachers are taken on then attitudes
will start to change.”
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Romaversitas
Romaversitas is an educational program for Hungarian and
Macedonian undergraduate students of Roma origin. The colleges
aim to broaden the students'
knowledge and strengthen their Roma identity and ties with
the Roma community,
in an effort to assist the students in the continuation
of their university studies.
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Very little financial commitment has been
forthcoming from the Hungarian government for such schemes.
István Raduly, who deals with Roma issues in the Education
Ministry, says that while the Roma education budget has increased
over the past few years, “much more money is needed . . .
the budget does not reflect the size of the Roma population
and probably never will,” because, unlike other national minorities
in Hungary, as Raduly remarks “there is no mother country
that is fighting the Roma case.”
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