Project title: SOLVING OF ROMA PROBLEMATICS IN SLOVENIA WITH AN EMPHASIS ON ROMA SOCIAL INCLUSIVENESS INTO THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
Principal researcher: associatedprofessor dr. Marjan BREZOVŠEK
Research team: assistant professor dr. Miro Haček and assistant Irena Bačlija
Period of the project: 1. 10 2006 – 30. 9.2008
Project goals: main goal of the research project was to analyse the consequences of poverty and social exclusiveness of Slovenian Roma minority in the time of one life, when one is acquiring active education and professional occupation. We have analysed the main factors of the actual state of social exclusiveness and their influence on (un)successfulness of educational processes.
Methodology: we haveimplemented several combining scientific methods and techniques (among other the analysis of relevant scientific and expert literature; the analysis of relevant legal sources; the analysis of the processes (in Slovenia and in other countries) of Roma children education from the viewpoint of poverty and social exclusiveness; the analysis of educational systems in EU countries, where Roma minority represent the adequate percentage of total population; the institutional analysis of recommendations and safeguards by different international organisations; the analysis of diverse segregation mechanisms and the prevention recommendations of international organisation).
Results: Roma community in Slovenia has a constitutional status of ethnic group or minority with special ethnic characteristics. Article 65 of Slovenian Constitution states, that law should regulate the status and special rights of the Romany community living in Slovenia.[1] Special protection of Roma community rights is called »positive discrimination«, which means that legislator is not limited with principle of equality when addressing special rights of Roma. Because of the complexity of the problems Roma encounter with, the theory of human capital suggests to start with educational policy, because there is high correlation between education of an individual and welfare of the state. According to the Census of Slovenian Statistical Office (in 2002) there is an alarmingly high percentage of Roma that did not finished primary school. According to the National strategy for education of Roma community in Slovenia (2004) one of the possible solutions to higher percentage of completing the primary education is implementation of Roma teachers as special help to linguistic and social problems of Roma pupils. In order to evaluate this form of positive discrimination, the goal of the target research project was to interview all Roma teachers in Slovenia, their teaching co-workers (teachers) and the principals at school.
Based on the empirical data gained from these interviews one can propose several actions and guidelines to be implemented into the Slovenian primary educational system:
(1) Formation of the guidelines and recommendations for principals and teachers, that work with Roma teachers, on how long Roma teacher has to be in the classroom together with the teacher, how he/she has to communicate with parents of Roma pupils (and how often) and what kind of didactical tools does he/she need.
(2) Since the new standards for Roma teacher occupation include knowledge of Romani language, one can expect that in the future all Roma teachers will be of Romani origin. With this we can expect certain difficulties connected to specifics of Roma families, which could be hostile towards each other and this could prevent ones’ family children to attend school, if a Roma teacher would be from the rival family.
(3) It is advised to organise regular meetings of Roma teachers at the national level, until the mechanism is not fully implemented into the educational system. These meetings could provide with exchanging views, exposing good practises and also possible additional solutions and recommendations.
(4) Minimal quota of Romani pupils in the class should be set, providing the principals at the school to know when a Roma teacher has to be employed. In classes where there are too few Roma pupils, we suggest additional education of teachers as well as financial stimulation for them.
(5) The poor knowledge of Slovenian language is one of the main problems that Roma pupils encounter. However, not all Roma children have the same level of knowledge. A test should be implemented that would enable the detection of the level of knowledge of Slovenian language.
[1] Elements of positive discrimination are included in the Law on Roma Community in the Republic of Slovenia. The law was adopted after vivid public debate on 13th of April 2007.