Equal Access to Quality Education for Roma Serbia
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Equal access to quality education for Roma Serbia EQUAL ACCESS TO QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ROMA Table of Contents 1. Executive Summary and Recommendations 486 1.1 Executive Summary .............. 486 1.2 Recommendations ................ 492 1.2.1 Recommendations on monitoring and evaluation ................ 492 1.2.2 Recommendations for improving access to education ................. 493 1.2.3 Recommendations on improving quality of education .............. 497 2. Basic Education Indicators .......... 502 2.1 Data collection ................ 502 2.2 Enrolment data and trends ...... 503 2.2.1 Roma children in pre-school education ........................... 506 2.2.2 Roma children in primary education ........................... 509 2.3 Retention and completion ....... 512 2.4 Types and extent of segregation 515 2.4.1 Segregation in pre-school institutions ........................... 515 2.4.2 Segregation in primary education 516 2.4.3 Segregation in special schools 521 2.4.4 Segregation in adult education 523 3. Government Educational Policies and Programmes 526 3.1 Government policy documents .... 527 3.2 Government education programmes 531 3.2.1 Minority language education 534 3.3 Desegregation .................. 536 3.4 Roma teaching assistants / school mediators ................................ 538 3.5 Romanes teachers ............... 542 3.6 Educational materials and curriculum policy ................................ 543 3.7 Teacher training and support ... 545 480 OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE 2007 SERBIA 3.8 Discrimination monitoring mechanisms 549 4. Constraints on Access to Education .. 555 4.1 Structural constraints ......... 556 4.2 Legal and administrative requirements 560 4.2.1 Pre-school education enrolment 560 4.2.2 Primary school enrolment .. 562 4.3 Costs .......................... 566 4.3.1 Pre-school education ...... 566 4.3.2 Primary and secondary education 567 4.3.3 Financial support in education 569 4.4 Residential segregation/Geographical isolation ...................... 572 4.5 School and class placement procedures 575 4.5.1 Class placement in mainstream schools ........................... 575 4.5.2 Placement in segregated classes 576 4.5.3 Placement in ‘‘special schools’’ 577 4.6 Language ....................... 579 5. Barriers to Quality Education ....... 581 5.1 School facilities and human resources 582 5.1.1 The quality of school buildings 582 5.1.2 Teaching staff ............ 583 5.2 School results ................. 585 5.2.1 Completion of grades and passing to the next grade among Roma pupils 585 5.2.2 School marks of Roma and non-Roma pupils .................... 587 5.2.3 The achievements of Roma and non-Roma pupils in the National Assessment standardised tests ........ 591 5.2.4 Grade repetition rate among Roma and non-Roma pupils ........... 593 5.2.5 Background versus education quality as cause for underachievement 593 5.3 Curricular standards ........... 594 5.4 Classroom practice and pedagogy 598 5.5 School--community relations ..... 601 5.6 Discriminatory attitudes ....... 603 EU MONITORING AND ADVOCACY PROGRAM ( EUMAP) 481 EQUAL ACCESS TO QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ROMA 5.7 School inspections ............. 605 ANNEX 1: Administrative Structures .. 607 A1.1 Structure and organisation ..... 607 A1.2 Legal roles and decision-making 610 A1.3 School funding ................. 614 ANNEX 2: Case Studies ............... 618 A2.1 Case Study: Niš ................ 618 A2.1.1 Administrative Unit ...... 618 A2.1.2 Roma and the Community ... 619 A2.1.3 Education ................ 621 A2.2 Case Study: Valjevo ............ 631 A2.2.1 Administrative Unit ...... 631 A2.2.2 Roma and the Community ... 633 A2.2.3 Education ................ 636 A2.3 Case Study: Zemun .............. 643 A2.3.1 Administrative Unit ...... 643 A2.3.2 Roma and the Community ... 644 A2.3.3 Education ................ 646 ANNEX 3: Legislation cited in the report 658 ANNEX 4. Bibliography ............... 660 A4.1 Official documents ............. 660 A4.2 Other documents ................ 660 ANNEX 5: Job Description for a Roma Teaching Assistant (RTA) ............. 665 482 OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE 2007 SERBIA Index of Tables Table 1: Official statistics on the population aged under 20 - for Roma and the national population (2002) ........ 505 Table 2. Estimates of the number of Roma children of pre-school and primary school age ........................ 506 Table 3: Total number of Roma and non-Roma pupils in mainstream primary education - breakdown by grade (2002-- 2003 school year) ......................... 510 Table 4: Number of Roma children covered by primary school education .......................... 511 Table 5: Educational status of adult population (aged 25 and over) - for the national and Roma populations (1991, 2001) 512 Table 6: Duration of schooling for Roma and non-Roma (2005) .................................... 513 Table 7: Maximum number of children per pre-school group, by age group .............................. 557 Table 8: Number of children enrolled in pre-schools, by age group (2004) .......................... 558 Table 9: Financial support for socially vulnerable pupils available at the local level (2006) .............................. 571 Table 10:...............Types of Roma settlements (2005) 57 Table 11:Accessibility of pre-schools and primary schools from Ro settlements (2005) ........................ 573 Table 12:Number of Roma pupils in an individual primary school - breakdown by grade (2002--2003 school year) 586 Table 13:School marks (for mathematics) of Roma and non-Roma pupi the first three grades of primary school (2005) ........................................... 588 EU MONITORING AND ADVOCACY PROGRAM ( EUMAP) 483 EQUAL ACCESS TO QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ROMA Table 14:School marks (for Serbian language) of Roma and non-Roma in the first three grades of primary school (2005) ................................... 589 Table 15:Average school marks (for mathematics) for Roma and non-R boys and girls, in the first three grades of primary school (2005) .................... 590 Table 16:Average school marks (for Serbian language) for Roma and non-Roma boys and girls, in the first three grades of primary school (2005) ............................ 590 Table 17:Results for Roma and non-Roma pupils, in the standardised for mathematics and Serbian language in Grade 3 .......................................... 592 Table 18:Scores in the standardised mathematics test correlated to marks (for pass marks only) - for Roma and non- Roma pupils, at the end of the third grade of primary school (2004) ................................... 595 Table 19:The quality of teaching in classes - for Roma and non-Rom pupils ................................... 597 Table A1.Division of responsibilities in Serbian education 611 Table A2.Decision-making bodies responsible for minority education policy ................................... 613 Table A3.Zemun Case Study - Zemum district population figures Fig A1. The education system in Serbia ........... 608 List of abbreviations and acronyms CIP Centre for Interactive Pedagogy, Serbia (Centar za interaktivnu pedagogiju) EMIS Education Management Information System, in the Ministry of Education and Sports of the Republic of Serbia (Jedinstveni informacioni sistem u obrazovanju) 484 OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE 2007 SERBIA FOSS Fund for an Open Society - Serbia MES Ministry of Education and Sports of the Republic of Serbia (Ministarstvo prosvete i sport) RCD Roma Centre for Democracy (Valjevo) (Romski centar za demokratiju) REF Roma Education Fund REI Roma Education Initiative RTA Roma Teacher Assistant REC Roma Education Centre (Niš) (Romski edukativni centar) EU MONITORING AND ADVOCACY PROGRAM ( EUMAP) 485 EQUAL ACCESS TO QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ROMA 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1.1 Executive Summary Serbia has gone through a period of dramatic change over the past seven years. The ongoing process of reform has acknowledged Roma children’s unequal access to quality education, particularly through the country’s participation in the ‘‘Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-- 2015’’. In practice, however, progress remains uneven: as promising initiatives are developed, a host of obstacles are identified and not adequately addressed. Political changes have disrupted progress in this area, but the current Government should follow through on commitments made at the national and international levels, to ensure that Roma receive a quality education in an integrated setting. Basic data on Roma in education should be collected and maintained, both to tailor policy and to track progress. Serbia’s active and experienced civil sector is a rich resource on which the Government can draw, able to offer a medium for more direct communication with Roma communities themselves. As in most other countries, there is a lack of reliable data on Roma in the Serbian education system. The existing estimates should be treated with a degree of caution, but generally it is agreed by the Government and by NGOs that there are up to 500,000 Roma living in Serbia. Only about two per cent of children in the relevant age ranges are attending pre-school education, and fewer than 40 per cent are included in primary education. Between 70 and 90 per cent of Roma children who enrol in primary school drop out at some point. According to the official censuses, over 60 per cent of Roma have not completed even primary school. As the proportion of Roma children is increasing, immediate Government action is needed, to ensure that future generations receive