Bulgarian Helsinki Committee ON THE ROAD TO MATURITY Evaluation of the Non-Governmental Desegregation Process In Bulgaria Sofia March 2008 1 CONTENTS Executive Summary 5 Introduction 13 Chapter I Overview of the Developments in the Official Policy for Roma Education in Bulgaria since 2005 and the Degree of 15 Political Commitments to Desegregation Chapter II Evaluation Methodology 21 Chapter III Overview of the Desegregation Projects 25 A. Vidin 25 B. Montana 46 C. Pleven 58 D. Sliven 67 E. Stara Zagora 80 F. Plovdiv 88 G. Sofia 102 H. Berkovitsa 116 Chapter IV Evaluation of the Costs of a Nationwide Roma Education 127 Desegregation Programme Conclusions and Recommendations 137 Annex 1 General Information on the Projects 143 Annex 2 Segregated Kindergartens and Schools in some Cities 147 Annex 3 Report on the Focus Group Discussion with Teachers and 153 Educational Experts Working on Desegregation Projects Annex 4 Protocol for Data Collection on the Projects 163 Annex 5 Questionnaire for Pupils and Parents 3 Executive Summary his report presents the results from the progress survey of non-governmental projects for desegregation of Roma education in Bulgaria, conducted by a team Tof experts with the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee for the Roma Education Fund in the period September – December 2007. This report is the logical sequence of the earlier 2002 and 2005 reports on the same subject, namely The First Steps: An Evaluation of the Non-governmental Desegregation Projects in Six Bulgarian Cities and Five Years Later. The Non-governmental Projects for Desegregation of Roma Education in Bulgaria. The book- let comprises an introduction, five chapters, a conclusion, and five annexes. The Introduction describes the survey and the conducting team, and underlines the continuity of the methodology with the two preceding reports. Chapter One, “Overview of the developments in the official policy for Roma educa- tion in Bulgaria since 2005 and the degree of political commitments to desegregation”, presents an evaluation of government policies on this key issue for the overall integration process. Two main conclusions are drawn in this chapter. Firstly, the desegregation process is undergoing a gradual and steady development which, to a large extent, is possible due to the commitment and enthusiasm of the non- governmental Roma organisations implementing the projects. In 2002, in six Bulgarian cities 1,263 children were included in the desegregation process; in 2005 the number grew to 2,124, and in the 2006-2007 school year, it reached 2,204. The number of projects, too, is growing. There are now projects also in Bulgaria’s two largest cities – Sofia and Plovdiv – with thousands of Roma living there. During the last years, the projects have demonstrated their sustainability; the Roma organisations have gathered extensive ex- perience and have diversified their recruitment and retaining methods and techniques; four distinctive models of implementation of the desegregation process emerged which are applicable to the varied cultural and demographic circumstances of the Roma popu- lation in Bulgaria. It should be noted that, in the past years, the undisputed vanguard of these projects, the Vidin organisation DROM with its leader Ms. Donka Panayotova, have been successfully introducing a series of innovations which may, with a varied extent and approach, be applied by the other projects around Bulgaria. The underlying general characteristic of these basic innovations is the shift of focus from social services offered to parents – as an incentive to have their children enrolled with integrated schools – to- ward intensive educational work aiming at eliminating gaps and deficiencies in children’s preparation. The Vidin project is also the one placing a greatest emphasis on promoting natural multicultural communication between the children, which is probably the central factor in successful integration. 5 On the Road to Maturity: Evaluation of the Non-Governmental Desegregation Process in Bulgaria Secondly, although to an extent far from that required for overall desegregation, the Bulgarian government has maintained its commitment to the process and is, albeit slowly, expanding it. For the last two years, the most important step in this direction was the setting up of a dedicated state body – Centre for Educational Integration for the Children and Pupils of Ethnic Minorities, which is not only aimed at developing the state’s policy in the field of desegregation but also supports the actual desegregation work by financing certain projects. Although it was established in 2005, the Centre’s actual operation began in the spring of 2007, and has, as of the date of this report, only organised one financial support course for projects with relatively limited funding. This report stresses the need for this centre to raise the volume of funding provided to the selected projects, and to focus its activities mainly on support for projects directly im- plementing the desegregation process. A further conclusion in this chapter reveals that, as a whole, local authorities, too, have retained and expanded their commitment to desegregation, and the incidence of nega- tive attitude or hostility toward it has been sporadic and isolated rather than being regular at the local level. This has obviously resulted from the efforts of the project implementing organisations. Chapter Two reviews the evaluation methodology. The methodology involves the follow- ing elements: 1. Gathering of information through observation and analysis of documents concerning the operation of the non-governmental Roma education desegregation projects in eight Bulgarian cities. Visits were made to all desegregation projects, and the whole documentation – national and local, as well as governmental and non-governmental – related to the process for the last two years was carefully studied. More than 200 in- terviews were conducted with project staff, local authority representatives, principals, teachers, and Roma children and their parents. 2. Collation and secondary analysis of marks of children from the cities with operational non-governmental desegregation projects compared to the nationwide external as- sessment for the fourth grades in Mathematics and Bulgarian Language and Literature (BLL) which took place in May 2007. Through this approach the team was able to use an independent external evaluation of the children’s achievement. 3. Field survey using the method of direct interviews based on a questionnaire among Roma pupils and one of their parents who took part in the nationwide external assess- ment. The survey was conducted in the cities of Vidin, Pleven, Sliven, and Stara Zagora among 328 Roma children and the same number of parents, and it was the first of its kind in Bulgaria, not only in identifying the positive and negative factors affecting aca- demic achievement but also in evaluating the extent of their influence. 6 executive summary Chapter Three focuses on the current state of affairs of the eight desegregation projects. It has eight distinct parts – one dedicated to each project. The composition of each part is identical for the projects and is determined according to a unified research methodology. This allows for a comparison between the individual projects which operate in otherwise very different conditions. The Roma communities in the eight cities, too, are very different – they vary in numbers; in the prevailing composition of the various Roma subgroups; the degree of integration/marginalisation of the Roma inhabitants in the respective ghet- tos; as well as in social status, living conditions, and the communal infrastructure of the respective Roma areas. Since the main research tool for information gathering, namely the protocol for project data, was identical to the one used in the previous two reports, comparison was possible not only between the projects but also in a diachronic perspec- tive since 2002. Each part comprises the following elements: » Outline of the project. This is a description of the quantitative parametres of the project – number of children enrolled during the years; their distribution by age; original neighbourhoods; children’s academic achievement throughout the years and its dynamics; means and methods of children transportation to host schools; host school parametres, etc. » Project team. This is a description of the project team with a detailed list of the functions and responsibilities of each member; it also describes the dynamics in staff numbers and team qualifications during the years. » Educational profile of the project. This is the most important element of the re- view, as it evaluates the way educational work is carried out in each project, pin- pointing the strengths and weaknesses of each project team. It contains the re- spective data from the nationwide external assessment which took place in the spring of 2007, and it tracks the dynamics of children’s academic achievement with the project during the years in question. » Extra-curricular activities. – This is a description of extra-curricular activities organised with the children and how these have developed during the past two years, as well as how they have contributed to the success of the projects. » Social services. – This is a description of the material support which children and their parents are provided, such as food, clothes, study aids, etc. » Political, administrative, and community support for the project. For each of the project, this section reviews the