Role of Communities in Inclusive Education: The Case of Roma Communities Alexandre Marc Roma Education Fund

What is inclusive Education? An education system where all children of different culture, belief, socio –economic background, gender or physical ability are given equal chances to reach their maximum potential for learning and succeeding. A system where all children of the same age group study together in the same classroom and follow a similar core curricula, but where the school recognizes and respects their different background and history. A system that reduces differences in education outcomes instead of increasing them and aims at building a cohesive and inclusive society more than just to form an elite.

What is inclusive Education? “Inclusive education is concerned with providing appropriate responses to the broad spectrum of learning needs in formal and non-formal educational settings. Rather than being a marginal theme on how some learners can be integrated in the mainstream education, inclusive education is an approach that looks into how to transform education systems in order to respond to the diversity of learners. It aims to enable both teachers and learners to feel comfortable with diversity and to see it as a challenge and enrichment in the learning environment, rather than a problem”. (UNESCO)

What are the components of an inclusive education? Provides flexibility to the teacher to adapt its teaching to the interests and preferences for learning of each child. Values all kinds of skills that students bring to class, not just the academic skills, and it values differences in children’s backgrounds as a richness and not as a negative element. Favors solidarity and collaboration among children and not individual competition Allows the community, parents, children and teachers to voice their opinion and to be heard. Space for deliberation and interaction between all.

Roma children are faced with serious problems of exclusion Approximately 80% of Roma children in Romania do not attend preschool. While enrollment in primary education in Romania is 93% for the population as a whole, Roma children account for approximately 80% of the 7% who do not attend primary education. Although there are more than 200,000 Romanes-speakers in Romania, Romanes is the language of instruction for fewer than 50 Roma from grades 1 to 8. In Bulgaria, there are 106 schools and kindergartens attended exclusively by Roma. In Slovakia, the share of Roma children reported in special schools exceeds that in regular schools by a factor of almost 14 In Bulgaria, Roma children account for 20.6% of children entering primary school, but only 7.2% of all students in grade 8.

Main issues with inclusion of Roma in education Economic ( Difficulty to finance parental costs of schooling.Distance from school ) Administrative (A bility to register, to meet all the requirements for enrollment ) Lack of information (Requirements for enrollment, understanding quality education issues, understanding their rights)

Main issues with inclusion of Roma in education Classroom environment not supportive to Roma (Absence of references in the curriculum, teachers not trained for diversity, very few teacher assistants) Weak parents and community participation (P arents are rarely invited to meetings with teachers; parents are rarely told clearly about issues regarding their children; parents have very little trust in the fairness of the system. Roma community is rarely invited to discuss with the school and the community ) Lack of parents ability to provide adequate home support

The components of participation in inclusive Education Support to parents in home education Creating flows of information between the school and parents to improve the quality and effectiveness of the school environment and the home support to the student Participate in decisions regarding the school development Participate in decisions regarding educational planning at regional, municipal and school level. Integrate the school in the community through events and linkages with other community initiatives

Why is participation so central for the education of Roma? Overcome the lack of trust on both sides Improve the understanding of the specific child environment in Roma families and in school Overcome the lack of representation of Roma in local political systems Organize the additional support needed to compensate for the various economic, administrative and other issues. Set-up an effective out of school support for education

A few simple instruments exist Representation and consultation at municipal level (municipalities play an increasing role in education) Organize schools to provide a space for exchange between school and parents (School Boards, regular parents-teachers meetings, organized dialogue and debates with teachers and headmasters) Use of mediators and community facilitators Create instruments and support for home learning and after school learning (Tanoda in Hungary, Roma NGOs in Bulgaria and Romania)

A few simple instruments exist Train school staff to understand the role and importance of the community Use the school as a community center around all aspects of education (health education, information on administrative requirements, adult education, youth integration activities, sporting events).

But they are not so easy to implement Need local political commitment Need backing and support from the central education system NGOs need capacity and understanding of educational issues Mediators need a supportive environment and general recognition Help is needed to create adequate representation of communities as Roma communities are not homogenous Program needs to work also on the preparation of a classroom environment for inclusion

What to do and not do There is still a very poor understanding of community participation. Need to publicize best practices and analyze why some approaches work and others do not. Community participation can work for inclusive education only if the government also works on the other aspects of inclusive education. Participation needs to be nurtured and developed through a local process. It can not be ordered. It needs FLEXIBILITY Participation is political and therefore needs an acceptance that people can help to improve their environment through their own actions.