Roma and Education

Public hearing – Economic and Social Committee

Szilvia KALMAN DG Education and Culture

7 November 20147 November 2014

Early childhood education• On average, only half of the Roma children

attend pre-school

Early childhood education

• Council Recommendation: • Increase access to and quality of early childhood

education and care, including targeted suppport, as necessary

• Examples of Member State measures:• Compulsory pre-school years (BG, HU)• Cash incentives (HU)• Work with families (BG)• Targeted support programmes (RO, BG, HU, PT)

Compulsory school attendance

High compulsory school attendance in most Member States

Early school leavingOnly 15% of Roma

aged 20-24 completed upper secondary general or vocational education

School attendance and early school leaving

• Council Recommendation: • Reduce early school leaving throghout all levels of

education• Address the needs of individual pupils in close

coopeation with their families, • Use inclusive and tailor-made teaching and learning

methods, including learning support for struggling learners and measures to fight illiteracy

• Promoting the availablity of extra-curricular activities• Improve teacher training

School attendance and early school leaving

• Examples of Member State measures:• Second-chance education (BG, RO)• All day schooling (BG, SK)• After school activities (HU, BG)• Use of mediators (FI, RO)• Inclusion of Roma culture in the curricula (SK, HU)• Language support (BG, FR)• Bilingual education (RO, SE)• Teacher training (SK, HU, BG, SE)

Segregation in educationRoma are over-represented in special

schools or classes

Segregation in education

• Many Roma attend ethnically

segregated classes

Segregation in education

• Council Recommendation: • Eliminate any school segregation• Put an end to any inappropriate placement of Roma

pupils in special needs schools

• Examples of Member State measures:• Improving diagnosis of school abilities (SK, CZ)

Other challenges

• Very low participation of Roma in tertiary education

• Few systematic measures to support the

participation of Roma young people in adult education

•

Equity of education systems

2012Shanghai-China

Socially equitable distribution of learning

opportunities

Strong socio-economic impact on student

performance

Source OECD, Pisa 2012

Overall assessment

•Good progress in some areas, in particular ECEC •Broad range of measures implemented by MS

However•Lack of commitment and systematic approach for desegregation•Existing practices have limited scope to make an impact at a larger scale•Challenge to ensure long-term financing•Need for more systemic measures to promote incusive education, including greater focus on teachers

Way forward

•New College: importance of fundamental rights has been reconfirmed•Education OMC: Promoting equity, social cohesion and citizenship is one of the strategic objectives – new upcoming priorities spring 2015•ET2020 Working groups on ECEC and Schools•ROMED programme 2015•Erasmus+: strategic partnerships (KA2), support to policy reforms (KA3)

Thank you for your attention!