The Right to Education in Minority Languages in Bosnia And Herzegovina: The Case of Roma Minority (original) (raw)

Education of the Roma children in Slovenia : evaluation of the education policy defined in National action plan on social inclusion

Social inclusion of Roma : stories from Finland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Portugal, 2007

The Roma are one of the groups facing the highest risks of social exclusion in Slovenia. This has much to do with their low level of education, inadequate functional literacy and deficient knowledge of Slovenian. This article presents various policies and measures that have been introduced with the purpose of better inclusion of the Roma children into the Slovenian educational system. The main purpose of the article is to evaluate the education policy for the Roma, introduced in the Slovenian National Action Plan (NAP) on Social Inclusion (2004-2006) in terms of its impact on promoting social inclusion of the Roma community.

Educational Challenges of Roma Minorities: The Case of the Republic of North Macedonia

2020

Linguistic diversity comes in various forms. The most common ways of developing knowledge of more than one language according to some authors are either by learning a second language through participation in some form of bilingual education or being raised in a bilingual environment, such as school or a bilingual family. The phenomenon of development of literacy competencies of minority groups, specifically, the context of Roma people, in the Republic of North Macedonia, whose mother tongue is not even considered a standard language is the main research purpose of this paper. Research conducted in comparative studies on integrated education shows that in the elementary schools with high numbers of Roma students actions are rarely taken to enhance the integration of these minority students, because of 1) the lack of iconography, which is important for the ethnic identity of this minority and 2) low competence level of parents and teachers who are not adequately trained to work with students coming from different linguistic backgrounds or social backgrounds that are characterized by low literacy levels and low learning competences. Participants in this study were from several primary schools in North Macedonia and the responses were categorized according to the major themes that occurred. The findings show how women are excluded from obtaining better education and that multilingual children from deprived economic settings with poorly educated parents struggle and are seriously challenged to obtain proper literacy and education in elementary schools. The study reveals important details about the educational legislation, treatment of Roma people by local and international organizations and provides suggestions for improvement of the current status of the Roma population.

Educational Challenges of Roma Minorities: The Case of the Republic of North Macedonia (co-authors Elena Rizova, Zoran Velkovski)

Vol. 8 No. 3 (2020): International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE) , 2020

Linguistic diversity comes in various forms. The most common ways of developing knowledge of more than one language according to some authors are either by learning a second language through participation in some form of bilingual education or being raised in a bilingual environment, such as school or a bilingual family. The phenomenon of development of literacy competencies of minority groups, specifically, the context of Roma people, in the Republic of North Macedonia, whose mother tongue is not even considered a standard language is the main research purpose of this paper. Research conducted in comparative studies on integrated education shows that in the elementary schools with high numbers of Roma students actions are rarely taken to enhance the integration of these minority students, because of 1) the lack of iconography, which is important for the ethnic identity of this minority and 2) low competence level of parents and teachers who are not adequately trained to work with students coming from different linguistic backgrounds or social backgrounds that are characterized by low literacy levels and low learning competences. Participants in this study were from several primary schools in North Macedonia and the responses were categorized according to the major themes that occurred. The findings show how women are excluded from obtaining better education and that multilingual children from deprived economic settings with poorly educated parents struggle and are seriously challenged to obtain proper literacy and education in elementary schools. The study reveals important details about the educational legislation, treatment of Roma people by local and international organizations and provides suggestions for improvement of the current status of the Roma population.

Inclusive education for Roma children in Albania and Belarus (legal situation, accessibility, opportunities to learn in own language and support of ethnic identity)

Polish Journal of Educational Studies

This article is devoted to the analysis of the situation regarding the education of Roma children in Albania and Belarus, evidencing the similarities and differences in legislation and policies in both countries, aiming at highlighting the best practices for each state. The study also analyses whether there is any real approach for inclu­sive education, despite the legislation in force in both countries, as well as evaluating the next steps to be followed for achieving inclusive education for Roma children, whether as part of a minority group or not. Inclusive education is the main focus of those European policies and legislation that guarantees the right to education to everyone. Vulnerability and marginalization are present in all countries. Even the more developed societies have categories of their population that are defined as vulnerable or marginalized. They may not suffer from poverty, but other factors, such as disability or linguistic/ethnic particularities can be sources o...

Affirmative Action as a Policy Answer to Roma Inclusion in Secondary and Tertiary Public Education in Serbia

Integrating Differences: Human Rights, Social Inclusion and Social Cohesion in the Balkans on its Road to the EU. Ed. by Jana Lozanoska and Slavco Dimitrov. Skopje: Euro-Balkan Institute, 2009. (181-199)

In this paper I present the Serbian experience in the implementation of affirmative action in public education for Roma people. Despite the fact that affirmative action is embedded in the constitution, these concrete measures are still not translated into long term official policies aimedat a comprehensive integration of Roma people. Therefore, the implementation of affirmative action in the country is being kept “low profile”, which has a serious impact on the thus far achievements in the outreach of the policy. Having analyzed the current state of affairs in the implementation of affirmative action, I also discuss possible alternatives to the current solution regarding the advancement in institutional preferential treatment of Roma children in public education as part of the comprehensive Roma social integration policies process Serbia is going through at the moment. Key words: Roma education, inclusion, affirmative action, equality, social equity

Language Learning and Roma Pupils – the Case of Slovenia / Učenje jezika i romski učenici – primjer Slovenije

2013

The paper comprises a theoretical discussion and an empirical investigation of how Roma pupils position, perceive and assess Slovene as a language, and how successfully they learn Slovene as the official language and the language of the environment, as well as foreign languages (German and English) compared to non-Roma students. In the first part of the paper, theoretical considerations on the current (foreign) language learning tendencies, on the official status of both Slovene and Romani in Slovenia, and on the influential didactic (foreign) language-learning concept are presented and substantiated by an extensive quantitative empirical study, which includes a third of all Roma pupils in Slovenia. The study yielded both the expected results and highly interesting additional findings, which will require a thorough analysis by experts and education providers alike, and consequently may lead to certain fundamental changes in (foreign) language learning concepts. Key words: children i...

The Children's Rights, Multiculturalism and Their Implementation for the Education of Roma Children

Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 2015

One of the most significant concerns not only for Albania but even beyond, is the consideration of educational, social, political and economic rights of the Roma community in the locations where they live. Albania has a presence a Roma community in some of its regions, especially in the capital and in its major cities. The principles of multiculturalism, education and the rights of Roma children, naturally, have undergone significant changes in the period after 1990, in Albania. Ministry of Education in cooperation with national and international organizations in compliance with the most essential documents of the Council of Europe, the European Union and others has undertaken a series of initiatives, to facilitate, encourage and promote educational and cultural values of this community. Certainly, there have been problems, delays of some reforms and its measures, but however there has been a good will to move things forward. There are, still, representation problems by the Roma Community associations, and related issues regarding ways of handling educational rights by the local government units and other related bodies. This article provides an overview of the main educational issues of the Roma Community including the role of institutions, teachers and pupils.

Language Learning and Roma Pupils – the Case of Slovenia

2013

The paper comprises a theoretical discussion and an empirical investigation of how Roma pupils position, perceive and assess Slovene as a language, and how successfully they learn Slovene as the official language and the language of the environment, as well as foreign languages (German and English) compared to non-Roma students. In the first part of the paper, theoretical considerations on the current (foreign) language learning tendencies, on the official status of both Slovene and Romani in Slovenia, and on the influential didactic (foreign) language-learning concept are presented and substantiated by an extensive quantitative empirical study, which includes a third of all Roma pupils in Slovenia. The study yielded both the expected results and highly interesting additional findings, which will require a thorough analysis by experts and education providers alike, and consequently may lead to certain fundamental changes in (foreign) language learning concepts.

The integration in education of the Roma community in the town of Elbasan

Abstract: Various sources estimate the Roma population in Albania at 30000-120000 inhabitants, located at 108 shelters in various districts of Albania, mainly in Fier, Elbasan and Durrës. Elbasan hosts a large part of the Roma population. Progress has been slow for this community. Their position in the Albanian society and their relationship to native Albanians are already known. Their integration in schools continues to be an issue that carries a variety of problems for themselves and for the Albanian society. Many Roma children in Elbasan were unable to attend school in the school year 2014 – 2015 because of their age. Many of them are over the legal maximum age limit for admission to the first, the second or the third grade. The reason for this is that they’ve failed the same grade more than three times. According to statistics published by INSTAT (Institute of Statistics) there are about 5,000 Roma children between 3-16 years old living in Albania. Also according to INSTAT 62% of these children do not attend school at all, while Roma girls face family obstacles to continue education after completing elementary school. We will present approximate data obtained from the Roma community in Elbasan, as well as the difficulties and advantages that this community encounters in the education institutions of our country. Many Roma children have difficulties or great deficiencies in the knowledge of the Albanian language when they start the first grade, because they communicate in the Roma language in their families. This creates difficulties in the performance of Roma children in school, and is also the cause for the high numbers of dropouts. It is necessary to work hard and professionally to mitigate these figures and to avoid this phenomenon. The main objective should be to maximally involve these children with equal rights in the preschool education, and then in all stages of education. Keywords: Roma community, integration, education.

Socio-Cultural and Linguistic Aspects of Roma Education

2020

Chapter 7. Acquisition of Romani in a bilingual context Chapter 8. Romani language assessment of Roma children Chapter 9. Cultural-ecological theory and the language education of Roma children Chapter 10. Bulgarian and Slovak as a second language for Roma children Chapter 11. Reading comprehension of Roma and Bulgarian children Conclusions References I would like to thank the anonymous reviewer for his/her suggestions and corrections of the manuscript, as well as the language editor of the book, Yuma Carpenter New, for her great job. Without their help, the book would not have the shape it does. I would like to thank William New for his comments and suggestion on the earlier version of the book. Many thanks to Encho Gerganov for his help with the figures in chapter 11. The book could be of interest to anyone who is interested in Roma, education, and/or cultural studies. It could also serve as a course book for MA and Ph. D. students in the field of education or cultural studies.