Importance of Education for Roma Children

Female: Roma TV and radio stations across Eastern Europe are now linking
up for the first time, sharing programs and information, bringing
more of their communities in touch with decisions affecting them.

The broadcast also give the main populations an understanding of
what it’s like to be Roma. Better education is at the heart of the
decade. Many families can't afford to send their children to school.
The uneducated can't find work and the cycle continues. Across
eastern and Central Europe, less than one and five Roma children
continue their education beyond primary school.

Alexandra Raykova: What I have observed in my daily practice is that this new
generation, which is 14 to 15 years old, which came after or has
grown up after the transition in our country suddenly are illiterate.
And it’s a pity because these children are not having any
perspective for future.

Female: Roma children grow up speaking Romani, their mother tongue and
often have a poor command of the national language where they
live. This means they are treated as outcast at national schools
often segregated into Roma only classes. Some place in schools for
learning disabilities, some never venturing from the Romani
schools and the settlements. Many children dropped out early,
disillusioned, disadvantaged.

But there is hope for a new generation. In Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria
when 90% of Roma are unemployed, Sasho Aleksandrov is an
enrolment coordinator integrating Roma children into local schools
in nearby Pleven.

Sasho Aleksandrov: Hungarian unemployment made me concerned that people had to
become more motivated in order to find work. That means through
education they could find jobs. The older generations are earning
their living by scavenging in the junkyards and garbage cans. The
younger generations who are included in the regular schools will
have a completely different understanding and a perception about
life.

I'm trying to be a friend to my son. He's 9 years old. Now he's in
the second E of the program. I need a special help at school. I don’t
want him to need special help as well.

Female: But bringing Roma children into mainstream education and
helping them feel comfortable requires approaches from many
quarters. Miglena Taseva is one of the students from 52
settlements across Bulgaria who attended a six-week course at
Veliko Tarnovo University to train as a Roma teaching assistant in
national schools.

Miglena Taseva: I admitted that when I first arrived, I thought about going back
home. But then when I met the others, we like each other and I
decided to stay in order to learn something new and to pass on
what I have learned to children. My dream is to have a job, to be
capable and independent.

Female: Back in here hometown land, Miglena is brining Romani culture
and language into the local classroom as well as helping Roma
children get up to speed making way for better understanding and
less discrimination.

Female: I like her very much. She teaches us and helps us with anything we
find difficult.

Filiz Husmenova: The teaching assistants are very important in such bilingual
environments. In this environment, they are essential for the
students to accept the new teaching materials.

Obviously, I hope this policy will continue with the community’s
if we get opportunities from the European partners especially in the
places where we have less successful results.