Our experience

The initiators

Since 1998 till 2000 has been developed the project "Equal opportunities for Roma children through education" by the Open Society Foundation Romania (through its "Educational Department" - restructured in 2000 as Center Education 2000+) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands (MATRA projects). Its implementation has been carried out through an active partnership of Center Education 2000+ (Bucharest - Romania) and the National Institute for Curriculum Development of The Netherlands.

Objectives

The program's aim was to provide the needed technical assistance to Roma pupils and to increase the opportunities for their integration in society by adapting the educational offer to their and their parents' needs, by setting out coherent strategies for school development, by getting parents involved in the activities and the decisional policy of the school, and by encouraging successful experiences that can be easily implemented on a larger scale.

The difficulties the Roma children confront with during their school attendance have constituted the starting point for the program development, the program key-concepts being:

• Awareness of the actual social position occupied by the minorities, and of the problems raised in the educational system for minorities;
• Acknowledgement of the importance and prerequisite of an equilibrium between minorities' active participation in the society and the preservation of their own identity;
• Educational Achievement endorsed in relation with succeeding in social life and on the labor market.

Schools were offered assistance in the process of assuming responsibilities in solving the problems and adapting the educational offer to the pupils' individuality. A particular concern addressed the school teams and their involvement in:

• elaborating institutional development plans;
• broadening the educational curriculum, i.e. offering relevant optional courses for the Roma pupils: their mother tongue, Roma history and culture, oral history, etc.
• nourishing an intercultural climate in school and community;
• encouraging innovating tendencies, setting out training strategies and learning methods to meet the children's individual needs;
• creating an efficient local network to ensure immediate contact between public institutions and representatives of the community and to fulfill the expectancies of the community concerning education.

The network

The schools counting at least 10% pupils of Roma ethnic group that are concerned with the latter's educational status were invited to submit a school development project. On its basis, there were selected in a first stage 12 schools that were joined by another 18 in 1999-2000 period. The program includes now schools from 9 counties, all over the main regions of the country.

Activities

During the first three years of implementation, the program focused on shaping an adequate frame that helped each educational unit to realistically identify its problems, resources, opportunities etc. The program's basic dimensions are:

• to elaborate and broaden the curriculum in accordance with the decisional policy specific to each school (Roma history and culture; Roma language, Roma traditions and customs; oral history);
• to assist learning (mentoring programs, support in remedying learning difficulties, programs for monitoring preschoolers);
• to train the teaching staff (cooperating learning, intercultural education, class management);
• to improve and adjust the material base (didactic material and school equipment);
• to grant financial aid to the pupils (school supplies);
• to organize courses for Roma parents (counseling, Sunday school for parents, parents as educational resources);
• to collaborate with the rest of the community (meetings with the representatives of the local authorities and other important local institutions; establishing local partnerships);
• to disseminate information and exchange experience (informative bulletins; magazines; seminars).

The training programs addressed both teachers/school heads from the participant schools (assisted by the Center Education 2000+ experts) and teachers/school heads from other schools (assisted by the trainers selected from the participants to national training programs), and covered the following fields: management - partnership and educational development, getting parents involved in the educational process, intercultural education, oral history, class management - cooperative learning, remedial education. Part of the program was dedicated to publications: eight textbooks of remedial education were published in ABC - The First Steps Collection; eight guides in the Equal Opportunities Collection; one Roma language ABC, "My First Book"; one bilingual (Romanian and English) resource-book treating diverse positive strategies from the pilot-schools; one bilingual (Romanian and Roma) autobiographical volume. Many other materials for promoting the program activities were also elaborated: six informative bulletins in Romanian (including a summary in English and Roma); two informative bulletins in English (including a summary in Romanian and Roma); the program poster and booklet; the web site www.impreuna.com.

Results

In order to provide the necessary feedback on this project activities and to remedy the deficiencies, a wide range of evaluating instruments were used: school questionnaires, interviewing guides for school heads and the teaching staff, questionnaires for the participants to the training sessions, etc. The monitoring activities required visiting schools (class attendance/ observations, discussions with both the teaching staff and the pupils, meetings with parents, etc.), attending the training sessions, attending various activities organized by the schools already part of the network, etc. The main concern was to realistically evaluate the way the school projects had been implemented.

The project triggered successful outcomes in all its component tasks: by going beyond discriminations, adopting modern methods for teaching/learning, redecorating the school areas, improving the material base with new didactic materials, all these attempts proved to be a beneficial input for the school/classroom. In the selected schools the project brought forth an increased involvement on the behalf of the Roma pupils. A decrease in the number of illiterate children (around 35-60%), of abandonment cases (around 20-50%), and of school absenteeism (15-30%) was thus obtained. At the same time their school ratings were thoroughly improved. In the network schools, it was decreased the number of both failed examinations and repeated year-classes attendance also decreased (10-25%), and a maximum of 3-9% of pupils in primary classes were unable to assimilate the basic reading/writing skills. Pupils in the secondary school have also proved higher ratings. There was an increased number of Roma pupils that submit to the school-leaving examination (about 10-20%) and pass it (10-15%). A progress was also noticed at the undergraduate level: a slight increase (5-10%) in the number of the Roma pupils that continue their studies after completion of the compulsory education.

Among the significant results was a deeper concern in the school activities on behalf of the Roma families. Since the schools joined the network, each of them have closely collaborated with parents (more than 300 persons are filed in the database). These parents can be contacted and asked to provide support in the administrative and didactic activities. The training activities have proved useful by reducing the number of parents who negatively evaluate education or disregard the school initiatives. They also stimulated volunteering activities on the community behalf such as: literacy courses (reading/writing) for adults, mentoring programs for children, intercultural activities and oral history projects, etc.

Providing methodological assistance for schools and promoting innovating teaching methods and techniques, the project concretely influenced the school activity: in areas that require good communication and close involvement (class management, remedial education), teachers have more initiatives in encouraging intercultural education and prove a broaden interest in Roma pupils' needs. Under various aspects and with different accents, the managers and the teaching staff included in the program succeeded in improving the organizational culture, the community relationships, the educational strategies, the learning medium, the children relationships, etc.

Facilitating the institutional changes lead to an increased network-schools ability to attract local authorities in financing the school projects. Many achieved successful results: an improved and more adequate infrastructure and material base were locally aided. More than this, the schools have initiated collaborative activities with institutions outside the program: either educational institutions or important local institutions (economic agents, various NGOs in Romania and abroad), and approximately 20% of the schools were granted financial aid from other donators.

Program maintenance

The experience gained during the project made possible the elaboration of a coherent frame for school development and community support that could encourage an increased involvement in education and school higher ranks on Roma children behalf. This frame was the starting point for the new project "Equal Opportunities" to be carried out on a three years period. Most of the past activities will be continued and diversified by expanding the network up to 50 schools and by:

• introducing a new school development pattern focused on an increased interest in coping with Roma children's problems, on acknowledging their needs and rights and on improving their opportunities to succeed in school;
• adjusting the educational materials to Roma culture and history, that will lead to elaborating teaching/learning materials addressing Roma issues, informational programs on Roma language, culture and history, and effective policies in locally and nationally educating the (Roma) minorities;
• expanding the schools' educational offer and adjusting it to Roma pupils' needs, on such criteria as the school based curriculum, the inclusive education, the remedial education, etc.
• implementing the school development pattern in a network of the key-institutions of the educational system (schools, kindergartens, school inspectorates, training centers, universities) and creating new opportunities for the Roma children to be successful in their education.

To maintain these directives, the project will initiate a wide range of activities: technical assistance for the schools' managerial teams; school development (a greater stress on parents' involvement) and resource-schools formation (three of the total amount of schools involved in the project). New examples of improved policies can thus abet similar schools from other counties of the country to promote a full recognition of the minorities' culture in the educational process.