Reaching the marginalized: EFA global monitoring report, 2010; 2010

0120CHAPTER 3Education for All Global Monitoring ReportIn most centraland easternEuropeancountries nomore than 25%of Roma childrenattend secondaryschoolOne particularly stark example of marginalizationis the experience of the Roma community. 3Assessing the full extent of the deprivation faced byRoma children in education is difficult, as data areoften partial and unreliable (Box 3.3). The data thatare available tell their own story. In most centraland eastern European countries no more than 20%to 25% of Roma children attend secondary schooland the vast majority of those are enrolled invocational education. Many drop out of primaryschool. It is estimated that 15% to 20% of Romachildren in Bulgaria and 30% in Romania do notcontinue beyond fourth grade. The problem is notrestricted to central and eastern Europe. It isestimated that half of Italy’s Roma children arein primary school but fewer than 2% progress toupper secondary education. While data are scarce,education outcomes for Roma fall well below thelevels for the majority population (Open SocietyInstitute, 2007).Roma education experiences underline thedamage that can be inflicted by bad policies.In many countries, education policies andpractices have the effect of creating segregation.Geographic concentration is one factor. InBulgaria, an estimated 70% of Roma childrenstudy in schools where the share of the majoritypopulation is less than 50%. Moreover, Romachildren are often more likely than their peersto be diagnosed as ‘special needs’ students andplaced in separate schools (Open Society Institute,2007). In Hungary, one report found that ‘aboutevery fifth Roma child is declared to be mildlymentally disabled’ (Roma Education Fund, 2007,p. 32). Such practices reflect cultural attitudes andnegative stereotyping. One Council of Europe reporton Slovakia found that up to half of Roma childrenin special elementary schools were there asa result of erroneous assessment (EuropeanCommission against Racism and Intolerance, 2009).The legacy of marginalization facing indigenouspeople in rich countries has received insufficientattention in international education debates. ForNative Americans, the Aboriginals of Australiaand the Māori of New Zealand, the imprint ofdiscrimination, stigmatization and socialbreakdown is clearly visible in education data.Only 34% of indigenous Australians aged 15 to24 are in education, compared with 55% of theirnon-indigenous peers. Indigenous people alsoscore lower on reading and numeracy tests,especially if they live in remote areas (Figure 3.21).In very remote areas, the share of indigenousAustralians falling below the national minimumbenchmark for reading is more than double thelevel for all students. In New Zealand, there isBox 3.3: Monitoring gaps and marginalization — Roma in Europe3. Roma – often knownas Gypsies – live primarilyin central and easternEurope and are the mostpopulous subgroup ofthe Romani.With an estimated population between 8 millionand 12 million, Roma are one of Europe’s largestminorities. They are also among the mostmarginalized. Throughout Europe, Roma faceinstitutionalized discrimination, limited opportunitiesfor participation in many aspects of society and pooraccess to good-quality education.Lack of data makes it difficult to measure the scaleof Roma marginalization. It also limits public debateand the development of effective policy responses.Census data often undercount Roma because thesocial stigma attached to Roma identity leads manyto misreport or refuse to report their identity.Administrative data are also frequently lacking.In some countries, such as Romania and Slovakia,this is because of privacy legislation that restrictsreporting on ethnicity.While data on Roma are scarce overall, the absenceof reliable statistics on education is a particularweakness. Problems noted by the European RomaRights Centre range from under-reported births tounreliable and inconsistent data on school enrolment,dropout and other indicators collected by schoolauthorities. A qualitative study in Bulgaria foundthat administrative data failed to report a significantnumber of out-of-school Roma children becausehouseholds were not registered or school databaseswere incomplete.Pressure to improve the scope and reliability ofmonitoring data on Roma has been building. TheDecade of Roma Inclusion 2005–2015, an initiativesupported by the World Bank, the United NationsDevelopment Programme, the European Commission,the Council of Europe and the Open Society Institute,has led to a range of initiatives aimed at challengingthe use of human rights laws to prohibit datacollection and at improving ethnic data disaggregationand clarifying ‘Roma identity’.Sources: Open Society Institute (2007); European Roma RightsCentre (2007); European Commission (2009a).158