Transcript Mr. Marius Taba

Policies in Education and
Discrimination
What the Roma Education Fund can
recommend for an Effective
Education Strategy.
Marius Tabã
[email protected]
www.romaeducationfund.hu
Geneva December 2008
Objectives of the Roma Education
Fund
• Closing the education outcome gap between
Roma and Non-Roma
• Influence institutional changes in education
systems and policy reforms for Roma inclusion
• Foster Roma participation (II core principles (9)
evaluation should be included)
• Document and disseminate best practices on
both policy reforms and programs
How does discrimination happens?
• Open discrimination is not the most
frequent occurrence in case of education
• Hidden discrimination and systemic
discrimination is still very strong and is the
most difficult to combat §
• Anti discrimination legislation is a
necessary condition but largely insufficient
Education Polices and
discrimination
• It is important to understand the impact of
education policies on discrimination
• It is important to understand how polices
for minorities could have discriminatory
effects
Education Policies can facilitate
Discrimination
• Excessive decentralization (without narrowing the
school inspection) III 19
• Early tracking of children; Psychological testing – as a
barrier - abolition of tests. IV 25; 26
• District school (existence of special schools for learning
disabilities in the vicinity of Roma communities) IV 31
Free choice of school without clear rules of the game
(white flight; segregation) VI 46 REF-lottery
• Per capita income financing of school (in case higher
amounts go to special schools or smaller/ ghetto
schools)
• Introduction of compulsory pre-school education (without
looking at availability and distribution of pre-school
facilities)
Targeted Polices could have
discriminatory effects
• Material incentives-CCT (without clear mechanisms
might lead to segregation) III 16;17; 20
• Multicultural education ( preparation and training of
school staff; lack of mechanisms for real parents
involvement V 36; 37; 39
• Reinforcing a specific curriculum for minorities (in the
case it encourages separate education; role of
inspection monitoring integration of minorities) VI 51
• Positive discrimination/affirmative actions (without
adequate support to the students)- temporary
measures
• School consolidation-”magnet school” (leads to
segregation)
Conclusions
• Correlation between antidiscrimination
legislation and actual discrimination is very weak
according to REF analysis
• Should include clear mechanisms for recourse
and information dissemination
• Should be based on a good analysis and
understanding of how the education system
work
• It is important to remember that good education
policies fostering equity might be more efficient
than an antidiscrimination legislation with bad
education policies.
Traps in developing polices for Roma
• The “minority cultural rights” trap
– Assimilating into other minority policies
• The “poverty” trap
– Ignoring discrimination, providing assistance
• The “vulnerable group” trap
– Not recognizing resiliency, compensating for handicap instead of building on
strengths
• The “inclusion” trap
– Fusion with special needs children
• The “school-based-approach” trap
– Creating Roma-magnet schools
• The “parent involvement” trap
– Expanding the role of school above realistic limits
• The “quality education” trap
– Ignoring integration
What is REF financing?
• Bulgaria: working with political parties on
integrated education
• Serbia: training school inspection on
antidiscrimination
• Hungary: disseminating information on enrolmrnt
in the primary school -“lottery system”
• Macedonia: providing information to parents on
how to enroll their children
• Romania: Helping Roma NGOs comment on the
new Education law
• Policy notes for Decade countries