ROMA AND EGYPTIAN CHILDREN AND THE EDUCATION SYSTEM: THEY FINISH SCHOOL, BUT SOME CAN NOT WRITE

DESPITE THE RISING ENROLLMENT, QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ROMA CHILDREN IS STILL A KEY ISSUE

Almedina is in the seventh grade of an elementary school in Bar. At the request of a journalist from the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG) to read a paragraph from the book, she reluctantly agrees, warning that she does not know how to read well. And she begins reading letter by letter.

Her brother Aleksandar, a sixteen-year-old who attends the fifth grade, takes a pen and writes a simple sentence that the journalist dictates to him - "I have a yellow dog, his name is Snoopy". The imprecise printed letters look like they are written by someone only in the first grade. Instead of "g", he writes "k", and the boy gets confused and stops at the word "dog".

Nine-year-old Petar, their brother who attends the third grade, looks shyly at the blank paper while CIN-CG's journalists ask him to write his name, followed by different letters and numbers. After the journalists give up, he starts writing the number four in poor handwriting. Petar does not know how to answer when asked what number it is.

These children do not attend school regularly. However, they pass grades without repetition and are expected to finish primary school on time.

They are not the only example of Roma children finishing primary school illiterate.

"We wonder how they pass the classes. The school called several times to ask why the children were absent. We explain, and that's it," Sabedin, the children's father, who has three more daughters of preschool age, tells CIN-CG.

He wants everyone to finish at least elementary school.

From Elementary School "Mexico" in Bar, which is attended by 18 students from the RE population, among whom Sabedin's children, say that teachers have different criteria for Roma students.

"Due to the poor living conditions, the teaching staff tolerates these students much more than usual," Lejla Bubić, assistant principal of the "Mexico" elementary school, told CIN-CG.

In Montenegro, no research has been done on the level of basic skills (reading, writing, speaking, arithmetic) among children from the RE population who attend elementary school.

In the last Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS 6) done by UNICEF from 2017 to 2019, two essential skills in children were examined- reading and numerical abilities depending on various factors - such as belonging to minority populations, child labour, poverty level …

"Findings show that children from Roma settlements are less likely to acquire foundational reading and numeracy skills than the national average. Schooling alone may not be enough to achieve equal learning outcomes fully," the UNICEF's 2022 report "Educational pathways in Roma settlements" states.

The UNICEF Office for Montenegro told CIN-CG that "due to the limited capacities of Montenegrin institutions, there was no possibility for measuring the basic skills of children in Montenegro during the UNICEF MICS 6 survey."

The following research could only be carried out around 2025," they claim.

CIN-CG sent questions to the 25 elementary schools in Montenegro, regarding the literacy percentage of children from RE communities. Eleven schools answered, explaining that records are not kept solely for RE children, and the general literacy rates of RE students in these schools range from 70 to 90 per cent.

Elementary School "Božidar Vuković Podgoričanin," attended by the highest number of RE students, stated that 90 percent of Roma students become literate in the first three grades.

Nevertheless, students of the Roma population often enroll in secondary school - completely illiterate.

"Students who have completed elementary school enroll the secondary schools. We have to teach them printed letters because otherwise, they cannot acquire knowledge," Milanka Okuka, a pedagogue at the Secondary Vocational School in Bar, who also works as a mentor for RE students, tells CIN-CG. 

According to the data of the Strategy for Social Inclusion of Roma and Egyptians for the period from 2021 to 2025, the primary completion rate for Roma children is 56 percent, while the high school graduation rate is only 3%. 

"This difference between the primary and secondary school completion rate clearly reflects the poor quality of education of RE children, primarily during primary school. Education support to children from RE population is low, and the children finish school failing to acquire basic literacy skills", Biljana Maslovarić, director of the Pedagogical Center of Montenegro, who has considerable experience in working with Roma children, states for CIN-CG.

"It happens that children between the 6th and 9th grade of primary school write in block letters, mix voices and are not at the level required for the grade they attend," states the report "Identification and mapping relevant challenges faced by Roma and Egyptian community in Montenegro", published by ROMACTED program 2019.

The issue of the quality of education remains stagnant "regardless of the fact that", as this report also states, "in recent years we have witnessed an increasing trend in educational enrolment ".

Biljana Maslovarić also claims that the responsibility for failures in the education of RE students should be borne by the school, i.e. the teaching staff.

"During one school year, there are three knowledge tests. The school has to take responsibility if the child finishes school after all these checks without having basic education," she says.

Tolerance of irregular attendance is a disservice

For Almedina, Petar and Aleksandar, regular class attendance is much more difficult due to the distance from their home. From the dilapidated shack on the slope of the Sutorman mountain above Bar, where they live, the first settlement or store is miles away and it is a 40-minute drive to the school.

Their family shares the organization regarding school transportation with their only neighbours, the Stanković family, also Roma, who raise five school-aged children.

"On the days when the children attend classes, we have to go down from Sutorman to the city several times because everyone is in different shifts and schools. Our whole life revolves around school", Sabedin says.

To collect money for fuel and continue attending classes, but also to help their families, these children do different jobs after school.

"We have no choice," Sabedin says.

"Child labour is associated with poor learning outcomes, i.e. lower foundational reading and numerical skills," according to the UNICEF's report "Digging deeper with the data: Child Labor and Learning" from 2020.

Factors such as poverty, less educated parents, and belonging to the female gender significantly reduce the chances of Roma children to achieve foundational reading and numerical skills, according to the report "Educational Pathways in Roma Settlements" from 2022. "These children did not progress in their education, regardless of regular attendance or school completion".

Montenegro is the only country in the latest wave of UNICEF research in which the percentage of Roma and Egyptian children who are engaged in child labour and who finish primary school is almost identical to the rate of RE children who do not work. Unlike the other tested countries in the region, in Montenegro, the possibility of expulsion from school does not increase if the child works and therefore attends classes irregularly, according to the report "Educational Pathways in Roma Settlements".

The UNICEF Office for Montenegro did not respond to CIN-CG's question about whether such statistics show excessive leniency of primary schools towards students from the RE population.

"According to the Protocol that prescribes the obligations of institutions to prevent school dropouts, we are obliged to react if there is a risk of school dropouts," stated UNICEF in a letter to CIN-CG.

According to the schools' experiences that have responded to CIN-CG, expulsions from schools and repetition of classes are rare, despite irregular attendance.

Data from the 2018 UNICEF Multiple Indicator Survey show that Roma children from poorer families are at a lower risk of repeating a grade in primary school than children from wealthier families.

"Roma children do not repeat the grade", claim from Elementary School "Mexico".

"Mostly, in all classes, they do not attend classes regularly, which significantly affects their poor performance, and precisely for this reason, a minimal number of such students can read and write without problems," assistant director Bubić says.

"There is a big problem with the non-regular attendance of RE students - over 70 percent of students do not attend classes regularly. Thus, it is impossible to assess them", Tamara Radonjić, director of "Njegoš" Primary School in Kotor, says for CIN-CG.

Elementary School "21. maj" in Podgorica said that RE children partially achieve educational outcomes up to the third grade.

"In the fourth grade, their success is good, and from the fifth to the ninth, they achieve minimal educational outcomes."

Almedina, Petar, and Aleksandar lack the primary education they should have acquired at school. When asked by journalists what a cell is, they claim that they are familiar with the word.

"That's where you end up when in prison," Aleksandar finally says.

When asked if they know what a cell is in biology, they don't answer. None of them knows who Njegoš is, but Almedina claims she knows the word.

These children have no one to help them with the lessons they miss at school.

"We certainly cannot help them," Sabedin, the children's father, says.

Discrimination kills motivation

When a CIN-CG journalist asks if he likes going to school and playing with children, a nine-year-old smiling Petar becomes serious and shakes his head.

"They have no one to hang out with and to play with. That's why they prefer to stay here, in Sutorman", Sabedin explains.

According to the Strategy for Social Inclusion of Roma and Egyptians, 2021 -2025, in addition to poverty, the key factors that prevent Roma students from regularly attending school are stigma, bullying by peers or employees, discrimination, and lack of personal documents required for enrolment, frequent migration.

Roma children's classroom experiences are characterized by a lack of integration and clear discrimination, according to a 2019 ROMACTED study.

"I used to go to school until 6th grade, then I started part-time education because it was simply better for me", is the statement of one of the discriminated boys of RE nationality, cited in this study.

"Discrimination makes children feel less important. Their self-esteem is damaged, and, in most cases, they stop fighting and do not try to deal with the problem... They are at an increased risk of dropping out of school," Jovana Knežević, a Center for Roma Initiatives (CRI) psychologist, told CIN-CG. 

The study further states that traditional lack of integration, where RE children do not develop close social ties with other kids, also negatively affects their motivation to continue school.

"The provision of clothes and shoes, free textbooks and school supplies, the involvement of parents in the life and work of the school, free transport, peer acceptance, and teacher competence are factors that influence the children of the RE population to attend classes more regularly", Jelena Popović, director of the Božidar Vuković Elementary School in Podgorica, says ".

"Parents, for example, often decide not to send their children to school, because they have nothing clean to wear." They are not able to provide for school supplies and living conditions which would make studying at home possible", as stated in the 2019 ROMACTED survey.

Segregation in schools is also confirmed by the fact that members of the RE population attend only seven schools in the capital territory. Traditionally considered elite schools have almost no pupils from the RE population. Thus, the "Pavle Rovinski" school does not have a single RE student, regardless of the relative proximity of the Vrela ribnička settlement. Elementary school "Sutjeska" has only one student from the RE population.

"We are working on enrolling them in other so-called 'elite schools, but we must also provide them with transportation to those schools," the Directorate for Education of Minority People told CIN-CG.

"Children often feel that they are not fully accepted in schools. They often say: 'They sit us in the last benches, and it's up to us to be calm and come regularly,'" Jelena Milić, director at Defendology Center for Security, Sociological and Criminological Research of Montenegro in Nikšić, points out for CIN-CG.

Currently, 202 children, mainly from the Roma and Egyptian populations, are active users of that centre. They study there, receive psycho-social support, get meals, and often come to fulfil their basic physiological needs - to shower, get a haircut or wash and dry their clothes.

"The centre was originally not designed only for the needs of children from the RE population. Over time, it turned out that they make up the largest number of users", Jelena Milić explains.

Teachers are not liable for negligence

Allowing a student to pass a grade, even though s/he has not previously mastered the necessary skills, is punishable by the laws of Montenegro. According to the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination, discrimination is considered, among other things, to be making it difficult or denying the possibility to attend classes, classification of children, pupils, participants in education, and students, abusing or otherwise making unjustified differentiation or unequally treating them.

Code of ethics, which every school has, prescribes teachers' obligation to treat each student carefully and objectively - in grading, resolving conflicts, and applying disciplinary measures.

Despite the law, it rarely happens that one of the teachers or the school management is sanctioned because the student has not mastered letters and numbers by the end of elementary school. Schools generally react and inform parents and relevant institutions when a child does not attend classes regularly.

"It happened that we send a letter to the school to check how a child is progressing or, if s/he is absent from class, whether the school informs the parents about it. From experience, I don't think schools contact parents too often", Jelena Milić says for CIN-CG.

"If a child is absent from school, begging somewhere, several offences have been committed", Duška Šljivančanin, advisor to the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms of Montenegro (Ombudsman) in the field of protection of the rights of children, youth and social security, told CIN-CG.

"Several times in our reports, we provided guidelines on what should be done in such cases, and we initiated misdemeanours against the parents because they must be held accountable by law," the ombudsman's advisor claims.

According to her, misdemeanour courts in Montenegro have a bad practice in this matter.

"In order not to further impoverish the families, they are released and not punished. It is counterproductive".

Language barrier for children, Early school dropout for girls 

"The problems faced by Roma and Egyptian children are reflected in the existence of language barriers, given that education is in a language other than the mother tongue of RE children. This leads to a significant problem - some students finish school without having mastered basic reading or writing skills," states the Strategy for Social Inclusion of Roma and Egyptians from 2021 to 2025.

In the classes of the "Njegoš" primary school in Kotor, where 29 pupils of the RE population attend, Roma and Egyptians speak to each other in the language they speak at home.

"That is why they cannot master the lessons successfully," Tamara Radonjić, the director of that school, says.

"Milan Vuković" Elementary School in Herceg Novi told CIN-CG that they noticed limitations in reading comprehension performance among RE children.

"It is affected by these children's language and conceptual development".

The elementary school "Njegoš" in Kotor told CIN-CG that girls from the RE population leave school earlier.

"Despite the school's pedagogical and psychological service engagement and the excellent cooperation we have with the Office for Disease Prevention, girls leave school earlier than boys."

In the research by ROMACTED, gender imbalance is particularly highlighted in the reasons for early school dropout.

''The percentage of women with no formal schooling or with less than a fourth-grade primary education is significantly higher than the percentage of men, whereby even 43.2% of women have no type of education, while the same has been determined in only 22.6% of men'' as pointed out into the research conducted by DeFacto, stated in the Strategy for Social Inclusion of Roma and Egyptians 2021-2025.

Employment of Roma school mediators and assistants a good step forward

The improvement in the education of Roma children initiated the engagement of mediators in the social inclusion of Roma and Egyptians in the field of education, who should help children with learning, as well as be a link between parents and schools. Currently, according to the data of the Ministry of Education, there are 22 of them at the level of Montenegro - one for every 70 students.

The last school year had the same number of RE mediators. In the school year 2019/2020, there were 21, and in 2018/19, 18. During the school year 2019/20, 35 mentors were hired for 130 eighth- and ninth-grade students of the Roma and Egyptian populations. In secondary schools, 44 mentors (professors) were employed for 120 secondary school students.

"A mechanism should be established to measure student achievement in primary education. Before the involvement of mediators in educational institutions, the results and achievements of children from those communities were not at a satisfactory level. Year after year, many Roma and Egyptian children have dropped out of school. That's why the support of mediators is of great importance for them, especially for those with low socioeconomic status", Enis Eminović, a mediator in the elementary school "Božidar Vuković Podgoričanin" and a long-time Roma activist in the civil sector, told CIN-CG.

Daily, he takes care of 53 students from the third grade and 18 from the Roma and Egyptian community from the ninth grade.

According to him, the lack of communication and cooperation between educational institutions and the Roma and Egyptian communities is a serious obstacle to improving the education of the RE population.

"Insufficient awareness among parents is still an issue. The parents must gain confidence in the mediator, whose position should be urgently systematized".

The most significant percentage of surveyed parents of the Roma and Egyptian community, as stated in the Strategy for Social Inclusion of Roma and Egyptians, do not have information on whether there is an associate in education in their community.

Andrea Jelić
Đurđa Radulović