Multicultural Education
Emphasising Czech and Roma Co-existence

By

Martina Hoskova	Jana Keprtova	Eva Siskova

In many European countries Romas are living in difficult conditions. What can be done to solve this? Multicultural education is the most important tool in dealing with such a situation. Part of a multicultural education is getting more information about minorities background and also about experiences with minority members.

There are four main minorities in the Czech Republic; Germans (48 000), Polish (61 000), Slovaks (230 000), Romas (180 - 200 000) and also rather smaller minorities like Greeks, Russians and Ukraine, Vietnamese and people from northern Africa. All minorities together make up 8% of the population, which is about 824 000 people.

Roma minority is particular for having distinct life-style and values rising from Indian background. They are the only ethnic minority with no nation state and appear almost around the whole Europe.

At present the number of Romas in the Czech Republic is about 180-200 000. We can not define the exact number due to the everlasting migration process between Czech and Slovak Republic. During the 1991 census, only 18% of the Roma population had declared their Roma nationality (33 000 people). There are many reasons why they did so.

They tried to improve their social status in the society by declaring that they were not members of the minority. They did this out of a fear of discrimination and from the idea that they should be "ashamed being Roma". All of these facts are a witness to insufficient level of self-confidence and self-determination.

In less industrial European countries the number of Roma people is much higher than in more industrial European countries. In the states of the European Union there are 1,7 mil Roma people, in Central and in Eastern European countries 6,7 mil. (For example: Romania - 2,5 mil, former Yugoslavia - 1,1 mil, Bulgaria - 800 000, Turkey and Spain - 600 000.)

Due to low-level education and almost no permanent jobs (more than 80% of adults in Roma population are without a permanent job), Romas are considered to be members of the lowest social section in the society. Also almost every family is financially dependent on social benefits from the state. Poor education means that they are only able to get unqualified jobs. So, for them it is "advantageous" to live from social benefits. For a family with three or more children (as is usual for Romas) those are higher than the possible lowest salary of both parents. Such incomes enables just basic expands as for food and clothes. But very often there is not enough money for paying rent and to buy basic teaching add for children in Roma families. The bad financial situation causes high criminality among Romas.

Only a few Romas actively participate in the life of society. Therefore the communication between Government, Parliament and representatives of Roma population is not fully developed. Although Romas have a number of political parties, they have no chance to be elected because of the very low support from Roma minority.

There are 3% Romas with higher or University education in the whole Roma society and more than 80% with only basic education.

In the Czech Republic, there is a disproportionately high rate of attendance of Romany children at special schools for mentally handicapped children. These schools offer an inferior education and significantly restrict choices for further studies and job opportunities.

According to statistics published in 1990/91, out of 59 284 special school students, 24 126 students "of Gypsy origin" attend schools for mentally handicapped children in grades from one to nine. This has created a segregated school system in which some special schools have a majority of Romas and others are all Romany. The rate of illiteracy among of Romas is much higher than that among the majority population.

The continuing transfer of Romany children to special schools is a result of many factors. Firstly, the inability of the present school system. Secondly, the separation of Romany students in some localities from other students within the classroom.

Every single Roma child has to go through "problematic" psychological and intelligence tests, but tests are oriented towards the majority population and are in the mother tongue of the majority population. The assumption by some authorities is that Romany children tend to be backward, either mentally or socially.

Also parents of Roma children tend to send their children to slower, easier schools to be with their friends and relatives. 80% of children in the last three generations go to "special schools".

A local Romany leader also acknowledges the situation is complex:
"Their parents are often illiterate, can not help them with homework. They don't object to them being sent to special schools. It is a big problem. The teachers in normal schools can't look after them well enough."

Similarly, a social worker in Brno, Mrs. Skorupova, claims:
"It's a pity. Many of these kids don't belong in special schools. They start out with a language barrier, especially those that come from Slovakia and speak Slovak, Romany or Hungarian. These children don't have people looking after them."

Present estimates on the number of illiterates in the Roma population are about 20% of the oldest generation (more than fifty years old).

Romany community very often rejects those who finish higher or University education. On the other hand, educated Romas have a different life-style that integrates them to the majority population.

Future demographical predictions for Europe indicate a growth of immigrants. Other expectations indicate increase in the number of minorities in all European countries. That is why it is important that we begin to build better social and economic conditions for co-existence, try to deeper knowledge and improve relations among different nationalities. Multicultural education will enable us to do this. This will motivate the whole society to better co-operation and community life.

Because xenophobia and racism have been a factor for a long time, it is necessary to start with multicultural education as soon as possible. The main goal is to support the knowledge about different cultural and ethnical backgrounds and by that relieve ethnic tensions. Ignorance of history, life-style and behavior creates even more prejudices.

Practically, multicultural education consists not only in giving information, but from meeting members of minorities, having discussions with them and visiting their own cultural performances. (For example: theatre, musical festivals, museums etc.)

Multicultural education should be interactive. This method brings - most important of all, personal experiences and a view of the situation. Students are actively participating in discussions, role-play, and self-awareness exercises. In such games participants of these courses feel how it is to be a member of a minority, how prejudices disable effective communication and how complicated it is to change already formed attitude.

There is a wide range of participants in such courses: students, teachers, and professionals working with minority members, like NGO employees, social workers, state officers and etc. All of them think it is necessary to have multicultural education in all Czech schools.

The first step in changing public attitudes comes through the education of teachers, journalists and local politicians. Especially for educating children it is necessary to have well qualified teachers for sharing and handing information. They can provide qualified help in cases dealing with children coming from racist oriented families.

The second target group is young people that have an open-minded point of view about minorities and change. This is why we focus on education of basic and high school students.

Two NGOs - "Partners for Democratic Change - Czech Centre" and "R - Mosty", started multicultural education in the Czech Republic three years ago. The Council of Europe and Open Society Fund financed the first two years of the project. Because comments and outcomes were positive, the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic took over the main ideas of the project and began to financially support the complex implementation of multicultural education in schools in the Czech Republic.

There is also a textbook titled "Education Towards Tolerance and Against Racism" published last year by the NGO working in this field. It includes both, information about minorities living in the Czech Republic and practical exercises and games for students.

After having several debates in classrooms, attitudes of children rapidly changed from ignorance of differences, negative way of thinking to acceptation and acknowledgement of other cultures. Suddenly, they realised differences are not negative but an enriching experience.

Despite this fact, multicultural education is a long-term process, implementation of multicultural education in the past three years has shown its importance to change the way of thinking in the whole society.

 

Literature:

A Helsinki Watch Report: Struggling for Ethnic Identity, USA, 1992
Gabal, Ivan a kol.: Etnicke mensiny ve stredni Evrope, Praha, 1999