Education of Roma/Gypsy children in Europe
The training of Roma school mediators
and assistants
CONSEIL
DE L'EUROPE
COUNCIL
OF EUROPEDGIV/EDU/ROM(2004)11
The training of Roma/Gypsy school mediators and assistants
Timisoara/Romania Seminar, 1-4 April 2004
Organised in cooperation with
Report prepared by Calin Rus23
Table of contents
1. Introduction........................................................................................ 5
2. The role of Roma school mediators/assistants ............................... 6
2.1. Two amorphous concepts: Roma school mediators and
assistants............................................................................................. 6
2.2. The role of Roma school mediators/assistants in various
European countries.............................................................................. 8
2.3. Comparative analysis and implications for practice................. 12
3. Institutional and professional status of Roma school
mediators/assistants ........................................................................... 15
3.1. Types of institutional status of Roma school mediators/assistants15
3.2. Example: the place of school mediators in education policies for
Roma in Romania .............................................................................. 16
3.3. Professional recognition of Roma school mediators/assistants –
problems and solutions ...................................................................... 18
4. The training of Roma school mediators/assistants....................... 21
4.1. Two examples of training programmes: Roma teaching assistants
in Slovakia and Roma school mediators in Romania.......................... 21
4.2. Analysis: training needs and provision – comparison with real
situation ............................................................................................. 24
5. Conclusions and recommendations............................................... 24
The training of Roma school mediators and assistants in Europe.........26
1. Introduction
Although cultural and socio-economic contexts vary widely, the schooling of Roma/Gypsy children raises a whole series of problems in all the countries of Europe: limited access to schooling, patchy attendance,
dropping-out, marginalisation and discrimination in schools, poor marks or failure - these are only some of the commonest.
For many years already, the various European countries have been devising measures, and indeed strategies and action plans, to improve the situation of Roma/Gypsies, and schooling has always been one of the chief items in this context. Several international organisations, with the Council of Europe one of the most active, have also produced documents on this question. In Recommendation No. R(2000)4 on the education of Roma/Gypsy children in Europe, for example, the Committee of Ministers notes that “the problems faced by Roma/Gypsies in the field of schooling are largely the result of longstanding educational policies of the past, which led either to assimilation or to segregation of all Roma/Gypsy children at school on the grounds that they were ‘socially and culturally handicapped’”, and that there was an urgent need to define and implement active measures to ensure genuinely equal schooling opportunities, within the broader context of local support policies for Roma/Gypsy communities.
The fact that the Council of Europe’s Directorate of Education is currently running a project on the schooling of Roma/Gypsy children is certainly an acknowledgment and a confirmation of the question’s importance and
topicality.
Teacher training is a key element in any action taken to improve the school system and increase its capacity to meet the needs of children and communities. There are also, however - particularly in the case of groups with special educational requirements - other staff who play a crucial role, but whose training does not get the attention it merits. In the context of schooling for Roma/Gypsy children, this applies to Roma6 school mediators/assistants, who have (particularly since the 1990s) emerged as a distinct professional group in several countries .
This report looks at the current position of Roma school mediators/assistants in a number of European countries, and makes various points concerning their role, professional status and training - points which emerged from an international seminar organised in Timisoara (Romania) from 1 to 4 April 2004 by the Council of Europe and the Timisoara Intercultural Institute
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