Presentation by Szilvia Kalman, European Commission, DG EAC, on the occasion of the EESC conference on 'Better Roma inclusion through civil society initiatives: focus on education, employment, housing and antidiscrimination' (Brussels, 7 November 2014).

1. Roma and Education
Public hearing – Economic and Social
Committee
Szilvia KALMAN
DG Education and Culture
7 November 20147
November 2014

2. Early childhood education
• On average, only half of the Roma children
attend pre-school

3. Early childhood education
• Council Recommendation:
• Increase access to and quality of early childhood
education and care, including targeted suppport,
as necessary
• Examples of Member State measures:
• Compulsory pre-school years (BG, HU)
• Cash incentives (HU)
• Work with families (BG)
• Targeted support programmes (RO, BG, HU, PT)

4. Compulsory school attendance
High compulsory
school attendance
in most Member
States

5. Early school leaving
Only 15% of Roma
aged 20-24
completed upper
secondary general or
vocational education

6. School attendance and early school
leaving
• Council Recommendation:
• Reduce early school leaving throghout all levels of
education
• Address the needs of individual pupils in close
coopeation with their families,
• Use inclusive and tailor-made teaching and learning
methods, including learning support for struggling
learners and measures to fight illiteracy
• Promoting the availablity of extra-curricular activities
• Improve teacher training

7. School attendance and early school
leaving
• Examples of Member State measures:
• Second-chance education (BG, RO)
• All day schooling (BG, SK)
• After school activities (HU, BG)
• Use of mediators (FI, RO)
• Inclusion of Roma culture in the curricula (SK, HU)
• Language support (BG, FR)
• Bilingual education (RO, SE)
• Teacher training (SK, HU, BG, SE)

8. Segregation in education
Roma are over-represented in special
schools or classes

9. Segregation in education
• Many Roma attend
ethnically
segregated classes

10. Segregation in education
• Council Recommendation:
• Eliminate any school segregation
• Put an end to any inappropriate placement of Roma
pupils in special needs schools
• Examples of Member State measures:
• Improving diagnosis of school abilities (SK, CZ)

11. Other challenges
• Very low participation of Roma in tertiary
education
• Few systematic measures to support the
participation of Roma young people in adult
education
•

12. Equity of education systems

13. 2012
Shanghai-China
Socially equitable
distribution of learning
opportunities
Strong socio-economic
impact on student
performance
Source OECD, Pisa 2012

14. Overall assessment
•Good progress in some areas, in particular ECEC
•Broad range of measures implemented by MS
However
•Lack of commitment and systematic approach for
desegregation
•Existing practices have limited scope to make an impact at
a larger scale
•Challenge to ensure long-term financing
•Need for more systemic measures to promote incusive
education, including greater focus on teachers

15. Way forward
•New College: importance of fundamental rights
has been reconfirmed
•Education OMC: Promoting equity, social
cohesion and citizenship is one of the strategic
objectives – new upcoming priorities spring 2015
•ET2020 Working groups on ECEC and Schools
•ROMED programme 2015
•Erasmus+: strategic partnerships (KA2),
support to policy reforms (KA3)

16. Thank you for your attention!