We Laugh Together, We Educate Together: A Hungarian Campaign on Inclusive Education
The Hungarian civil society
organization
UCCU Roma Informal Education Foundation
recently launched a
campaign film designed to
raise awareness and encourage discussion on the issue of inclusive
education in Hungary.
The film offers an accessible way into
the subject, and aims to combat the attitudes and prejudices that
have resulted in a segregated and “closed” education system in
Hungary.
Recent research has shown that current segregation practices in
the Hungarian education system lead to deepening social inequalities.
This segregation occurs when children of different backgrounds—socioeconomic,
national, or ethnic—are educated in separate schools or separate
groups within schools.
The free school choice system in place in Hungary allows parents
to send children to any school of their choice. This unfortunately
results in a highly selective system. Middle-class families will
send their children to better schools and poorer families—due to
their lack of information and the cost-benefit trade-off they face
for example with commuting costs—will keep their children in the
nearest, and often poorer, local school. Furthermore, fears and
prejudices that many parents have about their children sharing a
classroom with children they perceive to be “different”—such as Roma
or children with special needs—inevitably lead to a segregated
system. Consequently, children of disadvantaged families are more
likely to receive lower quality education that limits their
opportunities in life. This segregation of the education system not
only reproduces social inequalities but is also at odds with
research suggesting that appropriately applied, inclusive pedagogy
tools contribute to enhancing children’s performance, self-esteem,
and tolerance.
In an effort to raise awareness of these issues, Hungarian civil
society organization UCCU Roma Informal Education Foundation
recently launched a campaign highlighting the positive aspects of
inclusive education. The campaign will work with parents to overcome
prejudices and fears concerning inclusive education and will
highlight the benefits inclusive education brings to entire
communities, as well as moderating parental forums where concerns
can be discussed.
As a first step, UCCU Roma Informal Education Foundation has
launched a campaign
film featuring a kindergarten group where diversity brings
richness and learning opportunities to all the children in the group.
The film, bearing the motto “We laugh together, we educate together”,
is being disseminated through various websites and
social
media channels. Since its recent launch, it has been met with
rapid and positive feedback from the public. The film will also be
featured as a social advertisement in the mainstream media, and
screened in cinemas, theatres, cultural and community venues.
In addition to this film, the campaign consists of a series of
parental forums in communities where, for example, parents are
opposing integrated education, and segregation practices are in
place, with
a
longer documentary film serving as a point of departure for an
open discussion regarding the merits of inclusive education. A key
focus is to work with parents in these communities in order to gain
a better understanding of their attitudes towards and to defuse
fears and misunderstandings relating to integrated education.
Screenings and roundtable discussions are also planned in major
cities in Hungary, including Szeged, Pecs, and Miskolc.
This campaign is implemented through the collaboration of several
Hungarian civil society organizations working closely with
marginalized children and communities vulnerable to social
exclusion. The project has already enabled these organizations to
share their expertise and resources in order to jointly address the
issue of social exclusion in education and to help societies embrace
inclusiveness and tolerance.
Set up by the Open Society
Education Support Program, the
Grassroots Europe
Initiative, a collaboration between many of these
Hungarian civil society organizations and others across Europe,
supports European civil society in fulfilling its role in building
tolerant, open, and cohesive societies where all children have the
right and the opportunity to access quality education. The
initiative, which is based on the principle that community-rooted
grassroots organizations are the best placed to address local
issues, and to effectively reach out to vulnerable groups, supports
and amplifies these community-driven efforts, and in recognition of
this was awarded best practice project status in 2011 by the Education,
Audiovisual, and Culture Executive Agency of the
European Union.
