Romani children still segregated in the Czech schools and more frequently assigned to "special needs" classes than ever before
In the Czech Republic, the segregation of Romani children away from non-Romani children in education is still a serious, widespread problem that negatively impacts their human rights and life opportunities. Romani children face the same exclusion today as they did five years ago. There are as many as 130 segregated schools in the Czech Republic where at least one-third of the pupils are Romani. Even more frequently than in the past, Romani pupils are being reassigned into the "special needs" classes of the mainstream schools they attend. While Romani people comprise just 3 % of the overall population of pupils, they comprise 22 % of "special needs" classes. Those are the main findings of a study for the Czech Education Ministry by the PAQ Research company and the STEM polling agency.
According to the study, the situation has not changed much, not even after the introduction of inclusive education measures in 2016, which aimed to bring children with special educational needs into classes at mainstream schools. Inclusion is succeeding more for non-Romani children with special needs than it is for Romani children from impoverished, socially-excluded environments. Because of this, the segregation of Romani children continues to be maintained and they are frequently condemned to receive a poor education and remain in poverty.
According to this study, such segregated schools can be found everywhere throughout the Czech Republic. “The number of schools where one-third of the pupils are Romani is not changing, and the number of those with at least 50 or even 75 % of Romani pupils have even slightly grown since 2017,” says Karel Gargulák of PAQ Research. “This problem does not affect all Romani pupils. Segregation especially impacts those who live in poverty and social exclusion.”.
Number of primary schools with more than 33 % Romani pupils
The study states that “special needs” classes and entire schools (formerly called “practical” schools) with high proportions of Romani pupils exist in every corner of the country. “They even exist in places where the Romani population is not numerous, comprising between 2 and 8 % of the local population. The high proporation of Roma in local ‘special needs schools’ and classes, therefore, cannot be explained by their spatial concentration,” Gargulák said. “Overall, Romani pupils comprise 22 % of the ‘special needs’ classes in mainstream schools and 15 % in ‘special schools’. That absolutely does not correspond to their share in the overall population of pupils, where around 3 % have been Romani as a stable trend.”
Proportion of Romani pupils among all pupils in ‘special needs’ classes per type of school (in %)
The practice of educational guidance centers, which are meant to diagnose pupils with ‘special needs’ and provide them support, is also problematic. These centers frequently use outdated diagnostic instruments and their findings differ in various parts of the country to a degree that is inexplicable.
“If a Romani child is brought to an educational guidance facility (školní poradenské zařízení – ŠPZ), he or she will be given a diagnosis of mild mental disability 10 times more frequently than a non-Romani child will. These centers may be confusing the displays of sociocultural disadvantage, such as a limited ability to speak the Czech language, with congenital disability,” Gargulák said.
Some such centers also support segregation because they consider “special schools” to be “better” for Romani children, although such a judgment is not based on any objective assessment of the pedagogical approach taken by “special schools”.
Summary of the recommendations based on the survey
Strengthen both the auditing of and the support for the work performed by the educational guidance facilities (and take over their management from the Regional Authorities). Strengthen their ties to social work.
Strengthen the powers of the Czech School Inspectorate to change poor-quality management of both such centers and primary schools (should problems with delivering appropriate education or with rejecting certain children for enrollment, etc., repeatedly occur).
The Czech School Inspectorate and the Czech Education, Youth and Sport Ministry should monitor in more detail and more regularly the crucial factors of segregation and call on the establishers of both schools and educational guidance facilities to correct their performance. First and foremost, arrange for correction of school catchment areas which have been designed in a segregatory way.
Give all schools in areas with an incidence of segregated schools more support. Arrange for support staff and strengthen collaboration with the social work field.
Strengthen preschool education in the wider area around the segregated schools. Attendance should be at least 90 %. Increase preschool capacities, lower costs for parents of preschoolers.
Increase the preparedness of principals, teachers and teaching assistants to educate pupils from a different sociocultural environment.
Provide all pupils a unified curricular foundation, but individualize the instruction of that content.
Limit the factors of a social nature which are impacting educational failure in the areas around the segregated schools (housing shortage and residential segregation, overindebtedness and other manifestations of instability).
Clarify the role and the scope of “special needs” education. Establish closer collaborations between local “special needs schools” and mainstream ones. Define the role of “special needs schools” as centers of methodological guidance. Limit the interlinking of the “special needs schools” and the “preparatory classes” in them.
