The Right to Education for Every
Child:
Removing Barriers and Fostering
Inclusion for Roma Children
Feedback on Outcome Document
1
Structure of document: 6 problem
areas
Early education: access
Secondary and tertiary education: School & classroom
access to employment environment: quality
Monitoring discrimination Integrated education:
in education no discrimination & segregation
Appropriate financing:
abolishing wrong incentives
Process
Workshop discussions collected
Outcome document reviewed throughout Conference
Additional feedback received
electronically by June 10th
Document finalized June 15th
Document submitted for
adoption at the
Decade Steering Committee
meeting June 26th
Process
• Collected inputs from 8 workshops
• Task force (REF, UNICEF, Roma NGO
and MoE Serbia)
General impressions
1. There is huge experience gathered
on each problem area in each of the
Decade countries
– Visible progress in the way issues
addressed from launch of Decade 2005
– Quality of discussion in several
working groups was exceptionally high
– Stock taking of this experience was
overdue
– Sound basis for elaborating guidelines
and policies for future
General impressions
However:
Experience seems to be scattered across
• different countries
• different projects/programs
Too often, there is a policy– practice mismatch
• Policies are not informed by evidence
• Projects are not designed so that they can become
policies
• Some good practice that could be taken to scale are
not.
Hence better coordination inside countries and
between int’l agencies is desperately needed.
Need to share expertise and build capacity of
public administrations.
Impressions contd.
• Some issues remain unresolved
– explicit ethnic targeting or social
disadantaged or poverty
– data collection in terms identification
• Some issues not discussed
• Some new issues emerged
The Outcome Document
• There is a general consensus about
need for one document capturing all
recommendations
• The workshops produced rich inputs
for elaborating the document
– Specific thematic amendments were
suggested
– Overarching themes identified
Overarching themes
• Need to strengthen the rights perspective:
– Take anti-discrimination legislation seriously in
education and health
– Education/ awareness on human rights and the
rights of the child
– Develop bylaws, ensure inspection…,
– See financing in rights perspective
• We are now in a phase of ‘systemic
change’ , beyond ‘pilots’. The document
can help push governments towards this
agenda. Governments will need to set
priorities and identify costs of changes
Overarching themes
• Teachers at all levels
– Strengthen their capacities for working
in multicultural settings with sensitivity,
respect, and ability to recognize the
assets Roma children and parents bring
– Embed multicultural education in pre-
and in-service training instead of crash
courses or optional modules
– Put in place higher education policies
which will ensure teachers, educators,
mediators of Roma origin
Overarching themes
• The need for evidence to underpin policy,
measure progress and ensure accountability
• Partnerships have evolved. Still asymmetry,
especially participation of Roma in programme
design and decision making process. Critical for
progress.
• Many of the recommendations are about
developing good schools. Good schools are
good for Roma. There is also need, however, for
Roma targeted action which needs to be brought
out in recommendations
Overarching themes
• Solutions do not lie in education alone.
Education change needs to pull in changes
in other sectors
• Attitudes of the majority are part of the
problem. We don’t yet have the tools for
changing majority mindsets
• Each country needs to take responsibility
for finding local solutions based on shared
principles, good practice, and monitoring
progress.
Major Amendments to Text
Theme 1: Starting early and
fostering inclusion
• Highlighted the need to focus on the 0-3yr period,
as a foundation and the link to the formal system.
– This requires interministerial coordination ( Health,
Education, Social Protection…)
– Recognise that capacities different actors still weak
• Centrality of mothers empowerment, for her childs
development and her own life
• Challenge of the transition of services provided in
home to services in institutions ( steps in Roma
/Non Roma integration..)
Theme 2 : Ending segregation,
fostering inclusion
• Strengthen recommendations on need for
fundamental change in current system of testing
and placement of Roma children
• All Decade countries should take all necessary
legal, financial and administrative steps to end
segregation. With an ‘effective’ resourced plan
• But, different forms of segregation need to be
recognised and require different responses.
• Countries need to pay attention to building
political will.
Theme 3: Supportive Classroom
and School Environment
• Focus on whole school/school management not just
teachers
• Need to say something about policy/structural
incentives for new behaviors
• Draw out link to desegregation
• Should be more strategic; especially those areas
specific to challenges Roma face rather than general
‘quality schools’ issues
• Rights to learn in minority language need to be
observed (not optional)
Theme 4: Public financing of
inclusive education
• Education as an investment in social and
economic progress not an expenditure
• Ensure adequate public financing for pre-school
• Increase priority for Roma issues within existing
funding sources (budget, EU funds)
• Be cautious a bout demand-side mechanisms
(e.g., CCTs). They must not fuel
segregation/stigmatisation and must be
contingent upon addressing supply-side issues
2025
SCHOOL
Personal Social
regulated benefits benefits
teachers textbooks curriculum
equitable
assessment
financing management evaluation
Research
participatory
Development
accountable efficient Policies
18
The Way Forward?
• Please send your comments on the
draft Outcome Document and this
summary of the working groups to:
Aleksandra Jovic