E THNIC ASPECT

framework and institutional context including formulating educational goals and standards, monitoring the extent to which they are being met, feeding back information to schools and teachers, and establishing rewards and support systems as appropriate”

(p. 280). The 2009 PISA study also indicated that the most important means of improving general school performance is helping poorly performing students and schools (OECD, 2009).

exist on the exact number of the Roma population as legal data collection on ethnicity is strictly limited (see details of this ethic issue in Section 3.2.7). The sources of data about the Roma population are representative surveys or censuses. The most recent census, the data of which have been published, was organized in 2001. Providing data on ethnic or national origin was voluntary and reflected self-identification. The categorization of the Roma in surveys depends on the social environments’

identification of their ethnic origin (Ladányi and Szelényi, 2000). Consequently, there is a significant difference between census data and survey data. In the 2001 census, the number of people who identified themselves as Roma was only 189,984 which is 1.86

% of the total population (Source: Hungarian Central Statistical Office). Surveys estimate the proportion of the Roma population to be between 5% and 6% (Havas, Kemény and Liskó, 2002; Kemény, 1996; Kertesi and Kézdi, 2005), which means that the estimated number or Roma living in Hungary is between 500,000 and 600,000 people. On the whole, Hungary’s population is decreasing and becoming older.

However, the number of Roma is increasing, and, more importantly for this study, their age composition is considerably younger than that of the total population.

The worsening economic situation of the Roma population can be linked to the change of the political system in 1989 and the economic transition. Since then, the proportion of the Roma considered to be poor has doubled (Ringold, Orenstein and Wilkens, 2005). Approximately one third of the Roma population is affected by extreme poverty, the majority live in urban ‘ghettos’ in cities or in small Roma villages, and the number of impoverished and deprived Roma continues to grow. The territorial distribution of Roma appears to be uneven, and differs systematically from that of the total population. The Roma are over-represented in underdeveloped, economically depressed areas of Hungary, especially in the north-eastern and south-western part of

the country, which have poorer access to jobs, (quality) services, educational and healthcare institutions (Kıszeghy, 2009). As the skin colour of the Roma is somewhat dark, they are occasionally referred to as “the blacks of Europe”, which compares them to the Afro-Americans living in the slums (Ladányi and Szelényi, 2004). However, in studies related to Roma issues, poverty and deprivation may be emphasized with the possible consequence that better-off Roma children are excluded from research.

A large proportion of children belonging to the Roma ethnicity can be regarded as socially and economically disadvantaged, which is further reinforced during their school years: initial shortcomings accumulate in education. Kertesi and Kézdi (2005) stated that two thirds of Roma students were disadvantaged, and two thirds of disadvantaged students were Roma in the schools under investigation.

Statistics show that the distribution of Roma children in educational institutions is different from non-Roma children. The proportion of Roma children in nursery schools is smaller and they do not attend regularly (Kende, 2007), although nursery schools must not refuse the admission of children with multiple disadvantages according to the amendments to the Public Education Act, 2003. The proportion of the Roma among school-age children has been increasing over the last few decades;

however, Roma children start school later and stay in primary school longer than non-Roma children and many of them do not even finish it (Babusik, 2003). Their drop-out rate is significantly higher, and they repeat a year more frequently. They are less likely to continue their studies in secondary education. Havas, Kemény and Liskó (2002) stated that most of them study in vocational schools without any chance of further education.

The rate of educational failure among Roma children is not the result of one single problem but many. They are challenged by numerous difficulties in the

Hungarian education system, resulting in unequal access to quality education. G.

Fekete, Hargitai, Jász, Szarvák and Szoboszlai (2006) stressed the following obstructive factors that Roma children are faced with in public education: inadequate conditions in relation to school facilities, equipment and buildings, substandard education, undemanding curricular goals at school, less qualified teachers, negative expectations of teachers, the inflexibility of the school system and a hidden curriculum. Massialas (2001) stresses that children of ethnic, racial, or linguistic minorities are frequently negatively affected by the hidden curriculum of the schools. The grading system, the standardized tests, the reward and punishment measures, the textbooks, and the school rules are all influenced by the hidden curriculum, which generally has an unfavourable effect on minority groups.

Some studies stress the role of racism and segregation in public schools, which might be present at all levels of the school system, and result in a fundamentally unequal educational model. Kertesi and Kézdi (2005) investigated the process of school segregation, when children whose families differ in socio-economic status or ethnicity are educated in separate schools or separate groups within schools. The free school choice system for elementary schools in Hungary reinforces segregation not only in bigger cities, but also in the provinces, as more well-off children leave the small rural primary schools and commute to a larger settlement’s school. As a result, the quality of education provided for the less well-off children declines. This plays an important role in the reproduction of social inequalities. The OECD (2009) also observed that the performance of students in urban schools is much higher than the performance of those in rural schools. This gap is so substantial in Hungary that it corresponds to two years of schooling.

According to research (Vágó, 1999), a large proportion of Roma children were labelled erroneously as children with special educational needs in the 1990s. However, Ferge and Darvas (2011) mention a positive change that from 2006 onwards more students with special educational needs have been taught in integrated classes.

Previously, they were often exempted from elective courses available in the primary school (e.g. computer science, swimming lessons, and so on). Importantly for this research, they were also often exempted from learning a foreign language, despite the fact that it is compulsory in primary schools. It can be interpreted as an example of serious segregation and a method of negative discrimination. Based on a research study conducted in 2000 (Havas, Kemény and Liskó, 2002), the above mentioned exemption was present in 13% of primary schools under investigation.

The segregation of Roma children may be present in foreign language education in primary schools. A large-scale study conducted by Havas, Kemény and Liskó (2002) pointed out that even the language choice of children is affected by ethnicity because in Roma classes the Russian language is taught and not English or German, as in mainstream classes. The authors suggest that the main reason was to provide more teaching opportunities to teachers of Russian who did not have other qualifications.

Moreover, Roma parents are less likely to protest against it.

Havas, Kemény and Liskó (2002) emphasized that teachers working with Roma children do not have adequate social sensitivity; moreover, their professional competence is lower than necessary. The reason for this lies in the fact that teaching Roma children is often seen as a ‘punishment’, and not as a new professional challenge.

A decisive factor in the case of minority children’s school performance lies in the teacher’s preparation and their selection of the right pedagogical methods. They emphasize the role of teachers who use rigid, old-style pedagogical models with the

lexical knowledge at the centre. These methods may not be suitable for culturally diverse children. This effect is more intense if teachers lack cultural sensitivity and openness. The qualitative research conducted by Nagy (2002) into general educational problems of Roma children also underlined the importance of the teachers’ personality and drew attention to the need for special teaching skills.

Defining ethnic identity by objective characteristics and operationalizing ethnicity as a theoretical term has been debated because Roma communities are not homogenous. Durst (2010) underlines that the “category of the Gypsy is itself a mere empty category which only acquires any sort of meaning through contact with non-Gypsies” (p. 19).

When discussing the question of whether the Roma problem is the result of ethnicization or social marginalization, social researchers use the concept of underclass:

An underclass is constituted by persons who are likely to remain unemployed and poor for their entire life because of their lack of education and marketable skills, and whose children are likely to be locked into a similar social position, thereby becoming separated from the rest of society as the ‘untouchables’, the ‘undeserving poor’, or the

‘no-hopers’. (Stewart, 2001, p.136)

In this approach, the significance of race appears to be weaker in relation to economic circumstances. It sees Roma issues not exclusively from the point of view of discrimination and racism. In the case of education, Roma children seem to have similar problems as non-Roma children of low social status. As a result, these issues are consequences of their social status rather than their minority status. This consequence had major effects on the sampling strategy of this research as it was considered more important to concentrate on the socioeconomic circumstances than on the ethnicity of the children.