There is no doubt that in the Czech Republic there is a persistent and dramatic achievement gap in
education outcomes of Roma children and non-Roma children. This gap has its roots deeply embedded
in the characteristics of Czech educational system which is only now slowly transforming from
schooling of socialist era to the modern inclusive education. In this paper we will show what
changes has the transition of Czech society brought to the Roma in general and specifically in
terms of education. We will argue that unless particular major changes will be made, the Roma
children in Czech schools will be constantly failing and their overall position in Czech society
will be only worsening. The most important change is the uncompromising attitude against
segregation of Roma children that is far more serious than it is at present admitted by the
responsible authorities, because it is not connected only with placing of Roma children in special
schools intended for children with light mental disabilities, but mainly to their segregation in
the ‘Roma schools’.

Key words: Roma achievement gap, ‘Roma schools’, segregation, inclusive education

Introduction

Roma minority is, according to the qualified estimates, the largest minority in the Czech Republic,
however, minority rights of Roma people are difficult to claim, because officially only a very
small part of this group declared themselves to be Roma. On this basis of informality, Roma people
have been constantly discriminated in many spheres of their lives – one of them has been the
education of Roma children, which is widely criticised by non-governmental organisations or
European official authorities. Main reason for this lays in the importance of education for their
prospective higher education opportunities and employability. In this paper we will examine how the
Czech educational system just cannot cope with the otherness of Roma children and is punishing them
for that by placing them into the lowest-achieving schools. At the same time we will show that this
inability to cope with otherness has its roots in the socialist organisation of the education.

This study aims to explore the ways Roma children have been educated in the Czech Republic and to
analyse the underlying causes of constant underachievement of Roma children despite the various
efforts on the side of official authorities, law adjustments and pedagogical workers to support
these children and intervene positively in their educational outcomes.

What did the transition of Czech society brought to the Roma in general?

The Roma that currently live in the Czech Republic came to its territory shortly after Second World
War from the poor village areas of Slovakia to fill in free vacancies in the industrial area.
Majority of the original Roma living in the Czech Republic have been killed in Holocaust. Their
position in the Czech Republic, however, was not ideal even before this tragic event.

Shortly after arrival of Roma to Europe they started to be resented by the natives, partly on the
basis of violation of Christian morals and partly because of being considered to be Tatar and
Turkish spies (Fraser 1995). The worst time for the Roma in the Czech territory probably came with
the reign of Leopold I. when they were expulsed from the country and in addition to this, the law
was adopted which permitted the homicide of the Roma men. Their children were then given to ‘good
Christian families’ for the proper upbringing (Nečas 1999). The 18^th century is then connected
with forced assimilation during the reign of the Empress Maria Theresa; the only light moment about
this is that the Roma were also perceived as any other ordinary peasants and they stopped to be
persecuted. As peasants, however, they had to settle down and stop travelling for the living.

This forced settling down was made even more restrictive shortly before the Second World War, when
the registry of all the Roma living in the Czech Republic was written. As we have already
mentioned, almost all the Czech Roma were interned in the concentration camps and killed. After the
Second World War, Slovak Roma moved in abandoned houses in Czech borderland and city centres.
Partly this moving was motivated by the effort for better living conditions; partly it was the
organized state policy of Roma dispersion (Ringold 2000). Situation of the Roma minority in the
socialist era was quite difficult, because in the time of full employment all those who were not
working for any reason were considered to be the parasites and often imprisoned. If this was
relating to both parents in the family, their children were institutionalised in the educational
facility, because the environment of the family was not perceived as healthy for the growing up of
children.

After the revolution of 1989, the Roma were for the first time acknowledged as the national
minority. However, only the fragment of the Roma population has declared themselves as Roma and
therefore they could not claimed for any minority rights, e. g. education in their mother tongue.
Nowadays at least some associations and non-government organisations are aspiring to raise the Roma
culture and overall awareness of their customs and habits.

Another major change occurred in their employability. During the socialist era, many of the Roma
were employed in industrial jobs in state factories and companies. After the revolution, the Roma
were the first to be dismissed from their work not only because of diminishing number of manual
jobs, but also because of hidden racism that was present also during the socialist era, but could
not be shown. At present, the second generation of Roma children is growing up that haven´t seen
any of the close relatives going to work regularly.

 According to Frištenská (1999), after the revolution there also emerged interethnic conflict that
was caused by the fact, that Roma minority started to act like minority and had some minority
claims, which made them visible in the public sphere and also by the fact that some extreme
attitudes of non-Roma started to be more visible – the Roma were by them perceived through the lens
of stereotypes and prejudices like criminals, parasites and welfare-dependent people. Nowadays,
there is the effort of Czech government to regulate extreme attitudes and ethnic discrimination,
but this effort is strongly motivated by the pressure of the European institutions.

Interest of the European institutions in the situation of the Roma is another important aspect of
transition. After the opening of borders some Roma emigrated to Canada and to other Western
countries, where they were asking for asylum on the basis of racial discrimination they faced in
the Czech Republic. The situation concerning discrimination was then subject of many researches and
observations and in 2009 the research of FRA (Fundamental Rights Agency) found out that the Czech
Roma were the most discriminated minority in Europe.

All these aspects have been shaping the mutual relations of the Roma and non-Roma living together
in the Czech territory. Since their first arrival to Europe the Roma here were systematically
stigmatised, isolated and excluded. Their children were placed in special schools were they learned
significantly less than they would have learned in ordinary school, they did not come into contact
with children from the majority, and their life opportunities were dramatically abridged. It is
then quite understandable that they cannot see the possibility to succeed in the Czech society in
an ordinary way and are trying to find other ways of living.

Education of the Roma in the socialist era and before

Upbringing of the Roma children originally took place solely in the community and was happening
somehow unintentionally while doing all the everyday activities (Smith 1997). Roma children were
taught only what they needed to know in their closest environment, that means community. However,
nowadays in the Czech Republic traditional Roma communities have been loosen and therefore the Roma
today are not as much a subject of the strong social control that used to be present all the time
in villages, where they used to live before moving to Czech towns (Sekyt 2004).

During the reign of Maria Therese and her son Joseph, II., Roma children were subjected to
compulsory school attendance and also compulsory church attendance. Even though this was the time
of strong assimilation the Roma were living with their neighbours in peace and finally were not
persecuted. The Czech Roma gradually started to get used to the settled way of life, but this
promising process of integration was violently interrupted by the Second World War.

  After the War, the era of strong assimilation occurred again, despite the fact that this
assimilation was unconstitutional, because it was violating the condition of equality of all the
citizens, it was happening with unbelievable strength (Haišman 1999). The era of socialism was
characteristic with the effort to educate the Roma and to blur the ethnic differences in
Czechoslovakia. There was cruel campaign against travelling and also forced school attendance in
which parents saw no meaning for their children. In spite of the fact, that the overall literacy of
the Roma population rose, they were still educated in special schools designed for children with
mental and physical disabilities. Balabánová (1999) argued that the main reason therefore lays in
the fact that education in this time and during the socialist era was characteristic with the idea
of the standard school, which is predominantly inhabited with ‘average pupils’ and Roma children
have never fitted this model. Basic schools have counted with children that had mastered dominant
language before entering the school, children that had developed their willing abilities and that
disposed with supportive home environment. All the children that could not fit this model have been
to some extent disadvantaged, many were even shifted to schools with lower requirements on
knowledge and good manners.

Public social services, such as schools or social workers, then meant for the Roma only the way how
the majority tries to control them. As Ringold stresses it: ‘the forced and often repressive nature
of the integration campaigns fomented mistrust and tensions between Roma and public social services
(2000: 6).’ In addition to this, because of the fact that state institutions provided the Roma with
jobs, ensured their living and also necessary social care, the Roma fell in the trap of dependency.

Major changes in educating of Roma children in the last twenty years

During socialist era about 70 % of all Roma children were according to the qualified estimates
attending the special schools. This was mainly due to their supposed light mental disability, which
was in fact the combination of language barrier Roma children face when they first attend the Czech
school and of the lack of sensual incentives which is connected with the poor environment Roma
children are usually coming from. Nowadays, the situation is slightly better and according to GAC
(2009) about 28 % of Roma children are still educated in these special education facilities.

However, one major change has occurred with the new school law in 2005. Special schools were
abolished and replaced with ‘practical schools’, the amount of what children learn there is about
the same as in the former special schools. Special schools, however, were not acknowledged as
finished primary education; therefore the possibilities of subsequent education for their school
leavers were very limited. Practical schools are now by law understood as equivalent and fully
acknowledged type of the primary education – this theoretically means that any school leaver can
enter any secondary school, not only the vocational training like from the special schools. This,
however, really works only on theoretical level and it applies in a similar way to ‘Roma schools’
as well, because children there are often repeating grades and leaving schools even before
completing the school or have at best ambitions for the vocational training, because their
knowledge in the ninth grade equals to the knowledge of the pupils in the sixth or seventh grade of
the ordinary primary school or even lower.

The Czech educational system after 2005 gained new important element called Framework educational
programs for all the types of education. These programs are at present the only given documents
teachers and schools in general have to accept, when preparing their lectures and lessons. In
accordance with the framework program, schools and teachers are creating their own school
educational programs, while following the general framework given. Probably the most useful feature
of the framework educational program is its flexibility, which really allows the teacher to create
the lecture in a way that will meet the needs of all the children in the classroom. In practice,
however, this option is not used much, because it means much more work for the teacher.

In addition to this, there is a document called National Action Plan for the Inclusive Education
(MŠMT 2011) elaborated on the national level that clearly states what needs to be done in order to
achieve inclusion in the education. However, all documents are somehow declaratory and it is
difficult to get their ideas into practice. Generous projects from the European institutions are
helping in this effort a bit, but still the lack of finances is perceived by the teachers and
directors as the main problem and obstacle in achieving inclusion.

The educational achievement gap and its main causes

One of the most detailed researches on the educational trajectories of the Roma children (GAC 2009)
shows clear contours of their achievement gap. According to this research, about half of all the
Roma children are attending ordinary schools; about 28 % are attending ‘practical schools’ and
about 25 % are attending the ‘Roma schools’ (we will get to them later). Even those who are the in
mainstream education are relatively unsuccessful in comparison to their Czech school-mates:
according to the research of GAC (2009: 22), only half of Roma children who started their education
in the mainstream school will finish their compulsory school attendance with the same classmates
they started it. The rest will either be transferred to practical schools, or will repeat one or
more school years[1]. This research, however, wasn´t taking into account children that were
transferred to other ordinary schools, which in this context could have been ‘Roma schools’,
therefore the final number of Roma children leaving their original class for ‘worse’ may be even
higher. Moreover, the probability that Roma child will start his/her educational path in special
school (and then probably never comes to contact with the mainstream education and children from
the majority) is six times higher than is this probability for a non-Roma child (GAC 2009: 32).

One aspect of the achievement gap lies directly in the schools – practical schools and ‘Roma
schools’ are to some extent very similar to each other in terms of what and how children can be
taught. However, it is important to stress that the ‘Roma schools’ are designed for perfectly able
children, who are just accidently coming from socially disadvantaged environment and are
predominantly of Roma ethnic origin. The teachers in the Roma schools are coping with these two
characteristic in very unusual ways: they for instance have very basic expectations from their
pupils. The reason for this may be that teachers understand specifics of Roma children represented
by socially-disadvantaged origin, small interest in education and gaining new knowledge and
language barrier, as unchangeable and ever-lasting. Therefore their idea of success in educating
these children lies in e. g. children respecting at least basic rules such as changing shoes for
slippers, when they come to school; when teachers despite all the bad experiences with children
still like to go to work; when ‘weak pupils’ know how to read, write and count at least a little,
while the better students know something more, or even try to follow the primary education with
some vocational training. On the one side, this definition of success is probably necessary for
these teachers in order to feel successful, on the other side, it forms their expectations and
directly influences the way they are teaching the children.

One of the most important causes of the Roma achievement gap lies probably in the persistent
segregation of the underachieving Roma children. However, about half of the Roma children are
educated in the mainstream schools and still cannot succeed. The reason is that there are other
causes contributing to the low achievement of Roma children in the Czech schools as well.

Firstly, poverty and social exclusion determine what children know when they first come to school
in a significant way. Research undertaken by Ringold (2000) clearly shows that poverty of the Roma
population is different from the poverty in the majority: ‘Roma poverty’ is multidimensional, has
deep historical roots and it is constantly being enhanced by the vicious cycle of isolation and
stigmatisation. In accordance to this finding, concept of poverty is nowadays almost replaced with
the concept of social exclusion which is better describing not only vertical, but also horizontal
inequalities in societies. Despite of these conceptual differences, living conditions in both
situations are very similar. In the Czech Republic, about half of the Roma population lives in
socially excluded areas, which usually means that they are living at the edge of poverty – few
generations of one family in one- or two-rooms flat, sometimes without direct access to hot water
or toilet – with similarly disadvantaged people living in close neighbourhood. It is clear that
under these conditions, especially when parents have more than three children and older children
have to take care of the smaller ones, it is not easy to fulfil the obligations of school
attendance and home preparation. Children from poor families can be also more often sick and
therefore unable to attend the school regularly. At the same time they usually have worse access to
institutions that could help them to eliminate their social disadvantage and therefore they are
often starting their school life in special education schools instead of mainstream schools. Biro,
Smederevac and Tovilović (2009) revealed that poverty also significantly influences the results of
these children in intelligence tests (not only the educational outcomes), which are significantly
lower than the outcomes of the middle-class children. The main problem, however, lies not only in
insufficient cognitive stimuli, but also in the inability of parents to help their children. On the
one hand, they don´t know how to help, because they usually have at best finished basic or special
schools. On the other hand, in the environment of poverty education never played a crucial role in
the story of life success.

 Secondly, the education of the Roma children can be also complicated by the characteristics, which
are considered to be part of the Roma cultural heritage. The nature of Roma family is for instance
in clear conflict with the ability to achieve individual success, therefore the individual effort
put into higher education is perceived as pointless and fruitless (Jakoubek 2009). Individual
success is viewed as endangering for family solidarity and because of that family is providing
almost any support to those trying to get out of the exclusion. In addition to this, every income
that one gains is shared among the broad family and the efforts put into education or work are then
not adequate to the gains one gets in the end (Steiner 2004).

Thirdly, language barrier stands as almost impassable obstacle on the way to better educational
achievement. According to observations, Roma mothers do not talk directly to their children when
they are very small as do non-Roma mothers. Říčan (1998) explains this with firmer bonding of
mother and child and with their ability to understand each other without verbal communication. In
addition to this, almost any Roma in the Czech Republic are not teaching their children Romani
language, because they don´t want them to feel excluded. Then they are trying to teach them the
Czech language, but the Czech they know is the language of the working class mixed with Roma
phonetics, pronunciation and grammatical models (Hübschmannová, 1998). The result of this is that
Roma child first coming to school (meaning often first close encounter with the non-Roma
environment) is not able to speak neither Czech, nor Romani, because nobody has talked to them
since they were babies. The problem of Roma children is not bilingualism or not knowing the
dominant language, but the fact that they do not know any language they can be taught in^^[2]. In
the past, life in their community was accompanied by telling stories and tales, through which
children could easily enrich their vocabulary at least in their mother tongue, however, this
opportunity has slowly disappeared.

All above-mentioned factors lead to poor educational outcomes and to the fact that many of the Roma
children either start or at one point of their educational path continue in special schools or
‘Roma schools’. Both types are unable to provide equal education to the mainstream schools or
develop children´s individual potential in a way that would make them able to succeed in the labour
market competition (Hůle 2007). Interesting is that at both types of schools teachers and directors
are convinced that this type of education is the best what can be offered to the Roma children.

Segregation as the main problem of the Roma education

As we have shown there are two types of schools which are providing inadequate education to the
Roma children. First we will have a look at the practical schools and then at the Roma schools,
which share some really unexpected similarities, especially when we take into account, who they are
designed for.

  On the one hand, these special schools were meant to help the children to experience at least to
some extent the feeling of success, because the curriculum there was abridged and with small number
of children in one class it was easier for a teacher to pay individual attention to each child. At
the same time, this kind of schools was also preferred by the parents of Roma children, because in
these schools they were only little taken as responsible for their child´s education and home
preparation, or they themselves could also have their experience with this school (Klíma 1997).
However, both of these statements can be held true also for the majority of ‘Roma schools’.

The basis of the program in practical schools is not in knowledge, theory or curriculum. This
program is oriented on activity in the classes and practical use of acquired knowledge in everyday
life. At the same time, successful school leaver should have basic general knowledge, he should be
able to express himself clearly in a written as well as in a spoken way and he should be enough
manually skilled (Krupa 1997). At this place we need to stress that special or practical schools
are designed as schools for children with light mental disabilities, therefore the expectations
from them are so basic.

Majority of the contemporary ‘Roma schools’ started like any other ordinary basic school, the only
problem was that they were located in the area with the majority of Roma inhabitants and when the
share of Roma children reached about 40 % of the pupils´ population, school experienced ‘white
flight’ as we know it from the American experience in connection to African-American neighbourhoods
(Kahlenberg, 2001; Schwab, 1992). It means that only those who can afford to commute with their
children to a further place from home or can afford to move out from the neighbourhood completely
can leave unsatisfactory school. The rest just has to put up with the changes and try to survive
till the child´s compulsory education ends. On the one hand, teachers in ‘Roma schools’ are
complaining about majority leaving, which is according to them deteriorating the overall quality of
the education. On the other hand, they alone claim that they would never put their own child to
this school and even when they have the Roma assistants at school they have put their children to
other basic school. This means that teachers are aware of the poor quality of education they are
offering to Roma children, but still feel that it is not in their power to change it.

‘Roma schools’ are not only similar to practical schools, they are also similar to so called
‘high-poverty schools’ (Donovan, Cross 2002; Kahlenberg 2001) This type of school is ‘marked by
students that have less motivation and are often subjects of negative peer influences; parents who
are generally less active, exert less clout in school affairs, and garner fewer financial resources
for the school; and teachers who tend to be less qualified, to have lower expectations, and to
teach watered-down curriculum’ (Kahlenberg 2001: 47). All these can be held true also for the ‘Roma
schools’ in the Czech Republic. The socioeconomic makeup of schools directly influences the
dynamics of the educational process and the goals that teachers set for themselves and for the
pupils.

However, there is one major difference between ‘high-poverty schools’ and ‘Roma schools’: the
problem with lack of finances is not so visible, because ‘Roma schools’ are usually very well
materially and personally equipped – they are using the maximum of possible projects from Ministry
of Education, European Social Fund or municipalities (GAC, 2009). Many of these projects are
labelled as if they were supporting inclusion and inclusive schools; unfortunately, in reality
there is really only little of inclusion in this type of schools. Usually the money received is
used not for supporting inclusion, but for employing more teachers, for providing better
psychological counselling and reducing the number of children in the classroom. This all may be
improving the performance of Roma children at schools, but still has nothing to do with inclusion
(at least until the expectations and curriculum will not equalize with those in the mainstream
schools).

The study of Roma child´s educational trajectory (GAC, 2009) states that Roma children in ‘Roma
schools’ tend to repeat the grade less often than Roma children in the mainstream schools and it
explains this with higher motivation of the teachers to work with this kind of children: they want
to devote their time and effort to these children, cooperate with non-governmental organisations
and support the activities which are eliminating their handicaps. Some teachers in ‘Roma schools’
felt that the education of Roma children is some kind of a mission in their lives, but at the same
time they argued that the grades the children are getting in their school are better than they
would get for the same educational achievement in the mainstream school (because teachers are
satisfied, when children know less than is usually expected from children of the same age). They
are not looking for the ways of eliminating social handicap, but instead they are downsizing taught
curriculum and own expectations according to supposed children´s abilities. This is probably the
cause, why children are repeating the grades less often in ‘Roma schools’ than in the mainstream
schools.

Segregation in connection with social exclusion adds to the problem of education another dimension:
Roma people after being excluded to abandoned neighbourhoods lose almost all the contacts with the
Czech majority. This fact enhances stereotypes and prejudices at both sides. The Roma understand
their situation as unchangeable and abandon any values which are dominant in the mainstream
society. Říčan (1998) states that therefore the Roma developed identity of victims and
misunderstood people, identity of being hurt and identity of majority confrontation. If the
attitude of the Roma is so hostile, then it is transferred to their children and must be reflected
in the educational process.

How to achieve inclusive education?

The main problem in educating Roma children probably lies in the wider setting of the educational
system. As Balabánová (1999) states the mainstream Czech schools are expecting ‘average children’
and everyone who is deviating to any side of this average is understood as disadvantaged. This does
not necessarily mean that the talented children will face some serious difficulties in the
mainstream school, even though it can happen that they will be bored and punished for any
disturbances they cause; for sure it means that their potential will not be fully developed, unless
they meet a teacher, who is willing to prepare special tasks for them. The truth is that every
child with special needs needs some kind of a special care, which can be provided for example by
the assistant, or a second teacher in a classroom, if one teacher is not capable of preparing two
or three types of lectures.

Teachers in ‘Roma schools’ are convinced that they are providing the Roma children with the
accepting environment that is allowing them to experience the feeling of success and being majority
for a change. In addition to this, events supporting and strengthening the Roma culture, such as
dance and singing performances are more frequently organised in ‘Roma schools’ than in the
mainstream schools. Teachers are often to some extent providing the parents with basic social
guidance as well. Despite this, the self-perception of the Roma children, feeling of their own
importance and meaningfulness of gained knowledge would have been strengthened, if they had a
chance to get to know something more about their origin or even learn the Romani language.
According to Mann (1992), Roma children are at school taught about alien history, alien writers and
alien cultural norms and values and therefore they cannot be interested in what they are learning.


We have shown where the most serious difficulties in educating Roma children come from. It is for
certain, that the part of the educational failure lies in the small importance of education for
Roma in general, however, the bigger part of this issue is dependent on the Czech educational
system and the opportunities that Czech society offers to Roma as a whole.

A lot can be improved with uncompromising approach to segregation of any kind, especially the
segregation in ‘Roma schools’, which is in general considered as harmless. As we tried to stress,
the ‘Roma schools’ are not offering any better opportunities in next professional carrier than the
special or practical schools. It would definitely be helpful if Roma children had the opportunity
to be educated in their own language or at least had a real chance to improve their Czech to the
level so that they can be educated in it. Firstly, to be able to exercise any changes, we have to
stop constructing the educational failure of Roma children and try to understand the way they feel
in our schools, which for them are usually completely strange and new environment. Secondly, there
should be some respect for their cultural specifics not only in what they are taught, but
especially in how they are taught. Thirdly, if we are not able to change the Roma and practical
schools into inclusive schools we should at least stop to expect less from these children, because
the majority of them is able to learn as much as the non-Roma children, maybe they need only little
more time or different teaching methods. Finally, individual approach to each child and his family
as a whole is probably key to success, because then we can concentrate on any specifics that are
needed to be resolved and educate the child in a responsible and a meaningful manner.

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[1] The same applies only for one of ten non-Roma children.

[2] Lazarová and Pol (2002: 11) estimated that Roma child coming to school possess the vocabulary
of 400-800 Czech words, while at the same time Czech child possess the vocabulary of 2000-3500
words. If we considered the fact that Roma parents are not talking to the children much, we cannot
expect their Romani vocabulary to be any richer.