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Culture and the school: The degree of educational integration of Roma and Gypsies in the Peloponnese region of Greece

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Abstract

This article examines the degree of integration of Roma and Gypsy children in formal education in the Peloponnese region of Greece. It is based on field research conducted by the University of Patras during the school year 2006/07 within the framework of the Greek Ministry of Education’s “Integration of Roma children in school” programme, funded by the European Union. Despite governmental incentives for poor families to enrol their school-aged children, school attendance of Roma and Gypsy children was found to decline from primary year one to primary year six, with hardly any of them entering secondary school at all. Besides looking at school attendance figures and Roma and Gypsy children’s proficiency in reading, writing and numeracy, this paper also considers gender, family composition, living conditions and economic situation, as well as culturally constructed perceptions of childhood and a person’s life cycle. The aim of this article is to highlight the contradictions and ambiguities involved in the process of incorporating Roma and Gypsy children in formal education, and to evaluate their school performance and assess their academic choices.

Résumé

École et culture : le degré d’intégration scolaire des Roms et Gens du voyage dans le Péloponnèse – Les auteurs de cet article présentent le degré d’intégration des Roms et Gens du voyage dans l’enseignement formel de la région grecque du Péloponnèse. Ils se fondent sur une étude de terrain menée par l’université de Patras au cours de l’année scolaire 2006/07, dans le cadre du programme « Integration scolaire des enfants roms » du ministère grec de l’éducation, financé par l’Union européenne. En dépit des incitations publiques proposées aux familles défavorisées pour qu’elles inscrivent leurs enfants d’âge scolaire, il s’avère que la scolarisation des enfants roms et du voyage accuse une baisse entre la première et la sixième année de l’enseignement primaire, et que rares sont ceux qui accèdent à l’enseignement secondaire. Les auteurs examinent les chiffres de fréquentation scolaire et la maîtrise de la lecture, de l’écriture et du calcul chez ces enfants. Ils tiennent en outre compte de critères tels que le sexe, la composition de la famille, les conditions de vie et la situation économique, ainsi que les perceptions ancrées dans la culture de l’enfance et du cycle de vie individuel. Cet article vise à éclairer les contradictions et ambiguïtés qui surgissent au cours du processus d’intégration des enfants roms et du voyage dans l’enseignement formel, ainsi qu’à évaluer leurs acquis et choix scolaires.

Zusammenfassung

Kultur und Schule: Zum Grad der Bildungsintegration der Roma in der griechischen Region Peloponnes – Dieser Beitrag untersucht den Grad der Teilhabe von Roma-Kindern in der griechischen Region Peloponnes am formalen System der schulischen Bildung. Er basiert auf Feldforschungen der Universität Patras im Schuljahr 2006/07, die im Rahmen des vom griechischen Bildungsministerium initiierten und von der EU geförderten Programms „Schulintegration von Roma-Kindern“ durchgeführt wurden. Die Erhebungen zeigen, dass trotz staatlicher Anreize für einkommensschwache Familien, ihre Kinder zum Schulunterricht anzumelden, die Teilnahme der Roma-Kinder am Schulunterricht zwischen dem ersten und sechsten Grundschuljahr kontinuierlich abnimmt und nur noch sehr wenige Kinder eine weiterführende Schule besuchen. Neben Statistiken zur Unterrichtsteilnahme und Daten zu Lese-, Schreib- und Rechenfähigkeiten der Roma-Kinder betrachten die Autoren auch die Faktoren Geschlecht, Familienzusammensetzung, Lebensbedingungen und wirtschaftliche Lage sowie den Einfluss kulturspezifischer Auffassungen von Kindheit und menschlichem Lebenszyklus. Ziel diese Betrags ist es, Widersprüche und Unklarheiten zu benennen, die bei der Einbeziehung von Roma-Kindern in die formale Bildung eine Rolle spielen, und schulische Leistungen wie auch Bildungsperspektiven dieser Kinder zu bewerten.

Resumen

La cultura y la escuela: el grado de integración educativa de los pueblos Rom y otros pueblos gitanos en la región griega del Peloponeso – Este artículo se ocupa del grado de integración de los niños Rom y de otros pueblos gitanos en la región del Peloponeso, en Grecia. Está basado sobre un estudio de campo conducido por la Universidad de Patras durante el año escolar 2006/2007 en el marco del programa del Ministerio de Educación Griego titulado “Integración escolar de niños Rom2, fundado por la Unión Europea. Pese a los incentivos del gobierno para la escolarización de niños de familias con bajos recursos, la asistencia escolar de niños Rom y de otros pueblos gitanos, según se ha comprobado, va disminuyendo desde el primero hasta el sexto año de la escuela primaria, y muy pocos de ellos ingresan a la escuela secundaria. Aparte de considerar datos sobre asistencia escolar y capacidad de lectura, escritura y cálculo, los autores de este trabajo también tienen en cuenta el género, la composición familiar, las condiciones de vida y la situación económica, al igual que las percepciones, condicionadas por la cultura, sobre infancia y el ciclo de vida de una persona. Con este artículo, los autores se han propuesto resaltar las contradicciones y ambigüedades implicadas en el proceso de incorporar niños Rom y de otros pueblos gitanos en la educación formal y de evaluar su desempeño escolar y estimar sus elecciones vocacionales.

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Notes

  1. In this study, the terms “Roma” and “Gypsy” are employed to mark two main different strategies of self-appellation in both everyday and formal speech by the groups who took part in this research project. These diversified strategies of self-appellation need to be placed within a context of identity politics and politics of difference among these populations that takes into account both specific local circumstances and wider global mechanisms. Among these is the expansion of a global Romani political movement which promotes the use of the unified term “Roma” in conjunction with the increase of migrant flows of Romani-speaking populations (who have “traditionally” used the terms Rom or Roma to describe themselves) from the ex-Communist countries towards Greece since 1990. However, it should be noted here that even among the groups who use the terms “Roma” or “Gypsy” as self-appellation, there are other sub-divisions based on important cultural differences among these populations (in terms of language, religion, type of work or residence, etc.). The majority of Roma and Gypsies involved in this research comprised: a) the long-established populations of Roma and Gypsies in Greece which are bilingual (Romani and Greek-speaking) and Christian Orthodox, and b) Roma populations who have migrated recently from Albania to Greece. This second group involves either bilingual (Romani and Albanian-speaking) or trilingual (Romani, Albanian and Greek-speaking) populations.

  2. Similarly to Roma and Gypsies in other European countries (see for instance Guy 2001; Lemon 2000; Gay y Blasco 1999; Stewart 1997 and Okely 1983), Gypsies and Roma in Greece are divided into a variety of groups and subgroups, crosscut by a wide range of descriptive characteristics, such as language, religion, work patterns and patterns of housing, national affiliation (Greek, Turkish, Albanian, Romanian, Bulgarian), different levels of education and integration into wider society, etc. According to a survey conducted by the University of Ioannina, the vast majority of Gypsies and Roma in Greece are sedentary. The same survey demonstrated that 84.1 per cent of Gypsies are Christian Orthodox while 15 per cent of them are Muslim. Only 8.8 per cent of them do not speak Romani (Papakostantinou et al. 2004).

  3. Relevant websites are: http://edu.pep.uoi.gr/eekaae/ROMA/; http://www.pre.uth.gr/main/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=374:tsiganopaides-2006-2008&catid=35:epeaek-programs&Itemid=52; and http://isocrates.minedu.gov.gr/content_by_cat.asp?catid=231 (all accessed 15 December 2011).

  4. This programme was part of a wider national research programme which consisted of three different phases. Both the first (1998–2000) and second (2000–2004) phases were co-ordinated by the University of Ioannina. The third phase of the programme, which took place between 2006 and 2008, was co-ordinated by the University of Thessaly.

  5. Specifically, the research took place in the prefectures of Argolida, Arkadia, Achaia, Ilia, Korinthia, Lakonia and Messinia.

  6. These associates were mainly postgraduate students from the Department of Early Childhood education and the Department of Primary Education of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Patras. Most of the research associates accomplished their tasks as designated by their research team (such as, for example, regularly filling in the students’ files). Some of them provided the research team with additional material to that designated by the research team. There were a couple of associates who did not fulfil the requirements set by the research team and the research team decided to stop collaborating with them.

  7. These educators were educational directors of the prefectures, the directors of the schools participating in the intervention programme, the educators of the education support programme and the educators of the creative occupation programme.

  8. This is due to the fact that many of the registered students belonged to travelling or semi-sedentary Roma and Gypsy populations and travelled along with their families regularly. Most of the children coming from these populations either attended classes irregularly or not at all.

  9. The relevant official statistical data were more detailed compared to those of other areas because of a) the high density of Roma and Gypsy pupil population in the school of this area and b) the better collaboration between the project participants and local school authorities in sharing with the research team a wide range of official statistical data.

  10. These are reception and support classes added to the official school schedule, aiming to encourage and support the participation of three main groups of students in formal education: (1) returning migrants and immigrants, (2) the Muslim minority of Thrace and (3) Roma and Gypsies. The first reception and support classes were implemented by the Ministry of Education in 1983 for migrant children returning from countries such as Belgium and West Germany.

  11. Supplementary research on the students’ files conducted in the school year 2008/2009 in 11th Primary school of Pyrgos in the prefecture of Ilia, where almost two-thirds (66 per cent) of the pupil population were Roma, demonstrated the following: at the beginning of the school year, 71 Roma students were registered in all 6 years of primary school (38 Roma students attended classes in first and second year and 33 Roma students attended classes in the last four years). From those 33 students who had attended classes in the last four years, 7 later abandoned school or failed due to non-attendance or irregular attendance. By contrast, none of the 26 non-Roma students who attended classes in the last four years had abandoned school or failed.

  12. We assume that they are members of non-sedentary Roma and Gypsy populations.

  13. This practice is common, since irrespective of their performance grades almost all students of primary schools in Greece proceed to the next year. Only students who exceed a certain number of absences may not proceed to a higher year.

  14. Here the number of schools is 39 instead of 40, because the director of 1 of the 40 schools decided at this stage not to participate in the research.

  15. Based on OECD criteria; see www.oecd.org/edu/equity.

  16. The full name of this Ministry is “Hellenic Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, Culture and Sports”.

  17. As explained earlier in this paper, a family enjoying a “very good” or “good” economic situation has more than enough or enough income for housing, food and clothing; a family with a “fairly good” economic situation has just enough or a bit less than enough income for housing, food and clothing.

  18. According to Greek law [Act 3463/2006 (FEK 114/8-6-2006)], municipal responsibilities concerning education should be primarily confined to the organisation, construction and maintenance of the basic infrastructure (such as buildings) of the national system of primary and secondary education as well as the promotion of educational and cultural activities, etc. (Government of Greece 2006). A more recent law [Act 3852/7-6-2010 (FEK 87 Α)] has extended municipal responsibilities regarding education by including the supervision of the schools’ boards of parents, student transportation etc. (Government of Greece 2010).

  19. While there are Roma and Gypsy teachers and instructors who teach reading/writing/calculation (even in the Romani language) in schools in other European countries; mainly in the ex-Communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe, such as Russia and other countries of the former USSR (Crowe et al. 1996), there are no Roma and Gypsy teachers officially teaching in Greek schools.

  20. The allowance was officially offered to all poor families with an annual income of less than 3,000 Euros, including Roma and Gypsies. However, given the persistently high rates of illiteracy of Roma and Gypsies in Greece, one main incentive was to encourage Roma and Gypsy families to register their children in school.

  21. For this reason, the state changed its policy in 2010 (i.e. during the period of processing our research data), transferring the grant from the beginning of the school year to the end of the school year and only paying it if the school directors certified the children’s attendance. Many of the school directors who took part in our research reported that this change had become a source of constant conflicts and misunderstandings with the children and their parents.

  22. The prefectures of Argolida, Arkadia, Korinthia, Lakonia and Messinia, for which we have data for both male and for female students.

  23. This assumption is also supported by the findings of other ethnographically-based studies on Gypsies and Roma in Greece (see for example Vaxevanoglou 2001; Lidaki 1997).

  24. For more on this see Daskalaki (2003).

  25. Both boys and girls engage themselves early on in a long-term participatory type of training under marriage-like conditions. The premarital training involves processes of learning of gender-specific practices, such as the performance of domestic chores (e. g. cooking, laundry, childcare) and paid work, the management of the body and sexuality, the respect of kinship code through constant practice, etc.

  26. As other studies in Greece have also demonstrated, this perception is widely held by different Roma and Gypsy communities across Greece (for example, see the studies of Vaxevanoglou 2001, Vasiliadou and Pavli-Korre 1996).

  27. See also Daskalaki (2004) for the case of Greek-speaking Gypsies in Athens; Jordan (2001a, 2001b) for Travellers in Scotland and Okely (1997) for Traveller-Gypsies in Britain.

  28. These are variously orientated departments of mainly peripheral technological institutions with low rates of graduate absorption in the job market.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Patras, Patras, Greece

    Pandelis Kiprianos & Georgios B. Stamelos

  2. University of Crete, 50 Omirou Street, 171 21, Nea Smirni, Athens, Greece

    Ivi Daskalaki

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  1. Pandelis Kiprianos
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  2. Ivi Daskalaki
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  3. Georgios B. Stamelos
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Correspondence to Ivi Daskalaki.

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Kiprianos, P., Daskalaki, I. & Stamelos, G.B. Culture and the school: The degree of educational integration of Roma and Gypsies in the Peloponnese region of Greece. Int Rev Educ 58, 675–699 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-012-9326-0

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