Equal Access to Quality Education for Roma: Volume 1

This set of monitoring reports about 'Equal Access to Quality Education for Roma' is published by the Open Society Institute's EU Monitoring and Advocacy Program (EUMAP). The first volume of reports focuses on Roma and education in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Serbia. A second volume of reports will cover Croatia, Czech Republic, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, and Slovakia; all of them are countries involved in the 'Decade of Roma Inclusion, 2005-2015'. The 'Decade' project is an effort of these governments towards changing the social exclusion of Roma in 4 areas: education, housing, employment and health care. These volumes monitor exclusion of and discrimination against Roma children in schools.

The monitoring project on Equal Access to Quality Education for Roma was established in 2005, and follows up on previous EUMAP reports on Roma in eight Central and Eastern European countries (2001-2002) and on individual issues like the local implementation of the Romanian Government Strategy for the Improvement of the Condition of Roma (2004) and the situation of Sinti and Roma women and girls in Germany (2004). The monitoring concentrates on primary and secondary education (up to age 18), but also assesses pre-school education.

Each country report in Volume 1 contains a set of specific recommendations for national governments, local authorities, intergovernmental bodies and other actors focused on improving the access to quality education for Roma.

There are seven main parts to each of the country reports, as follows:

• Section 1: Executive summary and recommendations.
• Section 2: Education indicators including data on school enrolment and retention of Roma students.
• Section 3: Review of governmental policies and programmes on Roma, and their state of implementation, in particular with respect to the “Decade of Roma Inclusion”.
• Section 4: Constraints preventing Roma from fully accessing education, including segregation, costs, language, placement, and legal requirements.
• Section 5: The education that Roma receive and barriers to quality education.
• Annexes include educational administrative structures, case studies, legislation cited in reports, and a bibliography.

A hard copy of Volume 1 is available through the publication order form or by email: eumap@osi.hu