ROMA EDUCATION IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
5.3 Adequate language support beyond Romani language teaching Insufficient knowledge of the language of school instruction is a barrier to equal education opportunities. While education policies and activism have focused mainly on Romani language acquisition, the importance of mastering the language of school instruction as a pre-condition for educational success has not gained much attention. That many Roma children have a limited command of the language of instruction, when entering school, has been noted in the Czech Republic (Hübschmannová 1979, p. 47). In Montenegro, a desegregation project failed because Roma children did not have sufficient knowledge of the language of instruction (Petričević et al. 2009, p. 25). In the Croatian Međimurje County, Roma children with a limited mastery of Croatian language are streamed into special classes, while Roma students who master Croatian according to certain standards attend regular classes (Novak et al. 2007, p. 18). Limited command of the language of school instruction might result from the fact that many Roma children learn the language of instruction as a second language, and from the fact that many Romani children live in poverty and a less supportive home environment. Language acquisition must be perceived as an important means of social mobility, and is thus a key to inclusive human development: “Speaking the dominant language of the country will make it easier to find a job and generally one would also expect that it would be a better paid job” (Rodriguez-Chamussy et al. 2012, p. 96). Figure 20 shows that 58% of Roma surveyed between 0 and 6 years of age live in households that indicated using Romani as a first language (L1), 18% of Roma between 0 and 6 years of age live in households that indicated to use Romani as a second language (L2) (sample average). The share of Roma infants and children that live in households that primarily used Romani at home is above 60% in Bulgaria and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and above 70% in Slovakia, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Moldova. As shown in Figure 20, a considerable number of Roma children who are going to be enrolled in school in the near future, or have recently been enrolled, are primarily socialised in Romani. In most countries of Central and Southeast Europe, more than half of Roma children between 0 and 6 years of age live in households that mostly speak Romani at home. The language needs of students that speak the language of instruction as L2 or L3 differ from language needs of students that speak the language of instruction as L1, and so do the necessary teaching responses. This has been acknowledged in many EU countries with regard to education of children and youngsters with migrant backgrounds, and in many other parts of the world where the languages of the former colonial powers serve as the main medium of instruction. Serbia is the only country where a curriculum framework to support Roma who learn Serbian as second language was developed (Filipović et al. 2010). Furthermore, language skills vary between children with different socio-economic backgrounds. Children from the middle class are more likely to master the academic
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