Unit 6 Anti-discrimination and

educational policies and issues of racism

30 March 2005

Laura Laubeová

laubeova@fsv.cuni.cz

Unit structureEducational policies twds the Roma • European & international level • Case studies: WE – UK, CEE - CZ

Antidiscrimination, anti-racism• Reaction to anti-Gypsyism• Hancocks arguments cf. WB, UNDP…Role of ERRC – Special Remedy, Stigmata,

ECHR (Strasbourg)

Technical info for Friday field research - Kim

European level

EC EP 1984 (Liegeois: School Provision…)

Council of Europe: ECRI, FCNM, Roma and Travellers Division (1995), Specialist group MG –S-ROM (Migration Division), ERTF…

Recommendation No 4 on education of Romani children in Europe. 2000 (no 17, 2001 on employment; 2005 on housing)

International level- cont.

The Roma Education Fundhttp://www.romaeducationfund.org/

The Decade of Roma Inclusion (priority)

EUMAP Equal access to quality education for Roma

http://www.eumap.org/topics/minority/reports/roma_education/

WEWE - exclusion, separation, distance, margins,

ignoranceDebate on separate vs. mainstream education

provisionsTravelling population, incl. playground and circus

people, children provided with notebooks for their teachers

Separate and Equal, see USA Brown vs. Topeca Board of Education, 1954: the Supreme Court concluded that segregation had a detrimental effect on African American children, referring to a number of social research reports

UK

UK Thomas Acton Caravan schoolsAt present 93% children included, professional

service, e.g. • Cambridgeshire Multicultural Education Service-

Traveller Education Team• HMI - Arthur Ivatts• CERES- Traveller Education Centre ( Open

Masters Scheme – 5 Units)• OFSTED- David Gillborn

CEE

• CE assimilation, after 89 segregation• EE exclusion, segregation• Separate vs. mainstream

E.g. CZ: ERRC, Stigmata, ECHR case

Paradox of Romani minority schools (for mentally retarded)

HW: ERRC case study on education

Education and Roma in CZ

Push factors for systemic change:

• 97 Canada visa imposition

• EU accession

• Obsolete education legislation

Bratinka Report on situation of Romani Community, October 97 (out of 44 tasks 11 were for Ministry of Education) – Over two thirds of Roma children are in special schools (ss); 75% of children in ss are Roma  

Concept of Romani integration (7 April 99), adopted in 2000, reformulated "Conception on Romani Integration" adopted on 23 January 2002 ‑ no quota but equalising measures 

New Education Act (White Book) entered in force in Jan 2005Its impact was researched by the League of HR +ERRC, see e.g.Romano Hangos Vol.7, No 4, 10 March 05, page 1-2

Criticism by UN, EC, US government reports, international NGOs, etc.

• UN CERD (Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination) Concluding observations on CR, 1998, "de facto” segregation (article 5 ICERD not fully implemented)

• UN CERD 2000 Report on CR • UN CRC (Rights of Children) • UN HRC (Human Rights Committee) Concluding

observations, July 01, "to eradicate segregation of R.ch. in its edu...„

• EC Opinion and Progress Reports on CR

ERRC: Ostrava region, 27 times more in Special Schools, 5% population, 50% in special schools

Save the Children Fund: Denied a Future? (2001)

OSI, e.g. EUAMP

Role of NGOs

Achievements

   Romani teacher assistants (introduced in 1998), communication barrier, partnership teaching, small group work, contact with families, etc., not systemic, inferior status, no educated R. teachers, if not successful‑ blaming the victim

preparatory classes (since 1994)

   multicultural/ intercultural edu. programmes -NG0s (e.g. www.varianty.cz, campaigns, e.g. Be kind to your local Nazi), supported by Ministry of Education

  community schools, eg. field visit tomorrow

Threats:

     re-standardisation of psychological testing in the age of 6 - doubts about the concepts itself

     subtractive versus additive bilingualism, irreversible cognitive damage (abstract thinking concepts - Piaget)

     institutional, unwitting, indirect racism+ denial of racism

D.H. and Others v. Czech Republic

• first challenge to systematic racial segregation in education in Europe

• brought by 18 Roma children from Ostrava; placed in “special” remedial special schools (ss)

• 7 February 2006 European Court on HR ruled in favour of the Czech State (improvement)

• US Helsinki Commission report 21 Feb 2006• complaint filed in 2000 by ERRC - intensive

qualitative and quantitative research that revealed racial disparities.

D.H. and Others v. Czech Republic – ERRC research results

• Over half of the Romani child population is schooled in remedial special education;

• Over half of the population of remedial special schools is Romani;

• Any randomly chosen Romani child is more than 27 times more likely to be placed in schools for the mentally disabled than a similarly situated non-Romani child.

• Even where Romani children manage to avoid the trap of placement in remedial special schooling, they are most often schooled in substandard and predominantly Romani urban ghetto schools.

D.H. and Others v. Czech Republic – ERRC research results cont.

Standardized testing – used for placement in ss• generally takes place only after a child has already

been marked for assignment to remedial schools• the expert "test" is often a stamped seal on the

decisions of school directors who will not accept Romani children into mainstream, quality schools.

D.H. and Others v. Czech Republic cont.

• The children note in their submissions to the Court that assignment to special school forever relegates them to second class citizenship.

• Students in special schools receive a markedly inferior education.

• Most graduates are shunted into vocational secondary schools limited to training in basic manual skills.

• Few Roma attend university. • Romani unemployment rates in the Czech

Republic, as in much of Europe, far exceed those for the rest of the population.

D.H. and Others v. Czech Republic cont.

• Current educational arrangements in CR also entirely fail to prepare ethnic Czech children for life in multi-cultural societies.

• In Ostrava, the CR's third city, despite the fact that Roma comprise approximately 10% of the local population, more than 15,000 Czech children of primary school age attend school every day without meeting a single Romani classmate.

D.H. and Others v. Czech Republic cont.

• The 18 applicants in the case are represented by the European Roma Rights Centre and local counsel.

• In challenging their racial segregation, the applicants have asked the Court to find that they have been subjected to: degrading treatment (in breach of Article 3 of the Convention),and to denial of their rights to education – and racial discrimination in access to – education (in breach of

Article 14 taken together with Article 2 of Protocol 1).

Only the racial discrimination ground accepted by ECHR in 2005.

• Strategy for improving education of Romani Children by Ministry of Edu, 2001 (Strategie pro zlepšení vzdělávání romských dětí, verze 2001) http://www.msmt.cz

• Special schools cancelled -• New Education Act• Many international projects

P

C

S

Discrimination / Racism(s)

Racisms

• from violent attacks or scapegoating • to paternalistic crypto-racist assistance to m.• tendency to deny racism (unacceptable)

Two main meanings: 1) ideology (beliefs) about racial superiority2) “the whole complex of factors which produce

racial discrimination” and sometimes also “those which produce racial disadvantage”

Cashmore

Racism as ideology1. the so called “scientific racism of the 19th century”,

manifested for example in the publication by Herrnstein, Murray, 1995

2. “popular” racism or “common sense” racism that is based on ethnocentrism, a tendency to believe that one´s own cultural paradigm is universal, neutral and superior to any other culture

In other words…

Racism

1. denies all difference in the name of universality of the human nature, but unconsciously it takes back this universality to the dominant model;

2. uses the obvious differences to turn them into instruments of domination, exploitation, condemnation, exclusion, or extermination.

Racisms- cont.

PrejudicePrejudice DiscriminationDiscrimination InequalityInequality

„„RRacism, in short,acism, in short, involves involves (a)(a)stereotypes about difference and inferiority stereotypes about difference and inferiority (b)(b)use of power to exclude, discriminate, subjugateuse of power to exclude, discriminate, subjugate““

The Parekh Report, 2000The Parekh Report, 2000

AttitudesAttitudesBehaviourBehaviourStructuresStructures

Racisms – cont.

     

   

ExclusionExclusionDiscriminationDiscrimination

PrejudicePrejudice

Assimilation and Racism (Bauböck)

 

 assimilation is possible

yes no

assimilation is required

yes compulsory assimilation

racist double-bind

no pluralism segregation

 

assimilationist policies

inclusiveness

Assimilationist model

DIFFERENCE DEFICIT

ASSIMILATION   

COMPENSATORY PROGRAMMESDoes the individual fit

into the System or ‘Institution’?  

ASSIMILATIONASSIMILATION

Curriculum (Multiculturalism) model

Cultural Effects

 CULTURES

LIFESTYLES ATTITUDES

PLURALIST

TOLERANCE AND HARMONY Does the organisation of this ‘institution’

recognise Diversity ?   

PLURALISTPLURALIST

Equity/Rights Model

Social and Political Effects

 EQUITY PARTICIPATION

ANTIDISCRIMINATORY

LIFE CHANCESAre people enabled in this ‘institution’?

Do the structures allow for

achievement, growth and opportunities?

ANTIDISCRIMINATORYANTIDISCRIMINATORY

Technical/organisational for tomorrow

9 am. Andel metro station (the top of the escalator)9:30-10.20 Visit to Graficka School: Grafická 1060/13, Praha 5,

headteacher Ms Rosová 10:25 Meeting with Mrs. Regina Demeterova 11:00-13:00 Meeting with Mrs. Bozena Viragova, Romano Dives.  13:00 -14:00 De-briefing session

Please bring notebooks with you!