Fighting Systematic Discrimination in Education

[Inkslinger03]

It's only discrimination if there are barriers in in the system. Previous posters have pointed out NONVERBAL tests where some Roma children scored low. That's not a language problem -- it could be a health or nutrition or attention problem, but it's not a language problem.

Tests to ensure a minimal skill level to learn from a particular level of education are not de-facto unfair - in fact that may be the fairest means to place students.

Look deeper! Find ways to help them to succeed.

[centrum99]

Good luck in your work! You will be busy until the end of your life!

[centrum99]

These children not only don't know Serbian, they don't know their own language either. Their parents are usually illiterate and have absolutely no appreciation of education (Save the Children, 2001, p. 164).

[Inkslinger03]

I can validate that observation (kids who don't know any language) from my work in California in the 1970's. We had many who were not bilingual, they were alingual. This was pointed out to me by graduates of Mexican Secondarios, not by Anglo academics, and then validated by observation and testing. Language must be cultivated in each individual.

[centrum99]

However, even for those children who speak Serbian as a mother tongue, the situation is similar, with most children falling rapidly behind in school. A neuropsychiatrist working with Roma children on a daily basis in

the Mental Health Institute of the Novi Beograd Medical Centre in Belgrade concluded that in general, Roma children, don't know the language, and score poorly on tests.

[centrum99]

Some observers attribute the poor education and low IQ scores of Roma to language barriers because many speak Romani, and to Roma culture, which has never produced a literary tradition. One survey revealed that

36% of the parents wanted their children to finish only 4 of the 8 obligatory grades of elementary school and that 18% were undecided on whether or not they wanted any education for their children (Save the Children, 2001).

Upward mobility is not seen as a priority for Roma...

[centrum99]

It reported that school psychologists who administered the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised found that Roma children averaged an IQ of about 70, which placed many in the retarded category.

Since they were not able to handle the curriculum, they were sent to special schools. Serbian psychologists consider the Roma population to have a high percentage

of pseudo-retarded children — children who score below the normal range on IQ tests but who are functionally normal in other ways.

[centrum99]

However, Bakalar missed the largest study of Roma in Slovakia (N=728), which was reported in the Raven's Manual for the Colored Progressive Matrices. It showed an IQ equivalent for 5- to 8-year-olds of 83 (Raven et al., 1995). Čvorović (2004) found similar results in the former Yugoslavia, where illiteracy among Roma is a major problem. According to the 1981 census, the number of

Roma without elementary school education was 80%; only 4% finished high school, and 0.2% college or university.

[centrum99]

The 89 Roma children averaged an

IQ of 80 (Verbal IQ=82; Performance IQ=80) and the 1357 non-Roma children, an IQ of 101 (Verbal IQ=101, Performance IQ=101). Bakalar also found that Gypsy educational achievement was commensurate, with 62%of Roma children attending special education schools in

comparison to 4% of the general population.

[centrum99]

...For example, Bakalar (2004) reviewed 10 studies in the Czech Republic and Slovakia with sample sizes that ranged from 33 to 178, with ages from 3- to 18-years, on both verbal and non-verbal tests, and with an IQ range of from 71 to 82 (median=75; mean=76). The

most comprehensive of these used the Czech version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III (WISCIII) on a epresentative sample of 6- to 17-year-olds in the Czech Republic.

[centrum99]

Quotation from Rushton, J. P., Cvorovic, J., & Bons, T. A. (2007). General mental ability in South Asians: Data from three Roma (Gypsy) Communities in Serbia. Intelligence, 32, 1-12:

"Although previous studies of Roma IQ have been

conducted — all on children, mostly on small samples

of unknown representativeness — they do consistently

show an IQ range of from 70 to 83 (Bakalar, 2004;

Raven, Court, & Raven, 1995; Save the Children,

2001)...