The Process of Desegregation in the Education in Bulgaria

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The Process of Desegregation in the Education in
Bulgaria

• Iossif Nounev, Ph.D.
• State Expert at the Ministry of Education and
  Science

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I. The educational situation with the Roma
children at the present moment in Bulgaria

• The laws in the Republic of Bulgaria, including
  the Public Education Act (PEA), ensure equal
  access for all children to education regardless
  of ethnic identity, religion or sex.
• In the segregated Roma neighbourhoods throughout
  the country 65 schools at different levels and 24
  kindergartens are currently functioning, in which
  Roma children from these neighbourhoods are
  educated.
• During the 2004/2005 school year, the system of
  public education encompassed a total 970,000
  pupils from the first preparatory class to 12th
  grade.
• The total percentage of Roma children
  encompassed in school at the said age is around
  10, which means about 100,000 children.

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• During the 2004/2005 school year a total 30,421
  children and pupils of Roma origin are taught in
  kindergartens and schools. Of these, 2,464 are
  children in 24 kindergartens, and the remaining
  27,957 are pupils in 65 schools at different
  levels.
• Some 45,000 Roma children are attending
  ethnically mixed schools in the rural regions, in
  which there are single schools.
• The remaining 25,000 to 30,000 Roma children
  attend ethnically mixed schools in the larger
  settlements and descend from families that are
  well integrated in Bulgarian society. They are
  not in need of special integrating measures.

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II. Political and administrative steps of the
Bulgarian state for solving the problem of
segregation in the education of Roma children

• The Ministry of Education and Science (MES) has
  taken the following measures
• 1. The MES has developed and adopted a long-term
  strategy and action plan for the gradual and
  complete elimination of segregated schools in the
  Roma neighbourhoods.
• 2. The compulsory division into districts for
  children at enrolment in school was eliminated.
• 3. It was introduced compulsory one-year
  preparatory pre-school training at kindergartens
  or schools for all children before enrolling in
  first grade.

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• 4. Early vocational training was eliminated and
  Roma children, just like all the rest, are taught
  according to uniform general education
  programmes.
• 5. In the segregated schools teachers without
  the necessary educational qualifications were
  removed.
• 6. The kindergartens and schools with a
  segregation problem and subject to desegregation
  were identified.
• 7. Receiving schools outside the Roma
  neighbourhoods in which Roma children are
  gradually being placed were identified.
• 8. The MES developed and presented to the
  municipalities recommended models for the
  desegregation of separate schools for Roma
  children in the Roma neighbourhoods
• .

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• 9. The municipalities were obliged to develop
  their own plans for the gradual taking out of
  Roma children from the position of segregation
  and situating them in mixed schools outside the
  Roma neighbourhoods.
• 10. The full actual closing of segregated
  schools with Roma children was launched. First in
  this respect was the regional centre Pleven.
• 11. The regional education inspectorates
  selected their own experts to directly deal with
  the integration of the Roma children.
• 12. The MES and REI directly consult the mayors
  and representatives of the municipal authorities
  that lag behind in the implementation of state
  policy and for observance of the Protection
  against Discrimination Act Article 29 (1).

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• 13. The specially trained so-called assistant
  teacher from the Roma community, who aids the
  easier adaptation of the Roma children in the
  mixed school, was introduced in the education
  system.
• 14. All children in preparatory classes at
  kindergartens or schools through to fourth grade
  receive free textbooks and free meals at school.
• 15. At the end of 2003, the National Assembly
  adopted the Protection against Discrimination
  Act.
• 16. The universities, which train teachers,
  introduced in their training programmes at the
  level of Bachelor and Master courses on
  intercultural education with a focus on the
  adaptation of the Roma children in a mixed school
  environment. At the Veliko Turnovo University,
  the speciality Primary Pedagogic with the Roma
  Language, for training teachers in their Roma
  mother tongue, has been functioning for the third
  year now.

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• 17. With decree No. 4/11.01.2005 of the Council
  of Ministers, with the MES was created a Centre
  for Educational Integration of Children and
  Pupils from Ethic Minorities, whose main aim is
  to accumulate funds from foreign and Bulgarian
  donors and with money from the state budget to
  assist the municipalities and non-profit
  organisations in the desegregation of Roma
  education. Unfortunately, the adoption was
  delayed of the decree for its organisational
  rules, which the MES developed and presented to
  the Council of Ministers. It is expected to be
  adopted by the end of May 2006 and for the Centre
  to start functioning in June. For its work until
  the end of the current financial year the MES has
  allocated 500,000 leva from its budget.

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III. Results of the implementation of the
Strategy for Educational Integration of Children
and Pupils from Ethic Minorities

• 1. A process of desegregation of schools for
  Roma children in Vidin, Stara Zagora, Montana,
  Pleven, Sofia, Plovdiv, Sliven, Haskovo and other
  towns across the country is functioning at this
  moment . More than 3,500 children of Roma origin
  were actually taken out of segregated schools and
  placed together with their Bulgarian peers to
  study in mixed schools.
• 2. A total 106 assistant teachers aid the
  educational integration of the Roma children in
  general education schools.
• 3. Over 2,000 teachers have undergone various
  forms of training for work with Roma children for
  their adaptation in an ethnically mixed
  environment.

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• 4. A deputy minister (Ms Mukaddes Nalbant) has
  been appointed in the MES to deal especially with
  the educational integration of children and
  pupils from ethnic minorities, including the
  process of desegregation.
• 5. There is a specialised directorate in the MES
  whose employees work on the integration of
  children and pupils from ethnic minorities.

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IV. Partnership of the Ministry of Education with
non-governmental organisations.

• Already in 2003 the MES created with its
  minister the so-called Consultative Council on
  Education of Children and Pupils from Ethnic
  Minorities.
• The main task of this Council is to develop and
  propose to the Minister of Education and Science
  drafts for documents and decisions in the area of
  educational integration of children and pupils
  from ethic minorities with a focus on the Roma.
• The partnership with the civic organisations in
  the Consultative Council is one of the most
  successful practices of the MES in the direction
  of providing an opportunity to these
  organisations to take part in the planning and
  taking of decisions which concern the whole of
  society.