THE PROCESS OF DESEGREGATION IN THE EDICATION IN BULGARIA
Brussels, 28-29.04.2006
Dr. Iossif Nounev, Ph.D.
State Expert at the Ministry of Education and Science
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.
By virtue of a number of historic factors and on the basis of the separate
housing from the near and more distant past, however, 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.
According to data of the Regional Education Inspectorates (REI), 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.
According to different sources (incl. from the REI) the total percentage of
Roma children encompassed in school at the said age is around 10%, which
means about 100,000 children.
According to the REI, during the 2004/2005 school year a total 30,421
children and pupils of Roma origin are taught in kindergartens and schools,
located on the territory of the larger separate Roma urban neighbourhoods,
acknowledged as such by REI employees and local municipalities. Of these,
2,464 are children in 24 kindergartens, and the remaining 27,957 are pupils in 65
schools at different levels.
According to expert data, some 45,000 Roma children are attending ethnically
mixed schools in the rural regions, in which there are single schools. A
characteristic feature of these rural regions, however, is that due to the migration
of the population of Bulgarian ethnic origin mainly to the big cities and less
abroad, they are left predominately with a Roma population and the schools with
a predominant number of Roma children.
The remaining 25,000 to 30,000 Roma children attend ethnically mixed
schools in the larger settlements and descend from families that are well
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integrated in Bulgarian society. They are not in need of special integrating
measures.
II. Political and administrative steps of the Bulgarian state for solving the
problem of segregation in the education of Roma children
In order to improve the educational level of children of Roma origin and
ensuring their access to mixed schools outside the Roma neighbourhoods, 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 and for not allowing the segregation of Roma children in
separate classes in the mixed schools.
2. In order to ensure real access for Roma children to all schools in any
settlement by residence, the compulsory division into districts for children at
enrolment in school was eliminated. Currently in force is only Article 9 (1) of the
Public Education Act which gives the parent/guardian the right to choose the
school which his child will attend.
3. An amendment to the Public Education Act for the purpose of better
preparing the Roma and Turkish children for school, introduced compulsory oneyear preparatory pre-school training at kindergartens or schools for all children
before enrolling in first grade.
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.
9. The municipalities which have schools only with Roma children, by virtue of
the conducted state policy, were obliged to develop their own plans on the basis
of the national ones 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 and to be responsible for
the implementation of the annual plans in this respect.
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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)].
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. In order to assist poor children, following a government decision, 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. For the first time Bulgarian legislation obliges the
Minister of Education and Science and the local government authorities to not
allow racial (ethnic) segregation in the educational institutions, and the heads of
these institutions to take effective measures to prevent all forms of discrimination
at the place of study.
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.
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.
On 27.04.2006 at meeting of the Council of Ministers was accepted and
regulations for the work of these centre. It’s awaiting in May to be complete the
appointments of director and five experts and in Junе to start its activity.
For its work until the end of the current financial year the MES has allocated
500,000 leva from its budget.
III. Results of the implementation of the Strategy for Educational
Integration of Children and Pupils from Ethic Minorities
1. Since 2000 the MES and REI are real partners of the non-profit
organisations and municipalities which launched 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. 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.
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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.
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.
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. It now has 31
members of whom: representatives of non-governmental organisations, working
in this area, of all large ethnic minorities in Bulgaria; representatives of the main
school trade unions; rectors of the universities who train teachers and employees
of MES who are responsible for the study of mother tongue, the desegregation
process and the overall integration 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.
Thanks to the work of this Council, in Bulgaria we now have all the abovementioned documents and the adoption was made possible of the cited steps
and the attainment of the envisaged progress in this area. In our opinion, 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.
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