Roma in Serbia: Introducing Romany Language and Culture into Primary Schools

Roma communities throughout Europe suffer systematic racial discrimination. Their language and culture has been marginalized, with schooling that is insensitive to the best interests of the child, hostile to the Roma language and culture, and with Roma children facing prejudice from classmates and teachers.

Many Roma children do not attend school; most of those who do attend, however, drop out before the end of primary (elementary) school. In Serbia today this problem is compounded by the recent wars; growing poverty; the placement of many Roma children in special schools; and the almost total disregard of Roma language, culture and communities.

Nevertheless, many of the issues in this study are common to the education of Roma throughout Europe and the lessons from our research may have much wider implications.