Achievements

D6.6. First policy brief

This Policy Brief provides a short overview of the results of a survey of institutions and settings for disadvantaged children in Inclusion4Schools project partner countries, Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary and partly Slovakia. This document will mostly focus on the parallels and similarities revealed by the survey since these findings can serve as a basis for elaboration of common policy suggestions in the future. The survey took place in the framework of Task 1.2 of the first work package of the project, from January to October 2021.
The selection of the institutions and communities was carried out in several stages and using a wide range of data. We had undertaken to visit at least twenty schools in each country with whom we would like to establish contact and intensify our cooperation in the coming years.
Current legislation prohibits all forms of school segregation in the four countries studied. Nevertheless, we find a significant number of schools everywhere affected by segregation. The main reason for this is that the economic backwardness of some areas is accompanied by social decline, with the poorest groups in society settling in the backward areas, among whom the Roma are strongly over-represented. Paradoxically, the segregated schools do not have a different curriculum from other primary schools, as the targeted countries do not recognise the fact of educational segregation itself, nor do they consider these schools to be special, unlike, for example, ethnic minority schools or special education schools. Therefore, the topic proved to be quite sensitive, so we had to design our tools very carefully.
Tools of data collection included: use of official education statistics in order to get a complete picture of the existence, quality and applicability of indicators measuring the social background of students in each country; online questionnaires – one to survey schools, one to survey municipal leaders (mayor’s offices, municipalities) and one to survey NGOs; personal interviews carried out either in face-to-face meetings or by online video chat and an attitude test focusing on three dimensions – attitudes towards social change, attitudes towards Roma and attitudes towards the community.
Results were expected and monitored closely. In Albania and Bulgaria several schools were contacted, mostly via phone and some in person. In Hungary, due to the passivity of the institutions the survey was sent out to all recipients again starting from 20 April. Later 150 schools in Hungary were contacted by phone too, to have more results. In Slovakia only a small number responded and it is still to be clarified if this passivity is a result of distrust in external institutions or a scepticism based on previous unsuccessful attempts to solve their problems.