Roma people in Bosnia and Herzegovina

„Integration of Roma Children to the regular system of education - situation in BiH” Ph. D. Medina Vantić-Tanjić

Roma people in Bosnia and Herzegovina In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the first official mention of Roma people dates from the sixteenth century. The accurate data about the sub-ethnic structure and geographical division of Roma people in Bosnia and Herzegovina is not available. Due to lack of the relevant data, it is believed that the most of Roma people in BiH were “Khorkhana”, Muslims by religion who lived on the brinks of cities such as Sarajevo, Tuzla, Bijeljina, Zvornik and Brcko in the war-time period between 1992 and 1995. Smaller group of Serbaya Kalderash, originally from Romania and Orthodox by religion, used to live in the region of Banja Luka. Other Roma communities immigrated to Bosnia and Herzegovina from Kosovo and Macedonia before the war. PROMJENE U TERMINOLOGIJI

Comparing the numbers of Roma people who left Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war to the number of those people who returned, only the smaller number returned. Before the war, majority of Roma people lived in the eastern Bosnia, which is Republika Srpska nowadays. Today, most of Roma people live in Federation BiH, in the parts of northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Tuzla Canton and in the middle Bosnia (Sarajevo, Zenica). The last revision of citizens in Bosnia and Herzegovina was conducted in 1991. According to the results, the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina was 4 377 033, and 8 864 of this were the Roma people which was 0,20% of the total number of BiH population.

The UN Development program estimates that among 40.000 and 50.000 of Roma people live in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the Roma Council BiH says that among 80.000 and 100.000 of Roma people actually live in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although we live in the 21st century, we can see that Roma people’s rights are the most violated ones in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The most of BiH Laws and Bosnian Constitution speak about equality and respecting the rights of others, but in practice the story is completely different. “In the real life, we are still not ready to break the shell and enjoy the core.”

The consequence of this superficial behavior is a marginal position of Roma people in Bosnia and Herzegovina and elsewhere in the Balkans and Europe. Among others, The UN Development Agency confirmed this. The Agency conducted a research in 8 southeastern countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia in October 2004. The findings pointed out Roma people’s dramatic way of living and that they are barely making the end meet with only 1,60 dollars. The poverty also brings into a focus and other two, very important parameters of endangerment when it comes to Roma people’s lives: education and the health care system.

The problem of involving and keeping the Roma children at school is a common problem in the whole southeastern Europe. The findings of aforementioned research actually show the shocking facts that less than one fifth of Roma children do not attend elementary school. The findings of this research also show that three thirds of Roma women do not complete their elementary education. This condition turns lots of Roma children into beggars, because the Roma people cannot afford to pay their children'seducation.

And when we talk about discrimination and integration of Roma people, one should consider the fact that these people were mostly exposed to negative discrimination and that integration actually meant assimilation. Considering the existence of a positive discrimination in the society, it is obvious that the basic approach to Roma people needs a strategic reversal. Every state institution need to work towards positive discrimination and a complete assimilation of Roma people into the society. One of the key problems is (not) integrating the Roma people into educational system. «Roma people are in the magic circle of poverty - they are not involved in the social division of work due to the lack of education, and they are not educated because they do not have necessary conditions for schooling. In order to get a steady job, like other people, Roma people as well need to finish at least the elementary school which is impossible for them. This is the point when we go back to the core of the problem» .

Until recently, BiH educational system did not define the integrational approach to education and it did not train the institutions to be organized and have clear objectives, so there is no adjustment to the needs of children and their families. Unlike other groups with special needs, which are integrated into special institutions or programmes, Roma people are especially neglected when it comes to the involvement into these kinds of groups. There are no developed programmes adjusted to the special needs of Roma community, and a teaching staff do not possess the necessary knowledge about culture and problems of Roma people, because they did not receive a proper training in these fields during their college studies. Also the organizational forms of work suited for Roma people are not developed, because Roma suburbs are physically distant from the educational institutions.

Educational institutions are closed for Roma people and often in an implicit manner they develop demotivating mechanisms which remove Roma children from the educational system. There is a smaller number of children who are still being tested for the enrollment to the first grades of elementary schools. These children are often directed to special schools where they receive poor quality education. Unfortunately this devastating situation goes in favor to these schools which work more easily with children who have “normal” abilities and their parents, because some of them work on the principle of boarding schools, which provide students with free meals, textbooks, clothes and shoes. In these institutions Roma children often feel safe, because they are surrounded by people who protect them and accept them, and because they are majority in the places like these. Compared to compulsory schools, these schools have a shorter and simpler curriculum, the methods and low expectations from the students do not match their abilities.

Pseudo-undeveloped Roma children cannot develop their natural abilities and they are labeled as special-needs children for their entire lives. With their awarded diplomas, they do not have necessary abilites for further schooling and this directes them to simpler jobs which are below their abilities, underpaid and unappreciated. Roma children who attend regular educational institutions do not receive quality education like their peers, because the schools did not develop any program,ess - such as compensatory, specialized programmes, school preparations etc. – to help Roma children develop their abilities. In their programmes, schools did not plan methods of work fit for Roma children and they never made any collaboration with Roma families and communities necessary for involvement and successful education of children.

Teaching staff does not have a necessary knowledge, and is not motivated enough and does not have the support of educational institutions and systems for additional efforts to improve their qualities in work with Roma children. Children and teachers abandon schools with Roma children as a dominant group and that is why the quality of teaching suffers in quality. Teaching staff is highly demotivated because teachers are under a lot of pressure form the dominant communities and families of other children. Roma children do not go to school on regular basis because they are not motivated. They do not understand the language in classrooms and they do not have necessary knowledge for learning. Due to lack of other children-related programmes which would encourage Roma children teaching process, the school curriculum is often not entirely realized with this children.

Teachers are aware that Roma children cannot achieve the same degree of knowledge as other children, so they lower the criteria for them. By doing so, teachers try to motivate the children and make them stay at schools and they also protect their professional reputation. The lower standards of teaching process enable children to receive elementary school diplomas, but that is insufficient for their future education because these children do not possess necessary knowledge for secondary-school enrollment. That is why Roma children choose schools which have lower educational standards and which do not require enrollment exams. Due to general intolerance towards difference, lack of personal contacts with Roma people, knowing nothing about their history, tradition and culture with growing rate of nationalism in the recent years, majority of people in Bosnia and Herzegovina have stereotypes (positive and negative) and prejudices against Roma people. Roma people lifestyle is seen as a consequence of cultural and ethnical system of values, and not as a result of poverty and marginalization.

When they try to be involved in life (education, work, management) most of these people are exposed to discrimination and other communities distant themselves. There are no Roma person who did not encounter any form of discrimination: inability to get a job even when they have necessary qualifications, difficulties in realization of their rights, lack of help from local institutions, degrading, verbal and physical abuse, abusing by the police, severe punishments for minor offences. In educational institutions, Roma people are often exposed to various forms of discrimination from teaching staff, school management, children and their parents. Most of these discriminations are negative and they are reflected in Roma students’ sitting alone in the last row, negative attitude from teachers and parents, other children’s rejection to socialize with Roma children accompanied with physical and verbal abuse.

Even the most difficult forms of rights violations were not familiar to public and properly sanctioned, because there is no system which could act preventively and help the parents to get justice they seek. Roma community did not have the power to influence this, the local institutions were not interested in helping them even when they received the complaint, and educational institutions always tried to protect their reputation. Roma youth and children along with their parents do not feel accepted and welcomed in the educational institutions, which lowers their learning motivations, and often parents do not allow children going to schools because they want to protect them which is seen as the lack of interest for the children and education. Education represents the critical element in a short-term, mid-term and long-term programmes which help the developmental abilities of Roma people and should be considered as a priority. Political initiatives in the field of educations often do not represent the multi dimensional view of this problem.

The Educational policy should be based on two principles: Integration and Participation. Integrated education should be seen in the light of the best – if not the only – way of equalizing Roma children’s ability in the long run. Change of “special schools system”, which carries the series of obstacles for integrated education, represents another area that needs a serious effort when it comes to including Roma children into compulsory education.

When it comes to interpretations and understandings of Roma students’ falling behind in the school system and possible solutions to the problems, there are many opposing attitudes. But in the core of every opposing attitude there is a unanimous point of view when it comes to specific demographic and ethnic characteristics and generally poor life conditions for Roma people. Educating Roma youth only in the recent years has become the interest of entire community. This activity is marked as bipolar: form one side, this process is conditioned with the intensity and quality of social, political, administrative and other qualified efforts and from the other side Roma people themselves accept and want to use the offered social activities as means of their progress.

Roma people are marginalized and put on the edge of society when it comes to any possible characteristics, from social opportunities, employment, financial opportunities to the school system. But the society has an obligation of providing every its citizen a good opportunity. If we talk about education, then society, and it means we talk about an organized system – in this case Ministry of education, culture and sports – which has to provide every child the opportunity of having the equal education like every other child in the world. BiH Constitution states this, BiH Laws and declarations signed by Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is not a lip talk, it is something that needs to be realized by the local institutions.

Roma children want to go to school and their parents want that too. They want their children mingling with other children. Roma people want their children to be treated like any other child. Here we have a natural human need. When you see hundreds of Roma children, you get the same impulses a person has when he/she sees any other children aged six or seven. They are curious, they listen, they want to make friends, they are little children who want like other human beings to participate in life. They are joyful by nature. They would like to go to school trips and learn many things from their teacher. These children crave for social contacts, to be liked and to like someone, so basically they want everything we wanted in our childhood.

Legal assumptions for integration in Bosnia and Herzegovina According to Dayton Peace Accord, Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of Federation Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska. Roma people are not explicitly mentioned in the state Constitution and in neither of these entities Roma people are considered as constituent peoples. In both BiH entities Roma people are treated as “others”. Considering the fact that BiH Constitution is strictly based on a national key, the rights of minorities are still not recognized. Although Bosnia and Herzegovina signed and ratified the international tools which guarantee the rights of minorities, including Roma population, these people do not have the equal position in society as other people. With growth of ethnic nationalism in many parts of the world, the status of ethnic minorities and other groups becomes the key issue in the international law.

Fulfilling the obligations which are the condition for BiH joining to European and transatlantic integrations, a law on National Minorities Rights Protection was adopted in 2003. That was the first time that one law relating to national minorities was adopted in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It should be pointed out that this law was adopted on the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, because of the equal legal treatment of these national groups in BiH and because of the fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina (not the entities alone) is subject to international legal commitments - “party to all international agreements” most of which are related to national minorities.

In addition to aforementioned law, The Framework Law on Primary and Secondary Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina was also passed. On the basis of these two laws, the equal treatment of national minorities in educational system got a solid base for realization and protection of this law. With the provisions of these laws all entity and cantonal laws governing the issue of education were supposed to be agreed. In early 2005., Republika Srpska adopted the Law on National Minorities, and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has not adopted such law yet. The educational system in Bosnia and Herzegovina is burdened with many weaknesses, but the fact that an increasing number of Roma children is included in the compulsory school system is evident.Improving the situation of Roma education contributed to the application of certain laws and documents that partly or fully regulate this issue.

In addition to two previously mentioned laws, a very important trole for Roma children inclusion have these factors: BiH Constitution; The UN Convention on the Rights of the child, which was ratified in 1993. and the implementation of this convention is regulated by BiH Constitution; Law on Amendments to the Law on National Minorities Right Protection from 2005; Law on Elementary Education of Tuzla Canton from 2004; BiH Strategy for solving Roma People Issues from 2005. Action Plan on Educational Needs of Roma People and other National Minorities from 2004.

Law on National Minorities Rights Protection (2003) and Law on Amendments to the Law on National Minorities Right Protection from (2005) state: Regardless of the number of persons belonging to national minorities, the entities and cantons are obliged, if members of minority groups demand, to provide them the opportunity of learning their mother tongue, literature, history and culture in a language of minority they belong to. The governments are obliged to provide financial funds for national minorities teacher training, to provide facilities and other conditions. Law on Protection of National Minorities Rights from 2003, from its side, regulates the rights and commitments of ethnic minorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and government institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina to preserve, protect, respect, spread and develop the culture of ethnic minorities. The implementation of this law varies in different parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where we have the case of Tuzla Canton that adopted its own regulations in 2005. Generally, the level of implementation is really low.

Framework Law on Primary and Secondary Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina (2003) finds that: Every child has an equal right to education, without discrimination of any kind, providing the same conditions and opportunities for everyone (Act 4). Language and culture of a dominant minority in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be respected and included in schools to the fullest extent. (Act 8) There is no systematic monitoring or collecting data about implementation of this provision, but there were no ruling related to discriminatory treatment of Roma people.

BiH Constitution (1994) regulates next: Act III 4 (b) of BiH Constitution explicitly regulates that determination of educational policy, including regulating and performing teaching process is under the jurisdiction of cantons. According to that, the education is now the responsibility of cantonal ministries of education. Act V 2 (2) of BiH Constitution allows cantons to pass their responsibilities related to education on municipalities which belong to them. In a case when a majority of people from a municipality does not belong to majority of people from the canton, canton has a responsibility to pass its commitments to the municipality. Besides that Act III 2 (a) and III 3 in BiH Constitution regulate that the government of Federation BiH together or separately, or through cantons through which they coordinate, is responsible for respecting human rights. Act II in BiH Constitutionstates that every person in Bosnia and Herzegovina has a right to education. While 1995 BiH Constitution included the prohibition of discrimination and gave clear foundations for implementing the most important UN and European Council tools, non-Bosnian, non-Croatian and non-Serbian citizens of BiH were nevertheless labeled as “the others”.

Convention on Child Rights is an internal part of F BiH Constitution (1994) which was integrated into its additional part. According to this convention children are special subjects to international law and protection. Various cantonal laws on education differentiate by regulating the treatment of national minorities in educational system (for example, the laws in Podrinje Canton, The West Herzegovina Canton, Herceg-Bosna and Posavina Canton). Other cantons (like Tuzla, Zenicko-dobojski and Unski Canton) regulate these issues by only one act, which is the same as a regulation from pre-war and war period. These laws differentiate only by terminology: Tuzla and Zenicko-dobojski Canton use the term “members of the peoples”, while in Unski Canton use the term “members of national minorities”. Laws, in principle, regulate this: when it comes to primary education, when there are at least 20 students of an ethnic group, whose mother tongue is not Bosnian or Croatian, the classes should be organized in their mother tongue.

Law on Elementary Education (2004) contains general goals that should be accomplished in educational system, and among others there are those goals concerning the education of national minorities. By contents, these goals are identical to those form Framework Law on Primary and Secondary Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Besides regulations which were literally taken from Framework Law on Elementary and Secondary Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina, this law regulates that every student, citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who considers himself a minority, and who wants to attend his mother tongue classes in his school has every right to it – the student has the right to attend the classes alone or in a group, the teacher with necessary skills will be provided. This law also regulates that if a school is attended only by one national minority group of students, the teaching process will be held in a language of that minority with a condition that this group learn the language of constituent peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Group for Educational Needs of Roma people and Other National Minorities made an Action Plan on Educational Needs of Roma People and other National Minorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina whose goal is to improve the approach to the system of compulsory education of Roma people in Bosnia and Herzegovina by solving numerous obstacles these people are currently facing – practical, systematic and other broader issues, at the same time firming the participation of Roma communities and their dedication to full integration into a compulsory education. The Action plan contains identified educational problems of Roma people and other national minorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, normed activities and measures necessary to be taken, dynamics of realization of the activities and the responsibilities of institutions and other subjects in the process of realization these tasks (Action Plan on Educational Needs of Roma and Other National Minorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2004).

The Council of Ministers in Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted BiH Strategy for Solving Roma Issues in 2005. which establishes 15 relevant life areas that need well-developed plan of activities, whose goal is to improve the social status of Roma and other national minorities. Among these areas is the educational area which suggests to all other levels of government to accept the norms ccontained in the Action Plan on Educational Needs of Roma People and Other National Minorities. (BiH Strategy for Solving Roma Issues,2005). Those legally regulated areas of Roma children education represent one big step forward compared to previous legal acts, because a vast number of authors point out that the process of educational and later social integration does not have real chances to succeed in the long run until the integration incorporates legal and other regulations into appropriate educational programmes, then in standards for programmes development, standards of working spaces, in preparing systems and staff education, and instructions for work.

The structure of managing as a disturbing factor for Roma children integration into compulsory educationally system in BiH Responsibilities for education in Bosnia and Herzegovina are divided by the same patterns of separation like country’s administration. At the state level, the education sector functions within the frames of Ministry of Civil Affairs , with a Pre-school, Elementary and Secondary Education and Department for College Education. No matter how many educational sectors in BiH there are, the greater roles into education regulation play the ministries in two entities (Ministry of Education and Science in F BiH, and Ministry of Education and Culture in Republika Srpska).

Moreover while the educational system in Republika Srpska is highly centralized (and completely separated from F BiH educational system), the ministries on canton levels in Federation work separately from one another when it comes to administrating all levels of education. In the end, Brcko District, as a special organizational unit in Bosnia and Herzegovina has its very own laws which regulate every four levels of education. All in all, there are twelve educational systems in Bosnia and Herzegovina with a very small level of coordination, planning, managing or providing information on a state level.

Central document for BiH reform of education is a strategy from 2002. under the name Reform of Education: Message to People in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Strategy which was prepared by six different working groups consisted of local and international experts for education, whose goals were depolitization of education and creating a consensus which is necessary for enabling equal availability of highly and modern education in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Federation BiH Pedagical institutes on canton levels do the activities related to teaching curriculums, pedagogical standards, professional development, setting the level of financing, monitoring and research and analysis.

Multicultural education Educational system in Bosnia and Herzegovina still shows negative influences of war between 1992-1995 with a usual presence of ethnically divided schools and ethnically different curriculums and textbooks. This situation leaves very little space for a significant number of children who do not belong to only one of three constituent peoples. Public education in Bosnia and Herzegovina is offered only in Bosnian, Croatian or Serbian language (which are not different), while private institutions also offer classes in Turkish and English language. Although Romany language is a mother tongue to 86% of Roma people in this country, all Roma students learn in a language of three constituent peoples. In a higher education there are no curriculums specially dedicated to studying of culture, language, literature, art and tradition of Roma people. Considering the small number of highly qualified Roma teaching staff, Roma assistants are included into certain projects related to education which are being implemented by NGOs with the purpose of coordinating among local Roma communities and schools. Up to date, there has not been any official evaluation of influence by these assistants.

Subjective assumptions of integration Besides legal assumptions which are necessary for realization of Roma integration into compulsory education, we have to mention equally important subjective assumptions. Subjective assumptions of integration are related to attitudes, opinions, beliefs and prejudices of subjects involved in the process of educating and Roma children as well. Subjects included in the process of integrations are: Roma children, teachers, other experts, non-Roma children, Roma children’s parents, principals and other associates. All the subjects in educational integrations should have positive attitudes, respect specific needs of Roma children, especially when it comes to adjustment and appropriateness of educational demands, programmes, means and methods of work. Positive attitudes of educational integrations are considered to be the most basic condition for a successful integration of Roma children.

We can change school form, curriculums, we can build modern schools, we can make smaller classes and have the most modern technology in the classrooms, we can organize school counselings and introduce new teaching aids to teachers, students and parents, but to make them change themselves and their beliefs in the sense of a meaningful orientation, all these efforts are useless., The Movement for Integration of Roma children wants to ban prejudices against Roma people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, because there is a large number of people who are strongly opposed against them. The bearers of these prejudices are people who participate in educational integration. It is up to them to abolish psychosocial barriers and therefore successfully implement the integration of Roma children into educational systen at the same time. Also, the teachers’ attitudes affect the successful implementation of integration and they regulate direction of integration at the same time motivating children to develop socially, intellectually and emotionally.

When it comes to the researches conducted in Tuzla Canton relating to this problem, Malkic (2004) came to a conclusion that all Roma children, no matter how skillful they are, achieve poor results in schools and one of the main factors for this poor success is teachers’ lack of interest for Roma children. Also, Vantic-Tanjic (2007) interviewing teachers on integration of Roma children found out that Tuzla Canton teachers have negative attitudes about the integration and that from 1200 teachers only half of them participated in this research. Roma children still have difficulties in adjusting to schools, because they do not have clean clothes and live in a neglected housings and suburbs.

Besides that, teaching staff is burdened with demanding school curriculums and is not stimulated to work with these children who do not have an equal start as other children of constituent peoples have. It is evident that educating children is a burden that one Roma family cannot carry alone. It is surely clear that this is one of the main reasons why Roma children abandon schools at early age. BiH should work on developing “compensatory programmes” for Roma children in order to successfully integrate them into educational system, but besides that, one should bear in mind the possible refusals of Roma children to succumb in integration due to previously negative experiences. Education is a fundamental human right which enables underprivileged children and adults to rise above the poverty. It is important to point out that applying the law on education sets strong foundations for respecting other people rights such as civil, cultural, political, economical and social rights. High rate of unemployment, especially of Roma population is directly linked with the lack of education.

According to UNDP data, the rate of Roma Children enrollment into elementary schools is drastically lower to national rate of enrollment. This rate of enrollment puts Bosnia and Herzegovina in the same category with countries such as Albania, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Serbia where the rate of enrollment is unduly for the group of children between 7 to 15 years of age, because the rate goes around 50% and even tops it. (SCUK, 2006). This data was confirmed in the research which was conducted by Roma Council in 2005. The findings of this research show that almost 35% of Bosnian Roma people is completely illiterate and that only 50% of them attended compulsory education (from the first year until fourth year). These facts state that the school attendance rate of Roma children is extremely low.

There is data which prove that this population rarely attends pre-school education and that they never continue their education after elementary school. For example, in Tuzla Canton more than 60% of Roma people are illiterate, around 80% do not have any professional qualifications and there are only two Roma students at Tuzla University (Raykova, 2001). Although they have a right to elementary education, 2001 and 2010 show that two thirds of Roma people do not have finished elementary school. The studies which deal with the access of pre-school and elementary school children in Southeast European countries show that gross rate of children rate enrollment is 91-97%, but there are no classified data and this hides the fact which states that enrollment rate of Roma children is lower than 20%-30%.

Access to development programmes for early childhood is generally low 4-3.0%, with significant disparities for Roma children 0.2-3.9%. In all countries of Southeast Europe, the general rate of school abandonment varies at rates of 7%-20%. It is significantly higher among Roma children who abandon their education in 85% of cases. (SCUK, 2008)

Inadmissibly high number of Roma children attends special schools for student with a mild mental retardation. Some estimates state that up to 80% of Roma children are at special schools. In Bulgaria, Roma children’s parents prefer that their children attend special schools because they want to avoid discrimination in regular schools. Insome South East European countries, such as Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania, there is a vast number of schools with high percentage of Roma children, up to 80%, (ERRX, 2004:44). In some BiH elementary schools there were special formed classes for Roma children that were abolished with OSCE intervention. These segregated schools show drastic level of discrimination and children rights violation. Improving the access of Roma people to education demands creating policy and taking all means necessary for the long term or short term implementation.

By 2003, that is until the change in Constitutions of the entities were made in BiH, in 2002. and adopting Law on National Minorities Rights Protection and Framework Law on Elementary and Secondary Education, legal treatment of Roma people and other national minorities was dissatisfying. Currently, the legal treatment of rights to education for national minorities generally should be marked as positive, but the reality is that its implementation on the field is still dissatisfying. Ministry of Education in FBiH and Roma Associations report that in the recent years the number of Roma students has been increasing, due to poverty, having no conditions for leading a normal life and discrimination, many children quit school .

Last year 2.283 of Roma students were enrolled in elementary schools in Federation BiH, but there is no data for this year. The highest number of Roma students enrolled to schools was in Tuzla Canton, around 870, then in Zenicko-dobojski Canton around 450 students and in Sarajevo Canton 320. The ministries state that these three cantons work the most on education of young Roma students. “The best situation is in Tuzla Canton where there are the most Roma students with secondary-school diploma. The biggest problem is students’ school-leaving. They leave schools because of the poverty or they do not understand the importance of education”, reported Ministry of Education and Science in F BiH.

Five years ago nearly 300 Roma students attended elementary schools in Tuzla Canton. Today that number jumped on 900 because of various projects similar to this one. When it comes to Roma students integration into elementary and secondary education this data shows how effective these activities were with the involvement of Roma associations and educational ministries. According to data from Roma Associations around 900 of Roma children attend elementary and secondary schools. Although this represents only 70% of total number of Roma children who should go to schools, the representatives of Roma Associations believe that the remaining 30 % should be included into education as soon as possible.

Mehmed Mujic, the referent for Roma issues in Tuzla Canton ministry in charged, says that education of Roma children in Tuzla Canton is better than in other BiH Cantons. “We have 870 students who are involved into educational system in elementary schools and 120 students in secondary schools. Only this year we enrolled around 120 students in the first grade of nine-year education. With these results, we are at the top of Roma Integration in F BiH.”, said Mujic (2009). Roma Association “Euro Rom” from Tuzla realized a project “Educational inclusion of Roma Children into Compulsory Education in Tuzla Canton” with the financial aid of Roma Educational Fund from Budapest. That was the first big project in Bosnia and Herzegovina which was implemented by great number of eminent experts in the field of integration inclusion of Roma children.

“Association for support and creative development of children Tuzla” started the project activates on improving Roma children education which will be supported by academic community in Tuzla Canton, and within this project the agreement on collaboration with Tuzla library “Dervis Susic” was signed. One of the primary goals of this agreement is forming Roma department in Tuzla library. This would make Tuzla library “Dervis Susic” the first library in Bosnia and Herzegovina to have Roma literature. Association “Zemlja djeca” started working with Roma children back in 1999, as a part of the project “street children” in Tuzla. Acknowledging the complexity of problems that Roma children and their families are facing every day, this association developed its own model for work whose focus was to improve the access to education of Roma children, which was seen as their only way out from the circle of poverty.

The integrative approach is used in the work with Roma children. Firstly, children go through very basic educational informal programmes in Tuzla teenager centre Telex and they are being integrated into regular activities of the centre when noticed that both sides are ready. At the same time, activities for integrating children into the formal educational system encompass: pre-school preparation of Roma children for elementary school enrollment, preparation of adults for taking tests necessary for school diploma, supporting children in schools, helping them with the school materials, giving help and providing advice to the families making sure they understand the importance of education, health care system etc. During activities, children have a free meal in the Centre and legal and referential help to families in realization of their basic rights is provided etc.

In this manner, around 100-120 children and their families go through this segment of work in Tuzla Teenage Centre “Telex“so we can say that hundreds of children thanks to these activities are persistent in their compulsory or non-regular education. "Zemlja djece" acts in a manner of directing the youth, who managed to complete their compulsory education, into secondary education. Model of good practice built within the frames of “Zemlja djece” capacities” is currently in the phase of multiplying through BiH. "Zemlja djece" gives a special attention to institutional integration of activities with Roma children through spectrum of advocating. Relating to this, on the initiative of “Zemlja djece” the regulations of taking non-regular school tests were changed. The tests are now free and earlier they cost a lot of money and many people could not afford them. The centre currently works on a project where Ministry of Education needs to take a full responsibility to organize mandatory tutoring for non-regular education test-takers. This tutoring currently is being done in Tuzla Teenage Centre “Telex” with the aid of resources from “Zemlja djeca”.

Through advocating,the problem of health care for Roma people was solved. Most of these people did not have their health insurance. Considering the fact that the health of children is an assumption for their education, through Amendments of Law on Health Education was given help to Roma children in the integration into society. Republika Srpska Pedagogical Department states that in 2006/2007 school year total number of 501 Roma students attended the school, and 425 of them attended the school on regular basis. The highest number of Roma students in one school was 59 students in Sveti Sava Elementary School in Modrica.

The biggest number of Roma students on municipalities was in Bijeljina, where at Jovan Ducic Elementary was 48 Roma students. In Banja Luka that number was 24. “Otharin” Association from Biljenia, which was founded in 2005, work on projects of improving elementary education for Roma students in Bijeljima and Zivinice and it also deals with Roma children rights protection. At the beginning of the work of this association, only 10 Roma students attended school in Bijeljina and today that number is 110 and in Zivinice 120. According to data of Republika Srpska Pedagogical Department there are no students of Roma Nationality in some municipalities such as Eastern Sarajevo, Trebinje, Mrkonjic Grad, Foca and Trnovo.

Roma people in Bosnia and Herzegovina