Education
 Hector McNeill
ECRE |
"Since 1989 the numbers of children forced into special schools has increased by more than 400% and the vast majority, around 98%, are Roma children with normal intelligence. In today's political environment with a higher profile being given to human rights, the organizers of the new type special school are sensitive to the fact they need to sustain a process of "professional respectability". It is a repeat of the Nazi process of official racism promoting educational ghettoization or an Apartheid system. It is in the "selection process" which take place as children reach school age where the pseudo-professionalization of the process takes place. This relates to the government-employed psychologists whose job it is to assess chldren at school entry age."
* The countries concerned are the Czech republic, Hungary and Slovakia. |
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Segregated Romani Schooling - Inverview Part IV
Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) a British legal practice have sent a letter to the European Commission requesting that they terminate segregated schooling for Roma and, in particular, effective denial of education in the Czech republic, Hungary and Slovakia.
PIL are acting for the European Committee on Romani Emancipation who maintain that the European Commission has failed to act, during a period of some eight years, according to European Council instructions. Romani World has interviewed Hector McNeill, who is the member of the European Committee on Romani Emancipation responsible for Central Europe to find out some of the details of this case. This is the fourth part of a 5 part inverview (these interviews have been syndicated) which can be accessed here:
RomaniWorld: In the last interview we covered the reasons why the way in which so-called normative funding for special schools is used illicitly. Basically funds intended to provide compensatory education are diverted resulting in no useful education. Children are segregated to justufy funding in the first place and then, because funds are diverted, there is a deficit in educational provisions. On all counts these acts contravene European law, this is unlawful and therefore illicit.
In this interview we look into the process of how children are selected for special schools. So what are the issues here?
McNeill: The special school system has reverted back, since 1989, to the function sustained under the Third Reich, that of segregating Roma children and providing no useful education. It is odd, given the arrogance of the Nazi regime, that they were sensitive to the fact that they should try and establish "scientific" proof to sustain their bizarre racist viewpoints. So the special schools at that time were associated with so-called anthropologists, psychologists and medical practitioners who were generously paid by the state. Their role was to carry out "research" and "experiments" designed to establish racial inferiority of Jewish and Roma children and generally to add a climate of "professional respectability" to the whole process; in effect to justify the existence of the system. We all know that this also lead to extremes in the case of such people as Mengele who carried out cruel torture, usually fatal, and especially on Roma children.
RomaniWorld: But how does the current special school system compare with this?
McNeill: Since 1989 the numbers of children forced into special schools has increased by more than 400% and the vast majority, around 98%, are Roma children with normal intelligence. In today's political environment with a higher profile being given to human rights, the organizers of the new type special school are sensitive to the fact they need to sustain a process of "professional respectability". It is a repeat of the Nazi process of official racism promoting educational ghettoization or an Apartheid system. It is in the "selection process" which take place as children reach school age where the pseudo-professionalization of the process takes place. This relates to the government-employed psychologists whose job it is to assess chldren at school entry age.
RomaniWorld; So we are still talking about government funded activities?
McNeill: Yes. It is these people who, during the last 14 years, have condemned more and more normal children to segregated educational denial in the special schools. As you know, since 1989 the numbers affected have leapt by over 400%.
RomaniWorld: But why has no one questioned this sudden explosion in numbers? There is obviously something wrong.
McNeill: Well it is obviously good business for the non-Roma involved in managing the funding surrounding the schools as well as satisfying basic racial prejudices on the part of some people working within the government structures concerned. The fact that it grew so fast was something which remained hidden largely because the major growth has taken place in rural regions in remote villages. It is in effect a far flung gulag. That there is something wrong is an understatement. In some villages which ten years ago they had never heard of special schools, special schools and streams now exist.
RomaniWorld: But many assume that special schools are a old well-established system.
McNeill: That is part of the common mythology. Yes they existed throughout the Soviet regime, up to 1989, but they were then used more for children with mental deficiency and had low numbers of children associated with them. The neo-Nazi pattern of using the schools as a system for segregation and educational denial is a phenomenon of the last 14 years enthusiastically promoted by the so-called new democratic regimes and their political parties, be they of the left, centre or right wing. It is of course fashionable to criticize the right wing but all parties sustain this system and no party has even suggested it should be closed down.
RomaniWorld: But that is truly amazing, why don't the Roma parents object?
McNeill: That is the saddest part of this whole affair. As we have emphasised the Roma affected by this special schools scandal live largely in rural areas in small villages. The relationship between the local authorites and the local Roma communities has hardly changed since 1989. There is a paternalistic and patronizing attitude in general and since 1989 because of their educational standards and more because of racial prejudice the Roma were the first out of employment and are the last trying to get back in. As a result their need for social welfare has increased, more so because they tend to have more children that others. The situation is further exacerbated by their educational status which, as you can see, the state is striving undermine rather than improve it. The fact that most now survive, especially during the winter months, on welfare payments paid out by the local authority, they are somewhat reticent about questioning the local authority. A family with several children is even more submissive. As a result, it is exactly from these families where children are taken to be placed into the special schools and the parents are normally afraid to question the allocation for fear of losing welfare payments. Some themselves were at special school. More often than not the parents are not informed that the paper they sign on behalf of their child is agreement to segregation and denial of education.
There is some variation in the perception of Roma families concerning special schools. Many families have a sound appreciation of what went on under the Nazi regimes. For example not only did some of the older people witness attocities, others lost family members in concentration camps and later to the Soviet Gulag. Others survived the Soviet Gulag to live and tell their families of their experience. Within such families there is a sophisticated appreciation of the reality based upon a sound "familial memory". In these families the special school are often regarded with a degree of horror and extreme concern because they see the same system has been introduced for Roma children just as mainstream children see a better future in an enlarged Europe. The special schools are a social, economic, financial and political disaster zone.
RomaniWorld: How does this relate back to the educational psychologist and selection procedures?
McNeill: Well they have a sort of perverse conscience cleansing effect for the local officials. Everyone knows that the name of the game is "stick the Romani child in the special school". But of course none of these officials would formally admit this. The officials who might otherwise "get on" with the Roma can put his hand on his or her heart, shake their head and inform the parents that unfortunately the "independent" expert, the "educational psychologist" thought it best that their child go to the Special school. The elaborate rigmarole of the selection procedure is more or less a spectacle of theatre. The system is so cynical that sometime officials admit that there is no serious selection at all, just an endorsement of what the local authority wants, to get money.
RomaniWorld: But what do they write down as the reason for selection?
McNeill: Well this varies with the individual psychologist and indeed the local authority "paper work demands". It varies from no record at all to in fact writing that the justification is that the child is Roma to an elaborate range of things. The popular ones are inability to hold a pencil, inability to express themselves clearly, hyperactivity and short attention spans. It does not really matter what they write down because the normal percentage of children with extreme inability to follow educational provisions stands at around 5% of any population group. These psychologists carry out a so-called selection which commits not 5% of the Roma children to special schools but, in some vilages, 100% of the Roma children.
I should add that, paradoxically, this is one of the widely known aspects of the system. The press has often carried articles about teachers admitting that psychologists are given the numbers of Roma children to be allocated to the special school calculated on the sole basis of the amount of money the local authority wants to syphon off for other uses. The basic intelligence of the children, their eductional needs or their futures are not part of the consideration.
RomaniWorld: What should be done about this selection process then?
McNeill: Well clearly the first step is to remove the need for such selection by integrating the schools and then streaming according to proficiency. This is how is it done in most of the state systems in Europe. The psychologists carrying out this work for so long and working on the basis of arbitraty ethnic criteria are probably beyond recuperation. They should perhaps be provided with work outside the school systyem away from children so they can be prevented from doing any more harm. A troublesome issue is that these psychologists who have this track record can, as from 1st May 2004, work anywhere in the European Union plying their trade. No one has been interested enough to tackle this issue from the standpoint of educational standards of selection. Yes they have "tightened up" on guidelines as to what constitutes mental deficiency but the selection process remains in the hands of this same group of people and the generous financial incentives to segregate the Roma children remain fully in force to undercut any rationalization in this area. It is a cynical hypocritical and sick system, just like that of the Third Reich.
Romani World: Thank you.
PIL - Public Interest Lawyers - One of the leading Human Rights practices in the United Kingdom. PIL have a track record of successful resolutions of human rights cases. PIL have won a series of high profile cases including the illegality of the Iraq war case against the British Government, the high profile Ghurka troops case relating to failure to pay adequate pensions brought against the British Ministry of Defense and the recent Ghost Ships case. (return to the top)
The full content of the letter to the Commission can be viewed at:
http://www.eu-romani.org/pil001.htm (return to the top)
Hector McNeill - Hector McNeill is a development economist. A Cambridge graduate with post graduations from Cambridge and Stanford Universities, Hector McNeill has been associated with voluntary service to low income communities for over 30 years. He has worked with the National Research Council, NASA, United Nations Food & Agricultural Organization, ICO, Manpower Services Commission, European Commission and the World Bank. He has been the projects coordinator of SEEL (Systems Engineering Economcis Lab) since 1984. He was a joint founder of ECRE and currently manages ECRE's Central European affairs in a voluntary capacity. (return to the top)
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