Almedina is in the seventh grade of an elementary school in Bar. When asked by a journalist from the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG) to read a paragraph from the book, she reluctantly agrees, with the warning that she does not know how to read well. And he begins to spell.
Her brother Aleksandar, a sixteen-year-old attending the fifth grade, takes a pen and writes a simple sentence that the journalist dictates to him - "I have a yellow dog, his name is Snoopy". The imprecise printed letters look like they are written by someone who is only in the first grade, instead of "g" a "k" appears, and the young man gets confused and stops at the word "dog".
Nine-year-old Petar, their brother who attends the third grade, shyly looks at the blank paper while CIN-CG journalists ask him to write his name, followed by different letters and numbers. After the reporters give up, he leans forward, the number four written in an uncertain hand. When asked what number it is, Petar does not know how to answer.
These children do not attend school regularly. However, they pass grades without renewal, and are expected to finish primary school on time.
They are not the only example of Roma children leaving elementary school illiterate.
"And we wonder how they move from class to class. The school called several times to ask why the children were absent. We explain, and that's it," Sabedin, the children's father, who besides them has three other daughters of preschool age, tells CIN-CG.
He wants everyone to finish at least elementary school.
From Elementary School "Mexico" in Bar, which is attended by 18 RE students, including Sabedin's children, they say that teachers have special criteria for Roma students.
"Due to the difficult conditions in which they live, the teaching staff tolerates these students much more than usual," Lejla Bubić, assistant principal of the "Mexico" elementary school, told CIN-CG.
No research has been conducted in Montenegro on the level of basic skills (reading, writing, speaking, arithmetic) among children from the RE population who attend elementary school.
UNICEF, in the last wave of the Multiple Indicator Survey (MICS6) in the period from 2017 to 2019, in many countries examined two basic skills in children - reading and numerical abilities depending on various factors - such as belonging to minority populations, child labor, poverty level …
"Findings show that children from Roma settlements are less likely to acquire basic skills in reading and numeracy compared to the national average," and "schooling alone may not be enough to fully achieve equitable educational outcomes," the report states. of UNICEF from 2022 under the title "Educational paths in Roma settlements".
The UNICEF office for Montenegro told CIN-CG that "due to the limited capacities of Montenegrin institutions, there was no space to measure the basic skills of children in Montenegro during the UNICEF MICS6 survey."
"The next wave of research could only be realized around 2025," they claim.
CIN-CG sent questions to the addresses of 25 elementary schools in Montenegro, regarding the literacy percentage of children from RE communities. From the 11 schools that responded, they explained that records are not kept exclusively for RE population children, and the general literacy rates of RE students in these schools range from 70 to 90 percent.
From the school with the most students from the RE population in Montenegro - Elementary School "Božidar Vuković Podgoričanin", they state that 90 percent of Roma students become literate in the first three grades.
Nevertheless, students of the Roma population often enroll in secondary school - completely illiterate.
"Students who have completed elementary school come to us and we have to learn printed letters, because otherwise, they cannot master the material," Milanka Okuka, a pedagogue at the Secondary Vocational School in Bar, who also works as a mentor for RE students, tells CIN-CG. that school.
According to the data of the Strategy for the Social Inclusion of Roma and Egyptians for the period from 2021 to 2025, the rate of finishing primary school for Roma children is 56 percent, and only three percent for secondary school.
"This difference between the primary and secondary school completion rate clearly reflects the poor quality of education of RE children, primarily during primary school. The concern of schools towards the RE population is reduced to form, and the children finish classes so that they are not functionally literate", Biljana Maslovarić, director of the Pedagogical Center of Montenegro, who has extensive experience in working with Roma children, notes for CIN-CG.
"It happens that children between the sixth and ninth grade of primary school write in block letters, mix sounds and are not at the level required for the grade they are attending," states the report "Identification and mapping of relevant challenges faced by the Roma and Egyptian community in Montenegro", ROMACTED program from 2019.
The issue of the quality of education remains a key problem "regardless of the fact that", as this report also states, "in recent years we have witnessed a growing trend in school enrollment".
Biljana Maslovarić also claims that the responsibility for failures in the education of RE students should be borne by the school, i.e. the teaching staff.
"During one school year, there are three knowledge tests. The school has to take responsibility if the child leaves after all these checks without elementary school education," she says.
Tolerance of irregular attendance is a disservice
For Almedina, Petar and Aleksander, regular attendance at classes is much more difficult due to the distance of their residence. From the dilapidated shack on the slope of the Sutorman mountain above Bar, where they live, it's kilometers to the first settlement or store, and it's even a 40-minute drive to the school.
Their family shares the organization of the children's arrivals to and from school with their only neighbors, the Stanković family, also Roma, who raise five school-age children.
"On the days when the children attend classes, we have to go down from Sutorman to the city several times, because everyone is in different shifts and schools. Our whole life revolves around schoolwork," says Sabedin.
In order to collect money for fuel and continue attending classes, but also to help their families, these children do different jobs after school.
"We have no choice," says Sabedin.
"Child labor is associated with poor learning outcomes, i.e. weaker basic reading skills and numerical abilities," according to the 2020 UNICEF report "Deep Research: Child Labor and Learning".
Factors such as poverty, uneducated parents and belonging to the female gender significantly reduce the chances of Roma children to achieve basic reading and numerical skills, according to the report "Educational Pathways in Roma Settlements", from 2022. "These children did not progress in their education, regardless of regular attendance or completion of education".
Montenegro is the only country in the last wave of UNICEF research in which the percentage of Roma and Egyptian children who are engaged in child labor and who finish primary school is almost identical to the percentage of RE children who do not work. Unlike the other tested countries in the region, in Montenegro the possibility of expulsion from school does not increase if the child works and therefore attends classes irregularly, according to the report "Educational Paths in Roma Settlements".
The UNICEF office for Montenegro did not respond to CIN-CG's question as to whether such statistics show excessive leniency of primary schools towards pupils from the RE population.
"According to the Protocol that prescribes the obligations of institutions in order to prevent school dropouts, we have the obligation to react if there is a risk of school dropouts," stated UNICEF in a letter to CIN-CG.
Expulsion from schools is rare, but so is repeating classes, despite irregular attendance, as evidenced by the experiences of schools that responded to CIN-CG.
Data from the 2018 UNICEF Multiple Indicator Survey show that Roma children from poorer families are at lower risk of repeating a grade in primary school compared to children from wealthier families.
"Roma children do not repeat the grade", claims from Elementary School "Mexico".
"Mostly, in all classes, they do not attend classes regularly, which significantly affects poor performance, and for this very reason, very few such students can read and write without problems," says assistant director Bubić.
"We have a big problem with non-regular attendance of students in the RE population, and that in a percentage of over 70 percent. It is impossible to form an assessment," Tamara Radonjić, director of the "Njegoš" Primary School in Kotor, told CIN-CG.
From Podgorica Primary School "21. maj" for CIN-CG said that RE children until the third grade partially achieve educational outcomes.
"In the fourth grade, their success is good, and from the fifth to the ninth, they achieve minimal educational outcomes, sufficient success".
Almedina, Petar and Aleksandr lack the basic information they should have acquired at school by now. When asked by journalists what a cell is, they claim that they are familiar with the word.
"That's what happens when you go to prison," Aleksandar finally says.
When asked if they know what a cell is in biology, there is silence. No one knows the answer to the question of who Njegoš is, but Almedina claims that she knows the word.
These children have no one to help them with the material they missed at school.
"We certainly cannot help them," says Sabedin, the children's father.
Discrimination kills motivation
When asked by a CIN-CG journalist if he likes going to school and playing with children, nine-year-old smiling Petar becomes serious and shakes his head.
"They have no one to hang out with, they play. That's why they prefer to stay here, in Sutorman", explains Sabedin.
"In addition to poverty, the key factors that prevent Roma students from regularly attending school are stigma, bullying by peers or employees, discrimination, lack of personal documents required for enrollment in schools, frequent migrations...", according to the Roma Social Inclusion Strategy and Egyptians for the period from 2021 to 2025.
Roma children's classroom experiences are characterized by a lack of integration and blatant discrimination, according to a 2019 ROMACTED study.
"I went to school until the XNUMXth grade, and then I started extra-curricular education because it was simply better for me", is the statement of one of the discriminated RE nationality boys, cited in this study.
"Discrimination makes children feel less important. Their self-esteem is damaged and, in most cases, they stop fighting and do not try to improve and deal with the problem... They are at an increased risk of dropping out of school," a psychologist at the Center for Roma Initiatives told CIN-CG ( CRI) Jovana Knežević.
The traditional lack of integration, where RE children do not develop close social ties with other children, negatively affects their motivation to continue schooling, the study further states.
"Provision of clothes and shoes, free textbooks and school supplies, involvement of parents in the life and work of the school, free transportation, acceptance of peers and teacher competence are factors that influence children from the RE population to attend classes more regularly," says Jelena Popović, director of the Elementary School "Božidar Vuković". from Podgorica".
"Parents, for example, often decide not to send their children to school, because they have nothing clean to wear. They are not able to provide school supplies and living conditions that would allow children to learn at home," according to the ROMACTED 2019 survey.
That segregation also exists by school is confirmed by the fact that members of the RE population attend only seven schools in the territory of the capital. Schools that are traditionally considered elite have almost no pupils from the RE population. Thus, the school "Pavle Rovinski" does not have a single student from the RE population, regardless of the relative proximity to the settlement of Vrela ribnička. Elementary school "Sutjeska" has only one student from the RE population.
"We are working on enrolling them in other so-called 'elite schools', but we also have to provide them with transportation to those schools," the Directorate for Minority Education of the Ministry of Education told CIN-CG.
"Children often have the feeling that they are not fully accepted in schools. They often say: 'They sit us in the last benches, and it's up to us to be calm and come regularly,'" Jelena Milić, Director of the Day Center at the Center for Security, Sociological and Criminological Research of Montenegro - Defense Studies in Nikšić, points out for CIN-CG.
Currently, 202 children, mostly from the Roma and Egyptian population, are active users of that center. There they study, receive psycho-social support and meals, and often come just to fulfill their basic physiological needs - to take a shower, get a haircut or to wash and dry their clothes.
"The center was originally not designed only for the needs of children from the RE population. Over time, it turned out that they make up the largest number of users," explains Jelena Milić.
No sanctions for student neglect
Allowing a student to skip a grade, even though he has not previously mastered the necessary skills, is punishable by the laws of Montenegro. According to the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination, discrimination is considered to be, among other things, "making it more difficult or denying the possibility of following classes, classifying or making distinctions or unequal treatment of pupils/pupils/students".
The ethical codes, which every school has, prescribe the obligation of the teacher to treat each student carefully and objectively - in grading, resolving conflicts and applying disciplinary measures.
Despite the law, it almost never happens that one of the teachers or school management is sanctioned because the student has not mastered letters and numbers by the end of elementary school. Schools generally react and inform parents and relevant institutions when a child does not attend classes regularly.
"It happened that we send a letter to the school to check how a child is progressing or, if he is absent from class, whether the school informs the parents about it. From experience, I don't think schools contact parents too often," says Jelena Milić for CIN-CG.
"If a child is not in school and begging somewhere, a number of offenses have been committed," Duška Šljivančanin, adviser to the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms of Montenegro (Ombudsman) in the field of child, youth and social protection, told CIN-CG.
"Several times in our reports, we have given guidelines on what should be done in such cases, and we have initiated misdemeanor charges against parents because they are legally required to answer," claims the ombudsman's adviser.
According to her, misdemeanor courts in Montenegro have a bad practice in this matter.
"In order not to further impoverish the families, they let them go and do not punish them. It is counterproductive".
Language is a barrier for children, girls leave school earlier
"Education in a language that is not the children's mother tongue leads to a significant problem - some students finish school without first mastering the basic skills of reading or writing," states the Strategy for the Social Inclusion of Roma and Egyptians for the period from 2021 to 2025.
In the classes of the "Njegoš" Primary School in Kotor, where 29 students from the RE population normally go, in which there are more, Roma and Egyptians speak to each other in the language they speak at home.
"It's a problem with learning the material," says the director of that school, Tamara Radonjić.
"Milan Vuković" Primary School in Herceg Novi told CIN-CG that they noticed limitations in understanding the text read by RE children.
"They are conditioned by the linguistic and conceptual fund that these children have".
"Njegoš" Elementary School in Kotor told CIN-CG that especially girls from the RE population leave classes earlier.
"Despite the engagement of the school's pedagogical and psychological service and the excellent cooperation we have with the Office for Disease Prevention, girls leave school earlier than boys".
In the aforementioned research by ROMACTED, among the reasons for early school leaving, the gender imbalance is especially highlighted.
"Girls are expected to help with household chores, as well as to get married at a very early age," the research states.
"The percentage of women without school or with less than four grades of primary school is significantly higher than the percentage of men, where as many as 43,2 percent of women do not have any type of education, while this is the case with only 22,6 percent of men," it was pointed out in to the Defacto research that is stated in the Strategy for the Social Inclusion of Roma and Egyptians for the period from 2021 to 2025.
The mediator program is a good step forward
The improvement in the education of Roma children triggered the engagement of collaborators in the social inclusion of Roma and Egyptians in the field of education, who should help children with learning, as well as be a link between parents and schools. Currently, according to the data of the Ministry of Education, there are 22 of them at the level of Montenegro - one for every 70 students.
In the last school year, there were just as many. School year 2019/2020. there were 21 of them, and in 2018/19. 18 of them. School year 2019/20. 35 mentors were hired for 130 eighth and ninth grade students of the Roma and Egyptian population, while in secondary schools 44 mentors (professors) were hired for 120 RE high school students.
"A mechanism should be established to measure student achievement in primary education. Before the involvement of mediators in educational institutions, the results and achievements of children from those communities were not at a satisfactory level. Year after year, an increasing number of Roma and Egyptian children dropped out of school. That's why the role and support of mediators is of great importance for them, especially for those with a poor socio-economic position", Enis Eminović, mediator in the elementary school "Božidar Vuković Podgoričanin" and a long-time Roma activist in the civil sector, tells CIN-CG.
On a daily basis, he takes care of 53 students from the third grade and 18 students from the Roma and Egyptian community from the ninth grade.
According to him, the lack of communication and cooperation between educational institutions and the Roma and Egyptian communities is a serious obstacle in improving the education of the RE population.
"Insufficient awareness among parents is still a problem. It is important that the children's parents gain trust in the mediator, whose position should be systematized urgently".
The largest percentage of surveyed parents of the Roma and Egyptian community, as stated in the Strategy of Social Inclusion of Roma and Egyptians, do not have information on whether there is an associate in education in their community.
Bonus video:
