Roma Population
The Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian population in Kosovo continues to live in a vicious circle of poverty and social exclusion, reproduced inter-generationally over the last decades. High unemployment rates among Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians are caused by the lack of appropriate skills and low education attainment, coupled with unfavorable social bias towards the three communities, residential and educational segregation, as well as general economic underdevelopment of the country. The economic perspective of the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities depends considerably on their equal participation in the education system.
Even if awareness about the importance of education is solid, the low literacy level amongst parents acts unfavorably on the early development outcomes of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian children. Therefore, community-based learning centres were established in Kosovo to support learning of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian children. The centres provide homework assistance, mediation between school and families and also provide community-based pre-school services. Although the operation of the centres depends to a large extent on civil society organizations and donor support, they proved to play a crucial role in improving school performance of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian children.
The overall number of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian children in pre-school education is still very low. The official statistics report about a total of 36 Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian children aged 0-6 enrolled in licensed public and private pre-school institutions. There are no credible data about children attending pre-school classes in community centres. On the other hand, participation of 5-6 year olds in pre-primary education offered by public schools is considerably better. 410 Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian children were enrolled at this level in the school year 2017/18, whereas 846 were enrolled in grade 1 of primary education.
Main Goals
Supporting equitable access to education for children of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities by advocating for inclusion and improving the quality of provision.
Supporting the education community for social inclusion and qualitative education of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian children by facilitating exchange of knowledge and advocacy through KRAEEYN.
Providing professional development opportunities to its members, facilitate the exchange of relevant experience and good practices amongst them, and raising awareness on the importance of inclusion at early age.
Advocating for inclusion and quality education of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian children.
Activities Carried Out
– Professional development has been continuously organized for members: trainings on Step-by-Step methodology, Education for Social Justice and Ready for Schools. Workshops and debates were organized based on movies about life and education of Roma people in different countries.
– Network member meetings are continuously taking place to discuss professional development, share good practices and review possibilities for advocacy activities. Each meeting takes place in a different learning centre.
– Drafting a policy recommendation for pre-primary education with proposals to raise the quality.
– The offered Internship positions for Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian students or graduates of an ECD University Program is a unique opportunity for the young students or graduates to learn, work and understand the KRAEEYN.
Ongoing Activities
- KRAEEYN is continuously organizing awareness raising activities aiming to address the issues of access, inclusion and welfare of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian children.
- Primary school students abandoning the school is a worrying issue that concerns the network. Therefore, many activities have been organized to address this problem to the relevant authorities. The network will continuously work towards bringing these students back to their schools, and will keep supporting them throughout these education, and thus prevent further abandonment of primary schools by students.
The Dream to Grow campaign shares 12 multipurpose advocacy stories, highlighting the successes of Roma ECD professionals who are supporting Roma children and families in their countries – celebrating the example they are setting for future generations.
REYN Early Childhood Research
REYN Early Childhood Research is a study that sheds light on young Roma children and their parents throughout Europe. The study brings together unprecedented Roma-related early childhood data from 11 countries. It catalyzes solid evidence for urgent and effective policies and programs enabling each young Roma to reach their full potential – to grow and thrive!
Read research in English