Event Description
In Hungary, the education system has largely failed the Roma minority. Residential isolation, discrimination, and a manufactured sense of cultural difference create a climate wherein which Roma youth are often segregated into ethnically homogeneous schools or classrooms and have significantly less access to quality education than their majority counterparts. Fighting segregation and increasing access to schooling for the Roma has largely fallen under the purview of nongovernmental organizations. Activists working within educational NGOs across the country have waged legal battles, established tutoring programs, developed dormitory programs for Roma, and have even founded schools that will serve disadvantaged, primarily Roma, children. In this presentation, Andria Timmer, Phd, will provide an overview of the educational divide and describe in detail one such intervention program, a high school located in a town with a large Roma population. The express purpose of this school, which I call Előrelépés Secondary and Vocational School, is to bring high quality education to those who are usually excluded from it. Előrelépés has been the recipient of both copious praise and harsh criticism. I argue that this school, as well as other similar schools, will not likely make huge inroads in terms of increasing the number of well-educated Roma youth but perhaps has the greatest potential to span the divide between the Roma and non-Roma in Hungarian society.Andria D. Timmer is an assistant professor of anthropology at Christopher Newport University. Her research concerns civil society in Hungary. Her recently published book, Educating the Hungarian Roma: Nongovernmental Organizations and Minority Rights, explores civil sector action to provide quality education to Roma youth. Currently, Dr. Timmer researches how humanitarians have responded to refugees entering Hungary.
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