Roma school mediators and the bilingualism of Roma students

Abstract

: The paper discusses the issues of Roma children education in special schools and their bilingualism. Very often the Roma children in many East European countries are placed in specials schools based on testing in the official language of the countries. The bilingualism of Roma children is not considered as a positive phenomenon. In some countries even (such as Czech Republic and Slovakia) if the children speak some form of the official language, but not the proper language, still they are considered to be mentally retarded. Based on their language knowledge they are sent to special schools. The paper discusses also issues such as segregation and discrimination trough education, the role of the mother tongue development, the issues of bilingualism at school, and the ROMED program of the Council of Europe for school mediators. On the end the paper suggests some ideas what the school mediators can do more in order to integrate more Roma students to mainstem school and their integration not to be taken as a punishment, as it is accepted now in some countries.