Transformative Accommodation to Advance Inclusion of the Roma in Slovakia:

The Case of Education 

Jarmila LajcakovaCentre for the Research of Ethnicity and Culture, Bratislava,

Slovakia  

Flensburg, September 14-15, 2012  

Autonomy Arrangements in the World

Ethnic Composition of Slovakia

Public census in 2012 based on self-identification  

Slovak: 80, 7 %Hungarian: 8, 5 %Roma: 2, 0 %Czech, Ruthenian, Russian, Ukrainian, German, Polish, Jewish, Croatian, Serbian, Moravian and Bulgarian less than 1%

Estimates of the share of the Roma minority range between 6-10 per cent of the overall population.

Dominant policy approach frames the Roma predominantly as a social group, a socially disadvantaged community, socially excluded communities seeking Roma integration/inclusion into mainstream society.  Dilemmas: • fails to transform institutions into which the Roma are supposed

to “integrate”;• participation of the Roma in policy designs and implementation is

tokenistic and indirectly support the dependency trap;• in practice conducive assimilation or segregation;• insensitive to the internal diversity.

Alternative approach derives from the recognition of the Roma as a national minority (1991)Constitutional individual minority rights (art.34)• the right of members belonging to national minorities to develop

their distinct identities, to use minority language in public and to participate in matters affecting their communities.

 Dilemmas• unable to fully access minority rights because of, among others,

Roma‘s socio-economic exclusion, territorial dispersion, the history of oppression;

• unable to address social exclusion of the Roma and, in fact, may exaggerate segregation;

• can lead to conflicting demands with the dominant anti-poverty approach.

National Cultural Autonomy (NCA) of Karl Renner (1888/2005) and Otto Bauer (1924/2000) and the Roma

• allows to set the parameters of the policies affecting the minority;• helps to establish accountable Romani leadership;• reflective of Roma’s territorial dispersion.Dilemmas:• privileges a single national affiliation over other sources of

identity; may inhibit autonomy of female members; insufficient to tackle socio-economic exclusion and may in reality exaggerate socio-economic inequalities; open to abuse of individuals without any ties to the community;

• practical difficulties in administrating national autonomy.

Joint Governance – Transformative Accommodation (TA) (Shachar, 2001)

Shares several assumptions with NCA

• group accommodation is a procedural instrument that can be adapted to specific contexts;

• both rely on a distinction between the state and national minorities;

• both accept that communities have legitimate claim in the governance of matters that are of crucial importance to them;

• accommodation is based on non-territorial principle.

TA is not only concerned about inter group nationalities but also intra-group inequalities. Shachar‘s proposal is based on horizontal power sharing that promotes circulation of power between authorities and should have transformative effect both on the state institutions as well as the minority.

TA is based on three principles:• ‘sub-matter allocation of authority‘, divides contested arenas

into sub-matters (e.g. demarcation and distribution in family law);• ‘no-monopoly rule‘ – neither the state, nor the group has an

exclusive control over a certain legal arena;• ‘choice of option’ – the ability to opt-in and opt-out from the

jurisdiction of the respective authorities.

Sites of Joint-Governance in Education to Advance Inclusion of the Roma

Context:• Practices of Roma segregation either through special schooling

or within mainstream education;• Conventional model of national minority schools – i.e. parallel

minority institutions - applied in case of the Roma may in fact exaggerate segregation.

Both Romani leaders and experts tend to agree that desirable model promotes inclusion into mainstream institutions. Some Roma wish to preserve their linguistic identity and want to have their children to be educated in Romani.

Procedural proposal:Inclusion the Roma into decision-making in pre-school and primary education

Joint Committee at the central level in the executive power – the Ministry of Education responsible design of state school curriculum, certification of texts books, executive directives and legislative initiative (both the content and teaching methods).

Members appointed by the Roma sub-committee that exists within the committee of national minorities and ethnic group as an advisory body to the government (as of 2010 new method of electing members). Local level – creating Roma committees at municipal, urban, micro-regional level that would nominate members to the school council.

Conclusions:

Ambition is to utilizes the workable elements of national minority rights framework with aspects of NCA and TA to create sites for joint-governance that could promote genuine minority participation.To be further explored:Power sharing in other areas key for Roma empowerment and joint governance in legislative power.