Education of the Roma Children

The Center for Intercultural Education (KEDA), affiliated to the Faculty of Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology of the University of Athens, undertook the realisation of an intervention and research project concerning the "Education of Roma Children" over the period 2010-2015. The geographic span of the project covered the regions of Epirus, Ionian Islands, Thessaly, Western Greece, Attica, Central Greece, Peloponnese, Crete, Southern and Northern Aegean. In the framework of the project interventions were designed with a view to facilitate the integration of Roma children in the education system and combat their social exclusion. In particular, the project aimed to facilitate Roma access to pre-school education; to reduce their school drop-out rates and strengthen educational attendance and achievement; to ensure the acceptance of Roma children by all members of the educational community; to strengthen schools that had already developed intervention strategies which encourage intercultural understanding, communication and cooperation. The project developed various research activities. Here we present a survey structured along 5 axes depicting the educational path of Roma, their position in the labour market, their housing conditions, their ethnocultural orientation their family and kinship relations.