According to “Save Romania”, low rate, among Roma children, at the graduation of high school studies

Only 22% of Roma children attend high school, compared to the majority population where the percentage rises to 80%. The organization “Salvați Copiii Romania” has accelerated the program of educational inclusion and reduction of gaps for vulnerable children.

The share of Roma children attending compulsory education is 78% (compared to 95% for Romanian children in the neighborhood). The gap increases again in the case of access to high school education, where we find less than a quarter of Roma students (22%), compared to the majority population where the share rises to 80%. Between March 2021 and April 2024, the “Save the Children” Organization, in partnership with E-Romnja (Association for the Promotion of Roma Women’s Rights) and Bahna City Hall, implemented the “Integrated Services for Roma people from vulnerable communities” project, a program complex for socio-educational integration of Roma children, to reduce dramatic social gaps. The main reasons why young Roma leave school early are the following: high rates of poverty and social exclusion; the low share of formal employment; poor living conditions, discrimination, institutional racism. The general objective of the project aimed at the development of an integrated and innovative system of accessible and quality services that would ensure the increase of inclusion and the empowerment of Roma from four localities at the level of Neamț, Suceava, Timiș and Dolj counties. By carrying out the activities, we contributed to building a network of social inclusion and fight against poverty, by providing integrated services at the local level, covering the fields: medical, social and educational. “Vulnerable children end up dropping out of school because they cannot afford the costs of education. It is these children who are now at additional risk, so our intervention is essential. Times of crisis expose the most defenseless, in this case children, the most“, he mentioned Gabriela Alexandrescu, Executive President of “Save the Children Romania”. The project is co-financed from EEA and Norwegian Grants 2014-2021, through the Program “Local development, poverty reduction and increasing the inclusion of Roma”, call Increasing inclusion and empowerment of Roma.

How does the situation look?

According to statistical data, the situation is as follows: two-thirds of the ethnic Roma either did not graduate or did not graduate at all, or graduated at most from secondary school, a share five times higher than that of the majority population, according to the data of an IRES study (Comparative study of the needs of Roma communities in the context of establishing strategic intervention priorities for their social inclusion. Cluj-Napoca, 2018). The latest data available to FRA (European Agency for Fundamental Rights), from 10 EU member states, shows that in 2021, four out of five (80%) Roma, including their children, were still living in at-risk households of poverty and in conditions of severe material deprivation (48%). Data collected in FRA’s Roma survey, published in 2022, show that a large proportion of Roma live in unacceptable housing, segregated and lacking the most basic amenities, often without access to clean tap water.

The involvement of “Salvați Copiii Romania” and its partners

The four communities participating in the project have improved their status as marginalized communities by: the number of children participating in educational programs, increasing the number of people employed in the formal labor market, as well as by reducing inequalities regarding the coverage of social and medical services. Through all these long-term positive effects, the project contributed to breaking the cycle of socio-economic exclusion and the vicious circle of poverty and, implicitly, to increasing the inclusion and empowerment of Roma. Integrated services were offered as follows: 1,512 people in vulnerable situations, of which 1,349 Roma, benefited from access to sectoral and integrated services; 698 Roma children from the preschool, primary and secondary schools benefited from educational services; 94 children aged 0-4 years benefited from health services; 53 young people and adults of Roma ethnicity benefited from employment services; 25 people of Roma ethnicity benefited from support in obtaining identity documents; 14 people of Roma ethnicity in vulnerable situations benefited from the improvement of living conditions; 94 Roma parents of children beneficiaries of education services within the project have benefited from parental education programs; 32 specialists and volunteers involved in working with people of Roma ethnicity improved their skills to increase the quality of services offered in the communities targeted by the project; 45 Roma experts and leaders were trained to defend Roma rights.