Fundación Secretariado Gitano

Inequality in education among Roma students has increased in the last decade in Spain [editar]

• Education
• National level

On 5 September, in the context of back to school in Spain, the  Fundación Secretariado Gitano, a leading NGO in the promotion and equal opportunities of the Roma people in Spain and in the European context, has presented its latest report on “The educational situation of Roma students in Spain” (soon available in English). With this study, the organisation focuses on Roma students who will not return to the classrooms.

In the last decade (2012-2022) there has been no significant progress in improving the educational situation of Roma students: six out of ten Roma students do not graduate from compulsory secondary education.

“The educational levels of the Roma population are still very far from the average of the rest of the population and, consequently, the educational gap between Roma youth and the rest of Spanish youth continues to widen,” explains Sara Giménez, president of the Fundación Secretariado Gitano.

The main data of the study reflect that 40% of students leave school when they turn 16 years old. Early abandonment occurs, among other reasons, due to the greater repetition of courses and the progressive educational gap. The school failure rate (young people between 16 and 24 years old who do not graduate from compulsory secondary education) continues to be much higher than that of the general population (62.8% compared to 4%).

Equity in education, as an unavoidable challenge

The situation of inequality that affects Roma students occurs for different reasons, including the social context in which Roma households live, with poverty rates of 87.4% and child poverty of 86.8%; the lack of response of the educational system to offer inclusive education; and the high concentration and segregation of Roma students in certain schools.

Therefore, the Fundación Secretariado Gitano demands progress in equity in education with the implementation of a specific plan for guidance, support and educational reinforcement with state coverage, continued and in the long term to reverse the situation of school failure and early abandonment of Roma students.

Likewise, it requests the free incorporation of the entire Roma population into early childhood education to combat inequality at an early age. And it demands corrective mechanisms to reverse and prevent the situation of school segregation.

"Immersive experience" for journalists in a Madrid school

The presentation of this study was the starting signal for a series of public advocacy actions on education and the Roma community to be developed by the F. This event for the media was held on 5 September in a classroom of the school Santa María in Madrid. It was an "immersive experience" for the journalists who listened and asked their questions from the pupils' desks, in the real context of an educational centre.

The press conference began with a welcoming speech by the president of the Fundación Secretariado Gitano, Sara Giménez. Following this, the director general of the organisation, Isidro Rodríguez, gave a presentation of the main results and conclusions of the study "The educational situation of Roma students in Spain". There were also several testimonies, some on video and others in person, in a conversation held by Ana Segovia, FSG's Head of Social Advocacy, with the student Samuel, his mother Dolores and the teacher Sara, all of them Roma. ← BACK TO MAIN ‘NEWS’ PAGE