Social exclusion and education-The case of language minorities in West Thessaloniki

DEMETRA KOGIDOU - EVAGELIA TRESSOU - GEORGIOS TSIAKALOS

E. Σκούρτου (επιμέλεια). Θέματα διγλωσσίας και Eκπαίδευσης,   Nήσος, Aθήνα, 1997.

1. Introduction

Commitment to the education of socially excluded, marginalized groups, namely commitment to the education of groups who experience social exclusion or are threatened by it, takes place in conditions of declining solidarity with the poor and the socially excluded. It also takes place in conditions of easy recourse-on the part of governments-to measures of economic cuts in social welfare. It takes place in an atmosphere of increasing racism against anything different and weak and at a time when traditional ways of exercising social policy have failed.

On the other hand, it takes place at a time when many people are becoming aware that the existence of socially excluded groups triggers social and political developments that undermine self-evident human values and democratic institutions established more than two hundred years ago.

In this paper, we will try to

-clarify the concept and roughly describe the phenomenon of social exclusion

-present forms of social exclusion in west Thessaloniki

-depict the relationship between social exclusion phenomena, on the one hand, and the use of another language in everyday life, on the other, and finally, to

-stress the impact of social exclusion on school attendance and school success, and alternatively, the significance of educational interventions for combating social exclusion.

We will avoid detailed statistical analysis, even if numbers clearly depict the extension of the phenomenon; we deem such an analysis unnecessary. The existence of even one excluded individual and the toleration of this exclusion on the part of society constitutes a social and political scandal, which is worth of our attention.

2. Social exclusion: Concept and phenomenon

The concept of social exclusion has recently appeared in the public discourse of European countries and especially the discourse emerging within the framework of European Community institutions. It is usually associated with the term poverty (i.e., “social exclusion and poverty”). Indeed sometimes it replaces the term “poverty” as if it were its synonym or as if it were a broader phenomenon including poverty.

Seeking the meaning of an abstract term, we should not forget that it refers to real people, that it is the description of the life of real people that gives meaning to concepts. It is, therefore, necessary in order to identify the content of the concept “social exclusion” to first determine which people we automatically associate with the socially excluded.

The term does not evoke the same associations to all people.

For some people it automatically means immigrants like they were themselves in the 60s or 70s in the industrially developed countries of northern and western Europe, the “gastarbeiters” of West Germany being the most characteristic example.

Recently, it may mean refugees who deserted areas afflicted by wars or dictatorships or economic refugees or illegal immigrants.

Or it may mean indigenous minorities, such as Sami in Norway and Sweden or Roma, Manus and Sindi, in general, Gypsies in every European country.

Maybe the picture that emerges spontaneously is that of single parent families or families with disabled members.

Or it may be the picture of people with AIDS or other illnesses considered by their fellow citizens to be dangerous for every day interactions.

Very often it means long unemployed individuals without the necessary qualifications to join the work force.

Whichever group of people the term social exclusion may be associated with

-children belong to each one of them. And the difficult situations adults experience are also experienced in the worst form by all children, usually having serious, negative consequences for their future.

Let us consider school, for example. The social exclusion of parents usually means children without equal opportunities for success at school, or worse, chidren without any possibility for success at school or even worse, children without any possibility of attending school.

In any case, children who cannot fully partake in the public and social good of education are the socially excluded of Tomorrow.

From the examples above, it becomes obvious that “social exclusion” is a different concept from that of poverty. Social exclusion deters people from benefiting from social and public goods, such as education, medicare and participation in the political process, the lack of which usually leads to economic stress. The term “social exclusion,” that is, characterizes both a situation and a process.

In our opinion, social exclusion both as a situation and a process constitutes a scandal in our times. We say “social exclusion constitutes a scandal in our times,” even if, apparently, social exclusion is not a new phenomenon in Europe. It existed in older times, it was rigidly established and constituted the main source of misery of whole social classes. More precisely: In older times, the inclusion of one person in the big group of the poor and miserable and his/her exclusion from the comparatively smaller group of the wealthy was an established process.

However, today, the existence of social exclusion is a scandal, because for the first time in history there are so many goods produced in Europe, that they should be sufficient for every one and no one should be condemned to economic stress. Contrary, however, to the expectations dictated by common sense, millions of people do not partake in the riches of Europe. They do not partake either because they are legally excluded or because limited consumption of basic public and social goods does not allow their access to the means of human survival.

Let us describe in detail what we mean when we talk about consumption of public and social goods.

In their effort to survive, individuals usually rely on their personal income and on public resources. The latter they use to different degrees. Children who have only attended compulsory education have utilised a certain amount of the public resources which can be figured out precisely for each country. The children who continue and finish secondary school have consumed a larger amount of public resources. Lastly, the children who graduate from the university have consumed a much larger amount of public resources than the previous two groups. This rationale applies to a number of situations. Whoever attends a theatrical performance subsidized by the government, or visits a museum, he/she takes advantage of a certain amount of the public wealth. Similarly, whoever makes use of the health system, in which large amounts of money is invested, also utilises part of the public wealth.

It becomes apparent that the less of the common wealth a person uses up, the greater the risk of sliding into poverty. Consumption of public resources, then, becomes one of the surest investments for the future. Moreover, it is an investment which, for its largest part, is realized through public money.

The extent of public wealth use, however, is not random. Certain groups of people are more capable of benefiting from common wealth than others. Thus,

-certain groups are excluded by law, i.e., there are situations where only the natives and not the immigrants or refugees have access to common wealth.

-Other groups are excluded indirectly, i.e., minority students who are obliged to attend school in an educational system insensitive to their needs or perhaps an educational system of lower standards.

-Other groups’ efforts to use common wealth are usually restricted because of certain factors operating dissuasively, i.e., a disabled individual may partake in the public resources only when the necessary conditions allowing his/her access to those resources exist.

Obviously, we could mention many more similar examples. If we listed every case, we would draw the map of social exclusion in Europe.

It is worth noticing that neither the existence of social exclusion nor its perpetuation is by any means random.

It is mainly the result of:

-strong dogmas and ideologies.

-lack of political will for essential reformation

-lack of the know-how for confronting phenomena of exclusion, even in cases when there is the will.

The difficulty in confronting all these negative factors arises from the fact that those who are affected by social exclusion and have limited access to the common wealth, are also the ones who are excluded from the most important feature of social wealth: equal participation in the political life. A real vicious circle: the inadequate consumption of basic public goods results in unequal participation in political decision-making, which in turn blocks any attempt at reducing the negative factors leading to social exclusion. The latter results in inadequate consumption of common wealth and so on. Thus the circle is completed and perpetuated.

This schematic description aims at demonstrating that whoever does not agree with the existence of social exclusion must intervene at any point of the vicious circle. Education may be one of these points, since, in the case of groups who use another language, education may constitute a mechanism of social exclusion or a factor of combating it. The relationship between the use of another language-other, that is, than the official-and of social exclusion will be illustrated through the case of western Thessaloniki.

3. The population of Western Thessaloniki

The population of the three Municipalities of the area consists of or/and comes from 1922 refugees from Asia Minor, Pontian refugees of the 20s and 30s, emigrants of the end of the 50s and 60s, repatriated immigrants, especially from West Germany, (who in their majority did not originally come from the area), repatriates from East Europe, Greeks who lived there as political refugees and Pontians who came recently from the former USSR. They are, that is, groups of people who with their settlement in the area “started from scratch,” with the exception of the repatriated immigrants who, in their majority, settled in the area after acquiring their own homes.

In the table that follows, the different origins of the people of the area are illustrated. In fact, in combination with data related to the year of their settlement in the area, the waves of immigration are specified-as well as their economical, social and political reasons-which contributed to the formulation of the particular social and economical framework of the area.

The intensity of the waves of immigration is characteristically depicted by the growth of the Municipality of Evosmos: its population according to the data of the census of the corresponding years was 7,713 people (mainly old refugees and first emigrants) in 1961, by 1971, it had tripled reaching 22,390 inhabitants (a wave of emigration) and in 1981 it had 26,528 inhabitants (the wave of repatriation from the countries of North and West Europe, which is not as strong as that of internal emigration of the previous period).

Given the fact that West Thessaloniki, where the area belongs, does not attract new residents from the wider area of Thessaloniki, we must consider the group of those born in the “rest of Thessaloniki-North Greece,” in their overwhelming majority, a group of emigrants from rural areas. Given also the fact that the group of those born in the area includes the children of “aliens” (emigrants, Greek repatriates from abroad, etc.) it becomes obvious that the great majority of adult residents of the area consists of aliens. 69% of these were emigrants from North Greece, 18% emigrants from the rest of Greece and 13% repatriated Greeks from abroad.

From the description above, it becomes obvious that in the case of West Thessaloniki, we have populations who, before their settlement in the area, had experiences with bilingual or/and multilingual environments. Furthermore, for certain of the groups, a different language is their mother tongue either as a vestige of previous linguistic socialization in a transitional period (Pontians) or as a basic and permanent cultural characteristic (Gypsies). This fact affects in both cases their chances of consumption of social goods, particularly educational goods, as well as their possibility for social and economic integration.

4. Use of a different language and social exclusion

Exploration of the phenomenon of social exclusion and poverty in the area of West Thessaloniki reveals the fact that families using a language different from the official experience greater degrees of social exclusion and poverty than families who speak exclusively the official language. The possibility, that is, of being poor becomes greater by the degree of the use of a different language in everyday life. Let us examine the facts.

Our research in the area demonstrated that of 13.64% of the category “all members of the family” use in everyday conversations another language/dialect except the official one.

The answer to this question allows for more than one interpretations. Thus, the answer may mean that another language or dialect is used exclusively or is only used in particular cases. Moreover, it may mean that the use of another language/dialect is the result of free will or a consequence of the fact that some individuals do not have adequate knowledge of the Greek language (which they would like to speak exclusively).

Regardless, however, of the cause of the particular situation, it is important that there is a relationship between this characteristic and several other characteristics of the economic and social position of these people. Thus, 60.8% of the families that at the time of the research (1990) had income lower than 70,000 drachmas a month (i.e., at the time of the research, lower than half of the per capita income in Greece) specified that no member of the family spoke any other than the official language of the State. However, 76.7% of the families with income 70,000 to 130,000 drachmas made the same statement, as well as 79.4% of the families with income 130,000-190,000 drachmas and 77.4% of the families with monthly income higher than 190,000 drachmas. On the contrary, 28.5% of the families with monthly income less than 70,000 specified that all members of the family use another language/dialect. The same statement was made by 9.72% of the families with 70,000-130,000 drachmas income, 8.02% of the families with an income of 130,000-190,000 drachmas and 8.33% of those who had an income bigger than 190,000 drachmas (see table 2).

Table 2. Answers to the question, “In your everyday discussions with your family do you use any other language/dialect?”

Answers in percentages (%) per monthly family income in thousands drachmas

<70 70-130 130-190 >190

No answer 2.78 1.62 1.07 0.00

Yes, all members

of the family 28.48 9.72 8.02 8.33

Yes, some

members of the

family 7.92 12.01 11.50 14.29

No 60.81 76.65 79.41 77.38

A similar differentiation is observed when the use of a different language/dialect is associated with the individual’s position in the labour market (see table 3). The longer the distance from the labour market, the higher the percentage of use of another language/dialect.

Table 3. Answers to the question, “In your everyday discussions with your family do you use any other language/dialect?”

Answers in percentages (%) according to position in the labour market

No answer 1.00 2.53 2.69

Yes, all members

of the family 11.54 41.77 18.85

Yes, some members

of the family 11.88 5.06 10.38

No 75.58 50.63 68.08

The above tables demonstrate that the use of a different language/dialect is apparently closely related to the phenomena of social exclusion and poverty. This relationship is not always due to the same mechanisms, though. Therefore, the use of another language may simply be the additional feature of other strong cultural particularities, which are the cause or occasion of social exclusion. It may also suggest, however, the lack of effective methods of teaching the official language to immigrants, who are not different in any other respect from the rest of the population. In conclusion, even when the consequence is the same, namely social exclusion and poverty, in order to plan successful educational intervention programmes, it is necessary to clarify the particular and different mechanisms which lead to social exclusion and, in addition, the relation of language to these mechanisms.

5. Educational policy and marginalized groups-The case of Rom and Pontians

An educational system may function as a factor of social and cultural integration of children coming from special groups or from minorities. On the other hand, however, it may function as a powerful mechanism of exclusion. The latter happens more often.

Exclusion appears in one of the three following stages in the educational life of a child:

1. Children of special groups remain, at a great percentage, outside school from the beginning .

2. Children of special groups are marginalized at school, at a high percentage and they are thus led to either school failure or early drop-out.

3. Children of special groups manage, at a very low percentage, to complete successfully the whole range of schooling and participate in the procedures for social mobility.

We may claim that the educational system functions, at all three stages, as a factor of social exclusion for the group of Gypsies living in the area. It is possible that the same will be true for the group of Pontians, if the necessary measures to confront the problem are not taken immediately.

We will describe below the relation of social exclusion to education as it manifests itself for the group of Gypsies and the group of Pontians.

5.1.1 Living conditions

Rom constitute a group with every characteristic of a cultural and linguistic minority. They live in the three Municipalities of the area, either periodically (nomads, with a specific rate of appearance in the area, result of their occupation), either-in their majority- as permanent residents of the area. Most of the latter category (1,141 people) live in the district of Dendropotamos, where they constitute 38.2% of the population.

Settlement in the area of Dendropotamos is by itself an indication of poverty, due to the conditions indigenous to the area. The characteristics of the area are: the gully of Dendropotamos borders on the settlement. This in connection to the lower level of the ground results in frequent floods and serious problems of dampness in houses. Other problems include the bad condition of the water supply network; the lack of drainage system; narrow streets and at the same time, complete lack of free space and vegetation. Moreover, the settlement has serious problems of air and ground pollution (high accumulation of sulphur dioxide, azote and lead oxides, etc.), due to its vicinity to the biggest plant of a chemical industry in North Greece.

Living conditions are reflected not only on the low quality of housing and surrounding areas but also at the size of houses: for 8.4% of the population (10.3% of housing) each person is allocated a space of 3.9 s.m.

Of the Rom who are employed, 54% specify “vendor” as their occupation and 32.5% “worker” (the corresponding percentages for residents of the same area who are not Rom are: 19.4% and 47.5%), while 9.7% call themselves free enterprisers and tradesmen.

Only few Rom receive some sort of benefit (6.9% unprotected children assistance) or pension (1.9%). 13.1% are insured in professional insurance organisations, 69.2% are covered by Welfare and 17.6% have no insurance at all.

On the basis of indirect data (residence, consumption of goods, etc) and information selected through interviews, the view that the majority of the Rom belong to the poorest groups of the area seems justified. This is due to the fact that Gypsies are emigrants-most of which have not permanently settled in one area-which accounts for the fact that they have no property or any other income except the income coming from their work. However, this income is very low and it is unstable as the work permit expires every year and is not automatically renewed. The result of this governmental policy is that many families may be left without any income overnight and they are obliged to either borrow or if they continue to exercise-illegally-their profession as vendors they may be obliged to pay high fines.

The income is not even stable for those who are hired, because they are invariably hired in positions of seasonal nature, mainly fruit-picking in different areas of Greece. Except for the bad implications seasonal work may have on these people’s income, what has also a negative influence is the lack of organization of access to that kind of work-Rom waste time looking for jobs on the basis of their previous experience only.

According to the above, the lack of a stable income is the result of these people’s adherence to specific professions, the smooth and profitable practice of which is possibly blocked either by administration (for a variety of reasons) or by lack of organisation in the particular area. This adherence is considered to be for the great majority of Rom the result of family tradition. The tradition, however, is maintained mainly because of the Rom’s inability to practise another profession-due to the high percentage of illiteracy among them.

Apart from their economic stress, Gypsies also experience strong social exclusion. Their interviews showed that they experience this situation as something very negative and that they would welcome a change, considering it an enrichment in their lives.

The reason for this social exclusion must be the existence of prejudices in the wider society and of related behaviour toward Gypsies in everyday life. [[[Prejudices are “verified” as to their contents, so negative behaviour becomes “self-evident” as to its “right of existence” due to the real or presumed particularities of Rom, as they are registered daily in the awareness and consciousness of members of the wider society.]]]

Rom present health problems-to a greater degree than people in the area who do not belong to their group-problems which contribute to their further decline into conditions of poverty. It is characteristic that only 69.1% of the Rom children have been vaccinated with the compulsory vaccinations, as opposed to 93% of the children who do not belong to the group. The main aggravating circumstances for their situation should be considered the bad condition of accommodation facilities, especially dampness and conditions of hygiene. Moreover, there is always the lack of information and/or alertness concerning the importance of vaccination in infancy.

Young Rom are reported to rate at the highest percentage of law violation compared to those of the rest of the population. Characteristically, of a sample of 313 juvenile court decisions in Thessaloniki, between 1986-1990, 32 involved juvenile Rom (31 boys and one girl). Of these offences, 69% related to theft, 12% violations of the Highway Code and 10% damage of other people’s property. There has been a great difference between punishments inflicted on Rom and those inflicted on other Greek citizens. Confinement in institutions was enforced in 9% of the Rom cases and imprisonment for criminal punishment in 22% of the cases (in contrast with 2.5% and 15% in cases when the accused was not Rom), while the lighter punishment of reprimand was never selected for a Rom adolescent, in contrast with 27% of defendants who were not Rom.

5.1.2 Educational marginalization

The Rom mother tongue is Romanes, while Greek is their second language and fluency varies from person to person. 48.7% of Rom are illiterate and 15.1% simply know how to read and write (the corresponding percentages for the population of the area who are not Rom are 9.5% and 10.8%). Only 67.8% of elementary school children are enroled in the elementary school, even though it is compulsory for all children, and only 50% of these children attend regularly. Very few Rom children have finished Junior High School (have had nine years of schooling, that is) and few children have attended Senior High School.

The state of the education of Gypsies is the result of the fact that, in their case, the mechanisms of exclusion function at all three stages mentioned above. These mechanisms are numerous, powerful and effective in the first two stages (so as not to appear in the third).

5.1.2..1 First stage of exclusion

Many Gypsies do not enrol their children at school. The reasons for that may be:

-the lack of positive experiences connected with school in the Rom society so far makes the children’s enrollment at school a less important “turning point” in their lives than it is for the rest of the population. The Rom, that is, have no experiences that may prove to them that school success may be associated with social success, nor that this may be combined with financial success. This fact combined with negative experiences, which constitute elements of their collective memory (children-objects of derision and prejudice) hinder many parents from the significant step of enroling their children.

- “Self-evident” cultural facts of the wider society, which, however, are unknown to the Rom society, function as “misconceptions,” as deterrents.

For example: when a Gypsy parent went to enrol his child they explained to him that they could not enrol him, since the necessary condition for that was that the child had got all the compulsory vaccination. The parent left and never came back, since he never took the child to be vaccinated, despite the recommendation of the Authorities (this is no simple matter for the Gypsies, who live on the fringe of society). This happens very often and constitutes a well-known mechanism of exclusion.

5.1.2.2 Second stage of exclusion

50% of enroled students do not attend regularly; on the contrary, after a short period of attendance they quit permanently.

The reasons for this are:

-Elementary education is based on the “undoubtful assumption” that on starting their school life, school children know Greek and possess basic characteristics of the culture. This, however, does not apply in the overwhelming majority of the Rom children. Thus, these children are educated on the basis of “self-evident” facts, which, however, do not apply in their cases, and consequently from the very beginning they face social exclusion and school failure. Drop-out after a while becomes a natural consequence of this situation.

-The school system does not take into consideration basic characteristics of the Rom society, which play a decisive role in the children’s performance and integration into school. These characteristics, apart from the different language, include,

a. time allotment, as the result of the nature of family occupation (i.e., occupation in seasonal work, which involves a lot of movement for the whole family).

b. the state of their health with continuous health problems, result of bad hygiene conditions.

c. norms of socialization in different rules of behaviour.

The life style of these chidren and the environment in which they grow up makes them independent and kinetic. As a consequence, they find it difficult to accept the absolute restrictions in space, time and movement imposed on them by the school’s regulations.

Moreover, from the first day of school they find themselves at a disadvantage in comparison to their non-Gypsy classmates concerning certain abilities required for school. As they have not attended preschool education-and their families for the reasons mentioned above did not bother to prepare them properly-they are not familiar with basic school behaviour rules, they have not been through the pre-reading and pre-writing stages, they have not developed attitudes that could facilitate their integration into the school system.

Considering also the fact that the lesson is carried out in a language they do not understand and that the examples used and the references made in the lesson are from and to a life not relevant to their world and to their life we may understand the reason why these children’s presence in the classroom becomes a torture.

5.1.2.3 Third stage of exclusion

Rom children who have finished secondary education are so few that examination of the reasons which may lead to their exclusion from tertiary education is at present insignificant and methodologically impossible to research.

The small number of Gypsy children in secondary education is attributed to early occupation for boys and to early marriage-with simultaneous seasonal occupation-for girls. On the face of it, this explanation seems correct. Closer observation, however, shows that in this case the relationship between cause-result only partially applies. In reality, the two phenomena are the result of the social exclusion and poverty that Gypsies experience.

[[[[This phenomenon, however, is of particular importance because of its consequences on one sector:]]] the almost absolute shortage of educators of Gypsy origin. Therefore, regardless of theoretical assumptions that for their better integration into the school system and for better acquisition of Greek it is necessary to pursue parallel teaching of the mother tongue, we cannot apply such a method, since there are neither Rom educators nor mainstream educators who know Romanes (nor is it at present feasible to cater for those educators who might wish to learn this language). Consequently, the mother tongue is “self-excluded” and the majority group seems to have every typical excuse to use only their own language as a means of instruction.

Regardless of the reasons obliging to the particular situation, the educational system distinctly divides the realm of Rom culturally, socially, linguistically and professionally in “a realm inside and outside the school walls.” Outside the walls, Rom may communicate, sing, fight and interpret the world in their mother tongue. Inside the school walls, there is another world with its own values, rules and obligations and, especially, with its own code of communication, through which Rom children are required to adapt to and acquire skills in subjects.

Up to now, authorities and all those involved in educational matters do not seem to concern themselves with what this procedure means for these children, for their mental balance and self-respect, or with what methods might be effective for their success at least in the educational sector. Myers (1992:209) stresses the importance of the above issues, concluding that unless measures are taken, results may be traumatic for children: “Schools are different from homes, often dramatically so. They differ not only in the physical setting and the people with whom the child will interact, but also in activities, expectations and rules of conduct and in ways of learning. Many of the millions of children entering primary school for the first time this year will be expected to speak in an unfamiliar language, to pay attention for long periods of time, to associate with a large group of children their own age, to use abstract symbols, and to do other things that are not part of their normal routine. Inability to cope with these differences will make the new experience difficult-even traumatic.”

It seems that school authorities believe that children and their parents should assume full responsibility and handle all these situations.

From 1990 on it has become a responsibility-in the sense of planned intervention-of the European Programme POVERTY 3.

5.1.3 Intervention of the Programme POVERTY 3

Intervention develops in three different levels:

a. Preparation of children excluded from education in order to mainstream them into the regular classroom.

b. Reinforcement of the skills of children already attending school

c. Adult literacy programmes

Activities are apparently modified for each of the groups: education in tents or the transport of children to places allocated to the Programme for tent children or the special instruction programme in the regular school.

We will only refer to an activity designed and carried out on the basis of the mechanisms of exclusion described above. This activity demonstrates a. the possibilities of success in education of Gypsies to the degree that it depends on educational know-how, b. bureaucratic resistance which blocks the process to positive change.

During the school year 1991-1992, all the preschool children were traced and vaccinated. Thus, a common barrier for their enrollment in elementary school was eliminated. In September all school age children started their school life.

Considering the particularities of the group, literacy groups were created within school, during its regular operation, with first grade children and classes with first grade age children. Classes, that is, were divided according to age, in contrast to the principal’s common policy to put all children, regardless of age-up to 15 years old-in the first grade on the basis of their illiteracy.

The children forming the target group were, according to their regular teachers, so far behind as to their knowledge and skills, that it was impossible for them to follow the pace of work and the syllabus and as a consequence, the accumulation of so many gaps in their education made their participation in the lesson impossible and their presence in class meaningless.

Intervention had the following features:

1. For the language lessons the children’s environment was taken into consideration, therefore the teaching tools used were quite different from the uniform textbooks used for the whole country.

2. Lessons were taught at different classes but inside school. Therefore, despite the fact they were held in separate groups, they still retained the official school character. The purpose of this was the empowerment of the children’s self-esteem and self-confidence (since they realized they could successfully attend the regular school).

3. Except for the language lessons, Gypsy children were taught the rest of the subjects in the regular classes with the rest of the children. This aimed at their better integration into school and the reinforcement of Greek language learning through other activities.

4. Teaching methods and materials were different from those used in the regular classes. Yet, both the methods and the materials were adapted to the methods and contents of the textbook, so that there were no big differences in the children’s experiences (mainly so that regular teachers did not consider these differences a “threat” to their practice).

It becomes obvious then that this intervention was characterized by a tendency to adapt to the current educational system with only small differences, which did not refute the general philosophy. However, these small interventions, despite the difficulties that appeared during the application of the programme-difficulties mainly due to the way and to the logic of function of the educational institutions-led to positive results in various sectors. These results had already become visible during the assessment at the end of February 1992. Characteristically, we may mention:

-Children did not feel objects of discrimination in relation to their classmates that remained in class. On the contrary, they felt that they enjoyed particularly privileged treatment. The fact that for two hours they felt they monopolized the attention, the interest and the care of the teacher made them feel privileged. Being for a few hours a special group in class registered in both children’s and parents’ minds as the recognition on the school’s part of the particularities of the group of Rom and consequently, as positive treatment.

-Attendance was regular, no absences were noticed, tendencies of deserting the classroom were reduced or even completely eliminated.

-The children asked the special educator to give them homework and they almost always brought it back finished. Their desire to write, especially on the blackboard but also in their notebooks, was almost pressing.

-The children made remarkable cognitive progress, despite the short period of time.

-The children learnt to cooperate, to listen quietly to the stories read aloud, to return the apparatus they used to its place, to write in their notebooks tidely and regularly.

From the discussion above, it becomes obvious that even small changes in the educational procedure may help reduce or eliminate phenomena that act negatively on the education of Gypsy children.

The follow-up of the intervention is typical of the strong resistance following every attempt at fighting forms of social exclusion.

Adhering to the “letter of the law,” according to which the pull-out of children during a class is not allowed and “therefore,” private turoring must take place after school hours, Greek bureaucracy labelled the programme “illegal” and ordered its termination.

Tutoring at after school hours, which was offered in an effort to replace the Programme did not bring the same results. On the contrary, it was reminiscent of former experiences: many of the children who had been attending regularly, stopped and did not go to school anymore.

This strong resistance against any change that could improve the education of minority children and in general, children coming from poor, excluded families seems irrational. However, this reaction on the part of authorities is not random. Except for racism and social cruelty that may form the basis of negative behaviour of educators, this behaviour is indicative of systems characterized by inertia and conservatism and therefore, in general, react to any possibility of change and modernization. Such possibility for change and modernization may be realised through modified educational systems for minority children and for children from poor and socially excluded groups. That’s why the possibility for change becomes visible either as a possibility of modernization of the whole educational system (if the system is dynamic and progressive) or as a threat that has to be eliminated (if the system is conservative). Shostak (1970:357) refers characteristically to the first category, when he describes the results of educational programmes which were applied in the framework of programmes for combating poverty in U.S.A. In fact, he considers it more than a simple possibility, he considers it a given fact: “What is far more exciting about some of the new agency approaches to the old problems associated with poverty is the promise therein of elevating rather than only endorsing certain mainstream conventions of American society. Classroom advances which had their genesis in programs for the disadvantaged and which have been adopted by suburban middle-class schools come immediately to mind.” Similarly, Braddock (1967:3) considers that the new elements introduced to the special educational programmes for poor and socially excluded children, such as the employment of non-professional educators, the absence of grades and competition, the transgression of the unnatural distinction between school and outside of school learning, they all constitute “the vanguard of reform in the education of all children and teachers.”

Therefore, considering the above, the form of reaction to the interventions which aim at improving the educational situation of the poor and socially excluded is an indicator of the readiness of the particular educational system to allow innovation. This also becomes obvious in the case of Pontians.

5.2.1 Living conditions

The Pontian families recently repatriated from the former USSR belong to the poorest part of the population of the area. The mean number of members per family is 4.24 (at a total of the population of the area: 3.48), 47% of the families have an income of less than 70,000 drachmas (as opposed to 17.7% of the population who do not belong to any of the target-groups), 24% have an income of 70,000-100,000 (as opposed to 26.1% of the population who do not belong to any of the target-groups) and 11% have an income between 100,000-130,000 (as opposed to 20.4% of the population who do not belong to any of the target-groups).

At a much higher percentage than that of the general population they rent homes (81.58% as opposed to 23.06%).

The percentage of electrical appliances per household seems higher than that of the general population-in fact, however, these appliances are brought tax free as household effects from the USSR and then after a period of time-during which they cannot be sold, according to the law-they are put up for sale in order to satisfy basic needs. Many of the families find it hard not only to satisfy their basic needs but they face survival problems.

The families of Pontian repatriates from the former USSR have no property. Furthermore, because no interstate agreements were signed between Greece and the USSR, senior citizens receive no pension. This fact makes Pontian families completely dependent for their survival on the existence and amount of salary. Their poverty, therefore, results from the lack of stable and/or satisfactory salary, that is, it results from underemployment or unemployment. In contrast to Gypsies, however, in their case, underemployment and unemployment is not the result of illiteracy or low educational level.

Their educational level is high even in relation to the rest of the population of the area: 2.63% claim they have never been to school, 7.89% have finished Elementary school, 34.21% have finished Junior Highschool, 2.63% Senior Highschool, 36.84% Vocational school and 15,79% have received Tertiary education. A great number of those who have received basic education have also acquired professional training at some technical/vocational school, often for professions whose practice in Greece requires no more than experience.

At the beginning of their settlement in Greece, Pontians are entitled to settlement benefits (but often they do not avail themselves of these benefits because of lack of information).

For their professional integration, the most important measures are: a. subsidies offered for a year to employers who hire Pontians and b. their right to attend professional training programmes. In both cases adequate knowledge of Greek is considered necessary. Nevertheless, most people know little or no Greek at all, while in every day life they generally speak Russian or Pontian.

Mainly due to the fact that they do not speak Greek fluently, the families of Pontian repatriates are alienated by their social environment, despite the positive attitude towards them adopted by the Pontians who settled in Greece before World War II and who constitute a large and dynamic part of the population of Thessaloniki and also despite the fact that their economic and social integration is considered a “national issue” by every social and political group. Therefore, their daily activities are restricted to their own group, while their wish and target is their integration with the wider society of the area. Their alienation retards their acclimatization and subsequently works as an independent factor of exclusion and alienation.

Therefore, the first cause of social marginalisation-both in terms of time appropriateness and in terms of importance- must be considered their ignorance of the Greek language. We may positively claim that once this phenomenon acquires elements of permanency, in the future, it will become a very powerful mechanism of perpetuation of social exclusion and poverty.

5.2.2 Educational marginalization

Juveniles are especially hit by the inadequate use of Greek in their immediate environment, since it limits their possibilities to integrate in school. Nevertheless, for the Pontian children, social exclusion in education does not manifest itself in the same form and with the same intensity as it does for the Gypsy children. On the other hand, there can be observed procedures which in time can create similar situations with those Gypsies face today.

5.2.2.1 School attendance

Parents not only have all the necessary prerequisite documents for their children’s enrollment at school, but they also come from a social environment where school played a very important role as an established form of education. Therefore, even when the school does not take care to inform them, parents themselves seek information for their children’s enrollment at school, thus eliminating the exclusion mechanisms, which, in the case of Gypsies, operate at the first stage.

5.2.2.2 School failure

Analysing the significance of the educational system for groups which experience poverty and social exclusion, Birnbaum, Harm and Ortof (1967), on the basis of their experience with programmes against poverty in the U.S.A., stress parameters that should be considered at school in relation to children living in poverty:

The school must instil in each child a desire for and an interest in learning. The child’s basic needs for respect, belongingness and self-esteem are powerful determinants for learning. Through participating in the gratification of these needs, the school can establish an atmosphere that serves to counteract some of the undermining influences in a child's environment. The low-income child can and needs to experience that learning contributes to his self-esteem, that he is capable of learning and that learning will bring future social and economic rewards. While schools cannot guarantee the latter, by fostering self-esteem they can provide hope and influence aspirations (23).

Keeping the above in mind, we come to the conclusion that despite intentions expressed on the part of educational authorities in Greece towards the Pontian group, the educational system of the country in terms of organisation and educational practice includes procedures that disempower Pontian children, undermine their self-esteem and thus marginalize them . For example:

-Pontian children at elementary school have difficulties in understanding and consequently participating in all subjects. On their enrollment at school, Pontian children find themselves in classes with native children of the same age and are required to attend lessons in a language they do not understand. The educational system (the system and not the educators), that is, obliges them to silence and deprives them of any possibility of participating in the lesson. Under the circumstances, it is natural that most children at Junior or Senior Highschool level do not attend or drop out of school early.

-Children prefer the company of those of their schoolmates who speak the same language and have the same school experiences. Since it is not among the aims of the educational system to create relations of communication among children (on the contrary, such relations are discouraged during the lesson), it is only natural that Pontian children stay away from their native classmates, who have in any case created friendships and social groups from previous years.

-Pontian parents face difficulties with the language themselves and they cannot participate in parent-teacher meetings or help their children with their homework.

5.2.3 The intervention of POVERTY 3 Programme

In the first stages of the Programme, the intervention involved Greek lessons for adults and tutoring for elementary school children and later, the establishment of the Centre for the Development of Educational Material.

The main conclusion ensuing from these activities is that from an educational point of view rapid success is feasible for this group. In order to fulfil this purpose, however, it is necessary to escape from bureaucratic entanglements. Characteristically enough, whenever extra help is supplied for the Pontian children, it takes the form of appointment of substitute teachers. In other words, the most inexperienced teachers are required to face a problem which in other countries is handled by specially trained staff. Naturally, the results are disappointing.

The establishment of the Centre for the Development of Educational Material on the part of the Programme POVERTY 3 promises to offer solution to this problem. Methods and teaching materials which have specifically been developed for the instruction of these groups will gradually be at the disposal of every educator interested in the effective resolution of educational problems of groups threatened by marginalization and exclusion.

In conclusion, we are quite justified to argue that the confrontation of educational problems of language minority children has not changed at all in relation to what Eliou (1984:94) stressed ten years ago: “At a time when at international scale our ethnic and language minorities claim the right to maintain their cultural identity, the official attitude in Greece remains inflexible and conservative. Thus, children who speak Arvanitika, Vlachika, Slavomacedonian at home are not only denied the right to be taught their languages at school, but the school goes as far as to interfere in order to eliminate genuine Greek idioms from their oral speech in areas where they are still maintained.

The problem is even more acute for the language minorities we are examining here, because, contrary to the ones Eliou refers to, these are not bilingual. In an educational system which perceives even bilingualism undesirable, then, in this system, the exclusive use of another language, the inadequate use, that is, of the official language, becomes a factor of exclusion from the common and social good of education.

6. Conclusion

The question posed is whether there are actually possibilities for school success for the children in these groups. The question is particularly timely because unsuccessful attempts around us abound-in any case, they appear to be more numerous than examples of success.

The answer is “yes,” school success for children threatened by social exclusion is feasible.

We can claim that because-as we have demonstrated so far-there are examples of successful attempts. Therefore, to generalize this success, it will take political will in connection with social sensitivity on the part of educators.

7 Bibliography

European Community Committee (1992): “The Community fights social alienation.” European Matters, 4, 1992.

Eliou, Maria (1984): “Educational and Social Dynamics.” Athens: Poreia Publishing Co.

Karras, Nikos (1987): “The real movement or what revolution we are talking about.”

Athens: Odysseas Publishing Co.

Kogidou, Demetra, Pavlos Pantazis (1990): “Individuals with special needs and their families-Limitations, Needs and Prospects.” Thessaloniki: POVERTY 3 Programme Publications.

Tressou-Milona, Evangelia (1992): “Teaching of Greek to Rom children.” School of English, Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics: “Proceedings. 6th International Symposium on the Description and/or Comparison of English.” Thessaloniki: Aristotle University Publications.

Tsiakalos, Georgios (1985): “Problems in the Education of the Society of Immigrants.” “Union of Greek University Professors of West Europe: ‘Greek Diaspora in West Europe.’” Athens: S.D.Vassilopoulos Publications.

Fragoudaki, Anna (1985): Sociology and Education-Theories on social inequality at school.” Athens: Papazisi Publications.

Binbaum, Martin L., Mary Gay Harm, Selma B. Ortof (1967): “The content for training in project ENABLE.” Child Study Association of America.

Braddock, Clayton (1967): “The Poor Bring Forth a Boon.” Southern Education Report, October 1967.

Kongidou, Dimitra, Georgios Tsiakalos (1992): “Praktische Modelle antirassistischer Arbeit.” Rudolf Leiprecht (HG.): Unter Anderen-Rassismus and Jugenbarbeit.” Duisburg: DISS, S. 63-76.

Myers, Robert (1992): “The Twelve Who Survive-Strengthening Programmes of Early Childhood Development in the Third World.” London and New York: Routledge.

Shostak, Arthur B. (1970): “Old Problems and New Agencies-How Much Change?” Warner Bloomberg, Jr. and Henry J. Schmandt (Eds.): “Urban Poverty-Its Social and Political Dimensions.” Beverly Hills. California: Sage Publications, pp. 339-370.

Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove (1981): “Bilingualism or Not-The Education of Minorities.” Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters.

Tsiakalos, Georgios (1992): “Five Assertions for a Policy to Overcome Social Exclusion within the EC.” Commission of the European Communities: Combating Social Exclusion, Fostering Integration.” Brussels.

Top

Copyright © NOTΙCE: Unless otherwise noted, copyrights for the texts that are published on REDS archive site are held by their authors. Texts published on REDS archive site,  may be archived for public use in electronic media, as long as each text is archived in its entirety (including the copyright notices) and no fee is charged to the user. Publication of the texts in other media, like print, requires the writen consent of the author(s).

Εκτός αν αναφέρεται διαφορετικά, τα δικαιώματα (copyright) για τα κείμενα που δημοσιεύονται στο site-αρχείο REDS ανήκουν στους συγγραφείς τους. Τα κείμενα που δημοσιεύονται στο site-αρχείο REDS μπορούν να αρχειοθετηθούν για δημόσια χρήση σε ηλεκτρονική μορφή, αρκεί κάθε κείμενο να διατίθεται ολόκληρο (περιλαμβανομένων των σημειώσεων για το copyright) και να μη ζητείται καμία χρηματική αμοιβή από το χρήστη. Η δημοσίευση των κειμένων σε άλλη μορφή, όπως έντυπη μορφή, απαιτεί τη γραπτή συναίνεση του(-ων) συγγραφέα(-ων).