Primary school teacher, Slovakia

Teaching Romani-speaking (L1) children in the mainstream education context  

26 May 2020 

Life before Covid-19  

This is my second year, teaching at a small newly established state primary school in a village in Eastern Slovakia, supporting children from the local Roma community. Romani is their mother tongue and the language of instruction is Slovak. This year I teach Grade 1. There are 12 pupils in my class, eight of whom had attended a pre-school preparation. These kids have a higher level of competence in the Slovak language, good comprehension skills, ability to communicate in simple sentences. But the kids who had not attended their pre-school year, there was, apart from some other issues, a huge language barrier. It took about four to six months of intense work, often on a one-to-one basis, before these children were able to comprehend and respond to basic instructions. We put a lot of effort into making sure that the children felt safe communicating with others in their class. The presence of former pre-schoolers in their group was very helpful, they were all able to help each other.  

My school is also very active in promoting character education. We do this through morning assemblies, various community events and meetings. There’s a long and complicated history of how this school came into existence and what the children have had to go through in terms of their schooling experiences as well as some truly traumatic discriminatory practices and attitudes. Our main goal is to try as much as possible to create a safe and community-orientated space for children in the classroom and in the school through shared stories, activities, events. We have also invested effort into building relationships with the parents. Before Covid-19, we often visited children in their homes and consulted their parents about their children’s individual needs, helping them to get a better understanding of what we, the teachers, do and how they can help as parents. We also have good relations with an NGO active in this community which focuses on early interventions to support the needs of children in poverty. As a teaching community, we work really well together and support each other through learning circles, we talk a lot about our various teaching dilemmas, share and develop new ideas.  

How life has changed as a result of Covid-19  

School closures had a huge impact on children in these communities generally, there was a lack of information, so even before the schools had closed, our head teacher made information flyers which were sent to families, because children were in panic, they were frightened and, with the closures, they were literally cut off. Although some families have Internet connection, this is not the case for most. So we decided as a school to go offline. We designed worksheets which, initially, were distributed directly to families by local social workers. We also sent them pencils, colouring pens, paper, things that these children otherwise don’t have readily available in their homes. We had a good response rate from children and the feedback from the parents was positive. But with the next phase of lockdown, the social workers were no longer permitted access to the community. We then used the local council office as a hub where the parents could collect the worksheets. But this was a problem, because they didn’t always collect, or if they did, they collected them late or never returned them. So it was a real communication challenge, how to keep them informed and not encourage social gatherings at the same time. We used Facebook and phone, but we simply could not reach everyone. There was sadly very little support from the local council. As the lockdown eased a bit, some parents offered to distribute materials to other families and then the teachers resumed visits to the community and we also invited parents to the school. It turns out that many disengaged because they were confused and really worried about their kids failing school. They thought that the teachers would use the scores for final evaluation and their children would not pass to the next grade. We could see how their past experiences and perceptions of school had shaped their concerns. So we used the parents’ meetings to explain that we were not using this for evaluation but to support their children.  

What concerns me 

There was a lot of discussion about mobile technologies and their role in engaging children in education. And we did explore this with the oldest children, we got some funding to purchase mobile phones and sim cards with data. But there were problems as banal as the signal, the connection was not good enough. And also not all families actually had the skills to use the phones. If something went wrong, there was no one we could send that would help them sort it out. And even in families that already use mobiles, they don’t routinely re-charge their battery or top up their credit, so connecting with them was often haphazard. And on top of that, even where we did manage to connect with students, they couldn’t easily find a quiet place to do their work in their busy homes. So mobiles were not useful to support their academic work. But they did help us to keep in touch socially, at least to say hello. For example, I sent them little videos as encouragement. 

I am devastated by this whole situation. Schools re-open on the 1st of June on a voluntary basis. In this community, most parents decided not to enrol their children. Despite all the work on character education, despite our regular meetings, despite all the work with the families, despite all the positive relationships we have been trying to build, despite the feeling I had that the parents were on board and understood what we were trying to do and why it was important for the children. I cannot imagine what the situation is like in other communities where there had been none or very poor communication between the school and the community even before the crisis. It’s as if the general panic that broke out as a result of the situation, the fact that returning to school was made optional, and also the fact that the children have got out of their daily school routine, made the parents decide against sending their kids back to school. And this means that our school is unlikely to re-open. We will try to support children on a one-to-one basis, we will offer individual tutorials.  

v septembri, ked sa vrátia do školy, budú pol roka bez toho, aby mali kontakt so školským prostredím, prípadne len veľmi okrajový. Myslím si, že to bude mať zásadný dopad na tieto decká. By the time they return in September, they will have been without any or with only a very limited contact with school for six months. I think this will have an absolutely fundamental impact on these kids. 

My estimate is that before the closure the kids had made huge progress in the Slovak language, in their communication, literacy, in their ability to socialise with other kids, follow instructions, work in groups, in writing, in numeracy. And what we’ve been building are skills. It’s not the content as such that I’m worried about, but the skills. These require a routine, a daily practice. They were not used to doing their homework at home, but relied instead on the support of the after-school club or remedial classes. For most children, there’s no parental support. And also their contact with the language. At home, they speak Romani, and it’s likely that they will not have had much contact with Slovak. Some children had access to a new tv programme for children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, once a week, so we reminded them to watch it. The content was very good, but because of the limited frequency, I don’t think this has made a massive difference among our kids. So by the time they return in September, they will have been without any or with only a very limited contact with school for six months. I think this will have an absolutely fundamental impact on these kids. 

What gives me hope  

My faith and people around me are very important to me. I have tried to use my time at this school as an opportunity for my own professional development. I am mortified because my two years at this school are coming to an end and I might not have the same opportunity as my colleagues to work actively with these kids. And from the outset, the life here has not been easy. It’s been fraught with such unimaginable challenges, almost absurd, really there was no will for this school to exist. So I’m driven by my strong internal motivation. I know why I’m doing this, I know that these kids need it, not in the sense that I’m trying to save them, but I know that the system needs it. The system has not tackled the question of educating children from these backgrounds and I feel that I have been learning a lot through this experience. And this experience of how it doesn’t work has been laid bare in this time of crisis. I hope that this has helped us as a society to see that there maybe not all children in Slovakia have access to the Internet. So maybe this is an opportunity for us all to learn. It may be a very drastic way, with a huge impact on these kids, but it has made me reflect deeply on these issues from the systemic perspective. Now we see it. Now we see the cracks through which these kids are falling. And we might do something about it in the future.  

Teraz to vidíme. Teraz vidíme tie diery, cez ktore nám tie deti padajú. A potom v budúcnosti s tým možno budeme niečo robiť. Now we see it. Now we see the cracks through which these kids are falling. And we might do something about it in the future.