Early childhood development policies in the country need urgent reform, says OSI-Sofia
About
The Roma Early Childhood Inclusion (RECI) report on Bulgaria has recently become a fact.
Roma Education Fund (REF) is an equal partner to the Open Society Foundations Early Childhood Program (OSF) and UNICEF in the RECI series joint initiative. The partnership was established to consolidate the parties for already a decade in addressing the gap in evidence and research on the Roma children. All three organizations are committed to improve young Roma children’s entry to high quality, inclusive and effective early childhood development services.
The principal objective of the reports was to make information and data on young Roma children’s exclusion available to decision makers and key stakeholders with a view to advocate for equitable early childhood policies and programs, says the page of the Europe-wide leading advocacy network, Romani Early Years Network (REYN).
The three organizations rotated the financial support and the management for each of the RECI country reports, as REF funded the Hungarian one (not published yet), while and OSF funded the Bulgarian report.
The “Decade of Collaboration” event in late 2020
During an online event celebrating a decade of collaboration and the launch of the Bulgarian RECI report, named “Evidence and Research for Roma Children—RECI Reports: A Decade of Collaboration”, Marko Pecak, the REF Research Officer and REF’s coordinator of the RECI project, popularized his stance:
“RECI partnership highlighted key facts about Roma children’s and families’ experiences regarding early childhood development. The regional patterns showed societal discrimination which impedes the lives of Roma children. There is an argument that there are not adequate data to inspire an institutional reform. The restrictions for collecting ethnically segregated data should not be an obstacle for the governments to obtain facts and have an overview of the early childhood development among the Roma children in Bulgaria. Officials must evaluate the current services and policies to expose the gaps that have led to inequality. It is pivotal for governments to understand the experiences of Roma families and children through institutional indicators, as well as research, as researchers are vital for building credibility.
The Government must develop comprehensive and inclusive national strategies, concerning Roma families and children, which are to be built on integrative approach which interacts all sectors. And all the way, to ensure the participation of Roma people within the reform process. National NGOs must uphold governments since they have the ultimate knowledge on experiences of Roma in institutional and systemic exclusion. National and international organizations have the resources to collect evidence, advocate renewed policies and message the stories which have human impacts on the malfunctioning systems.”
REF’s Co-Director Redjepali Chupi declared in his speech during the above-mentioned webinar that Roma Education Fund continues its leadership role to safeguard Roma children’s futures:
“The evidence and RECI reports have been critical in establishing dialogue with national stakeholders and policy makers. Further, the knowledge gained from projects, supported by REF and other partners, was critical in gathering evidence for scaling up interventions and governmental adoption. For instance, the RECI reports complimented Roma Education Fund’s Toy Library Network, where 58 libraries in 10 countries have been established. With many of them being either hosted, supported, and adopted by the local municipality.
The RECI partnership has created a synergy, where our organization has influenced early childhood education and care reforms through its experience and network. Simultaneously, the reports contributed to the development of Roma Education Fund’s parenting and other early childhood programs with the goal of filling in the institutional gaps.
Early childhood education and parenting is a long-standing priority for the Roma Education Fund. Further, we are planning to expand the toy library network, where families cannot only gain access to educational toys but also gain other types of support through parenting clubs and providing space and environment to build attachment between the parent and the child.
Additionally, Roma Education Fund is committed to supporting enrollment in quality kindergartens, as well as activities that establish kindergartens as multicultural environments which help, and do not exclude Roma parents and children.”
The Bulgarian RECI report
The report research phase was carried out in 2019 and early 2020 and included document analysis as well as qualitative field research in six Roma neighborhoods in Bulgaria: Kyustendil, Montana, Rozino, Shumen, Sliven, and Tundzha. Over 500 people, including Roma experts, Roma parents, and national stakeholders from various fields, took part in household surveys, face-to- face interviews, focus group discussions, and two online national consultation round tables.
Providing free prescribed drugs for all children under 4 years of age, guaranteeing a full package of services for pregnancy and childbirth for women, regardless of their health insurance status, elimination of kindergarten fees for all preschool children, as well as elimination of fees for nursery groups, at least targeting the poorest families – these are some of the recommendations sent to the Bulgarian government through the report “Early childhood in Roma communities in the Republic of Bulgaria” (RECI +), drafted by “Open society Institute” – Sofia.
According to data from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights for 2014, 86% of Roma families in Bulgaria are at risk of poverty, while this risk exists among 22% of the (non-Roma) Bulgarian families. Poverty and material deprivation do not allow Roma parents to pay fees and other hidden costs associated with attending a nursery or a kindergarten. This fact, accompanied by the chronic shortage of places in the Bulgarian kindergartens, have brought about why significantly fewer number of Roma children attend nurseries and kindergartens compared to the national average.
Other obstacles to quality early childhood care and education for Roma children are the insufficient training of educators in areas such as inclusive education and ethnic diversity; the lack of incentives to include Roma parents as equal partners in the educational process; discrimination and negative attitudes, including those of educational officials and non-Roma parents, etc. As a result, many Roma children are placed in segregated kindergartens with lower standards. Yet another issue is the educational programs which are not adapted for children whose mother language is different from Bulgarian. Additional support for learning Bulgarian is not offered before the start of the compulsory pre-school groups, as, at this time, many Roma children are already significantly behind their peers regarding their proficiency in Bulgarian language. This fact hinders their participation and attainment in school.
The authors of the RECI report recommended to the Government to utilize research to develop evidence-based policies and to increase the investment in early childhood development in Bulgaria to the average level of investment in this area in the EU.
Does the Bulgarian RECI report inspire policy changes?
“The Bulgarian report on Early Childhood Development among the Roma children is not meant to stay on the shelf. It really brought important data and insights and made a difference towards policy changes, such as on the 2020 amendments within the Child Protection Act in Bulgaria”, states Szilvia Pallaghy, then-Program Officer of the OSF Early Childhood Program.
“Yes, the report inspires policy change. Every report works with civil society and governmental agencies in the process to ensure that the recommendations are feasible and actionable. I cannot comment on how much the report influenced the amendment in the Bulgarian Children’s Act. However, I would guess it did since the researchers and partners in Bulgaria worked with the government agency and UNICEF”, responded Marko Pecak.
Important links:
Romani Early Years Network (REYN): https://reyn.eu/reci-home-page/.
Report of Roma Early Childhood Inclusion on Bulgaria (full RECI report):
https://reyn.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/RECI_Republic-of-Bulgaria-Report_ENG.pdf
Policy Brief on the Bulgarian RECI report:
https://reyn.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Policy-Brief-Bulgaria-ENG-proof2.pdf
View the Decade-dedicated webinar here:
Press release in Bulgarian:
