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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2557108
Houston Chronicle (US)
May 8, 2004
Gypsy student beating odds
Roma people using education to break out of poverty
By RICHARD MERTENS
SKOPJE, Macedonia - Elvis Hajdar grew up in a sprawling Gypsy settlement, where most boys quit
school for the grim world of semi-employment and poverty that characterizes life for the majority of
their people in Eastern and Central Europe.
more...
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2557108
Houston Chronicle (US)
May 8, 2004
Gypsy student beating odds
Roma people using education to break out of poverty
By RICHARD MERTENS
SKOPJE, Macedonia - Elvis Hajdar grew up in a sprawling Gypsy settlement, where most boys quit
school for the grim world of semi-employment and poverty that characterizes life for the majority of
their people in Eastern and Central Europe.
But Hajdar's parents had other plans for him.
"They told me, `You must study,' " said Hajdar, now 23. " `Your future is only studying.' "
The odds were against him. The region's 5 million to 6 million Gypsies, or Roma, are a scattered,
impoverished minority who lag far behind non-Roma in education.
In Hajdar's own settlement, one of the largest Romani communities in the world, few young people graduate
from high school and only a rare student makes it to college. But Hajdar took his parents' injunction to heart.
In his elementary school, where most of his classmates were Roma, he won a prize as best in mathematics.
In high school, where he was the only Rom in his class, he struggled at first but persevered. On the day his
name appeared on the list of students admitted to the university, he was halfway home before he turned
around and went back, just to make sure he wasn't dreaming.
Today Hajdar, a personable young man with dark eyes and a ready smile, studies computer programming at the
University of Cyril and Methodius, Macedonia's state university. Although two years from graduating, he has
become a computer geek of some reputation in his neighborhood.
Hajdar is one of a small but growing number of young Roma in Eastern and Central Europe who are finding their
way into the region's universities, overcoming obstacles that have long stood between the Roma -- a people who
migrated from India about 1,000 years ago -- and education.
In Macedonia, which has the highest concentration of Roma in Eastern Europe, the number of Roma studying
at universities rose to 97 last year, from just nine in 1994.
"There are more people talking about education, not only for economic advancement, but ... for advancing
the rights and interests of the Roma as a people," said Claude Cahn, programs director at the European
Roma Rights Center in Budapest, Hungary.
Studies by the World Bank and other organizations conclude, however, that poverty, discrimination and
segregation continue to hold back Roma at every level of education, winnowing all but the most determined
and fortunate.
Many Romani children receive little or no elementary school education. Of the children who make it to
eighth grade, most do not go on to high school. Those who do typically drop out before graduating.
A 2002 United Nations study found that fewer than 10 percent of Roma had completed high school in several
European countries with the largest Romani populations, including Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and
the Czech Republic.
Even with recent gains, the number of Roma at universities "is so minuscule, it's difficult to even count or put
a percentage on it," said Christina McDonald, an expert on Romani education at the Open Society Institute
in Budapest.
Poverty is the biggest obstacle, McDonald and other experts say. Many Roma lack jobs and cannot afford
even the modest cost of books, school supplies and clothing necessary to send their sons and daughters to
school.
In places where Roma speak the Romani language, children struggle in the early grades to learn in the
national language. Often, local authorities shunt them to special schools for slow learners. Many Romani
children attend segregated schools, where prejudice and low expectations doom their chances to go far.
Scholarship programs sponsored by organizations such as the European Roma Rights Center and the Open
Society Institute are helping some young Roma go to both high school and college.
But the help falls well short of the need. In Macedonia, for instance, a program to encourage Roma to go to high school
by providing $50 a month for bus fare and other expenses receives about 200 applications a year for 50 scholarships.
In the belief that better education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty, the World Bank next
year plans to launch a 10-year effort to improve Romani education in Europe.
For the Roma, education may never have been so important. Under communism, many Roma worked for the state
as factory workers, street cleaners and other low-skill laborers. But such jobs have dried up, and both poverty and
unemployment among the Roma are deepening.
The achievements of students such as Hajdar stand out sharply against this backdrop. Like most young Roma who
have managed to reach the university, Hajdar comes from a family that is middle class by Romani standards.
But the Hajdars also showed unusual resolve. Hajdar's father urged him on, promising that if he succeeded in school,
he could be "his own man." He borrowed money from relatives to buy his son an antiquated desktop computer.
One of the greatest challenges for young Roma is going from elementary schools with mostly Romani students to
ethnically diverse and more competitive high schools. An A student in grade school, Hajdar began getting Ds and
Fs. He considered giving up.
"But my father said, `With your knowledge, you will rise and show the Macedonian people that Romani people
can know something,' " Hajdar said.
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