Abstract:

Both the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic are among the countries with strong dependence of the pupils’ academic performance on the socio-economic and cultural status of their families. Moreover, in 2007, the Czech Rep. was convicted of indirect discrimination of Roma children in education at the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights.

In our previous surveys (Svoboda, Morvayova et al., 2010), it has already been demonstrated that basic school teachers in the Czech Rep. have different attitude towards supporting socially disadvantaged pupils from the majority and the Roma minority pupils. In further research, we focused on the topic of supporting children at risk of social exclusion and unequal access to education from the perspective of basic school pupils.

The paper deals with the results of an extensive quantitative study carried out in the Czech Rep. and in the Slovak Rep. in 2017 - 2018. The research sample consisted of 1481 respondents (684 respondents in the Czech Rep. and 797 respondents in Slovakia), pupils in the 8th and 9th grades of basic schools (aged 14 and 15). Two versions of the survey instrument (questionnaire) were used in the research. In both cases, they were based on a situational description by a ten-year-old boy (named John), who comes from a poor family and is at risk of the negative consequences of social exclusion. The research tool also includes a photo of the boy. That is the only element that varies in both versions of the research tool. One version offers a photograph of a boy representing the majority population in the Czech Rep. and Slovakia. The second uses a picture of a Roma boy. The respondents were asked to evaluate possible causes of John's situation. The main part of the research tool included a brief description of nine support measures. The purpose of the offered support measures was to improve John's situation at school and his family's situation. The respondents expressed their agreement or disagreement with the implementation of the proposed measures on the six-stage scale. We investigated into whether the level of agreement with the proposed measures would differ depending on the received research tool version: with John representing the majority (Group A) or a with John, the Roma boy (Group B). The hypothesis was tested at a 5% level of significance using the Mann-Whitney U test.

The results between the two versions of the research tool proved to differ significantly. In the Czech Rep., the difference between the two groups of respondents was reflected in six of the nine proposed support measures. In the Slovak Rep., the difference between the two groups was reflected in three of the nine proposed support measures. Consent to John’s support was always lower in the Group B, i.e. in the respondents who received the research tool variety with the picture of John, the Roma boy.

The results of the research clearly point to the need for the continuous development of intercultural education and the development of social responsibility among pupils. It proves the need for schools to address the issue of poverty and social exclusion, discuss its causes and the possibilities of overcoming it.

It is also necessary to encourage teachers to work with these topics within in-service teacher training. These measures can increase the level of social cohesion in the school environment and promote equal access to education in the both countries in future.

Keywords:

Roma, Needs in education, Segregation, Social disadvantage, Ethnicity.