Abstract:

The present study is part of the documents of a comprehensive research project that aims at elaborating a draft methodological guidance document to integrate Roma pupils into Hungarian-language schools. As a first step, I reviewed the legislation relating to the minorities of Slovakia, and the laws, recommendations and documents relating to the use of the minorities’ languages and the education of minorities — the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, the Slovak law on public education, and the Slovak public education programmes — in order to be able to provide a comprehensive overview of the laws and regulations governing the education of Roma pupils. Since Hungarian and Roma people live as minority groups in Slovakia, they are covered by the same legislation. In a second step, government programmes and documents directly affecting the Roma minority are scrutinized. It is widely known that the issue of Roma in Slovakia has been fraught with specific social and societal problems, that is why there are documents relating solely to the Roma minority. As the scope and objectives of the work of teachers are determined by the education programme, it is important to be very aware of in which educational areas the objectives themselves make multicultural education, greater awareness of minority cultures, and intercultural dialogue possible. The aim of the study is to describe the educational areas that provide scope for the presentation of minorities living in Slovakia and multicultural education. I would like to point out that the presentation of the Roma culture can be integrated into the curriculum on the basis of the documents. Some of the Roma children in Slovakia are attending Hungarian-language schools.

Accordingly, two crucial issues are covered in the study:
1) regulations specifically relating to the Roma people, and
2) rules concerning schools with Hungarian as the language of tuition.

My research has targeted in particular primary schools with Hungarian as the language of tuition, leaving aside secondary schools and high schools which teach students after the fourth grade of the primary school. My main purpose in writing the present study was to highlight how the issues of multiculturalism, minorities, and intercultural relations are reflected in the public education programmes.

Keywords:

Roma, public education programme, multicultural education, primary education.