Equality says Roma children have no problem integrating into UK mainstream

A study conducted by Equality, a UK national support organisation for the Roma, has shown that a number of Roma children who had previously been placed in special schools in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, were successfully completing primary and secondary education at integrated, mainstream schools in the United Kingdom. The average attainment of Roma pupils aged 9-15 in numeracy, literacy, and science at UK mainstream schools was just below average. Only a small percentage of the overall cohort of Roma pupils (2 to 4 percent) at schools surveyed were regarded as requiring special education needs because of learning difficulties or disabilities that made it more difficult for them to learn or access education than most children of the same age. For these Roma pupils, this extra help is given within the mainstream school. The Czech Republic is now in the process of integrating Roma children who had previously been placed in special schools into the mainstream. However the effort is meeting with considerable opposition from teachers who say that children who come from special schools will slow down the pace of education for the rest of the class.