June 27, 2011–At the Decade of Roma Inclusion’s 20th International Steering Committee Meeting in Prague today, representatives of the Roma Education Fund (REF) will present preliminary findings from pilot research by Equality on the benefits of mainstream education for Roma children in the United Kingdom.

Anecdotal evidence from a 2009 study (PDF - 2.8M) by Equality, an organization that helps Roma who have migrated to the UK from new EU member states, showed that a number of Roma children who had previously been placed in segregated, special schools in the Czech Republic and Slovakia before migrating to the UK with their parents—and who then went on to attend integrated, mainstream schools in the UK—were successfully completing primary, secondary and sometimes tertiary education. 

In 2011, with support from REF, Equality has been conducting a pilot research project, which examines two groups of Roma from the Czech Republic and Slovakia living in the UK, to analyze the impact of mainstream education on Roma students as well as the role of schools and other organizations in mainstream education for Roma.

The results of the research will be published later this year.