Roma education, the Hungarian parliament passed legislation that mandates schools
to provide minority education programs. The Hungarian parliament, did not,
however, offer an example of the curriculum or teacher training that would be
necessary to put the new laws into practice. As a result, even those teachers wishing
to implement Roma-centric components in their classroom lessons, do not know
how to do so. Instead, the extra funds that the government provides for minority
education programs goes to teachers in the form of hardship pay for those who have
Roma students. The inability of the official state educational system to provide the
necessary educational curricula and training predestines the Roma children to
failure.
In response to the mounting problem of Roma education, Ferenc developed a
Roma-centric curriculum designed to instill pride and dignity in the Roma children
of Central and Eastern Europe. Through his program, which operates both in the
classroom and at home, he strives to ensure that 1) Roma children succeed in school
and 2) that the Roma culture will survive well into the 21st century. Taking
advantage of the new, post-1989, Hungarian legislation that requires schools to
implement minority education programs, Ferenc Orsos launched a program to train
teachers in the special techniques he has developed and refined over a seven years to
teach Roma children. His work represents one of the first serious attempts within the
Hungarian educational system to address the needs of the most under-served and
disadvantaged minority group in Hungary and Central and Eastern Europe. Ferenc's
work goes beyond simply wanting to improve the test scores of Roma children. He
is fighting to preserve his people's cultural heritage, which is disappearing in this era
of globalization and cultural homogenization.
When Ferenc began working with Roma children in 1979 he soon realized that
it was very difficult for them to keep up with the demands of school, and he
eventually found that their lack of knowledge about their own culture was directly
linked to their failure, because of its relationship to self-esteem and self-confidence.
In the beginning he developed courses on Roma identity for the primary schools.
When asked to describe his approach to education, he likes to give the example of a
young boy he taught in the town of Csapi. A young boy named Imre was failing in
school. Ferenc managed to turn the boy around and change his attitude about school
by first teaching him about Roma folklore. He helped the boy memorize Roma songs
and stories, and then he incorporated them into the boy's lessons. This approach to
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