Content

In 2006 we received almost 100 fewer complaints. There are two decisive factors which contributed to this. The number of complaints forwarded from central state bodies dropped by almost 30, which can probably be explained by the fact that 2006 was a relatively quiet year in terms of legislation compared to the comprehensive amendment of the Minority and Minority Election Act the previous year.

However, the almost 20% drop in individual complaints had the greatest effect on our figures. In our previous annual report we suggested that the establishment of the Equal Treatment Authority at the start of 2005 was likely to influence our client numbers. The impact was less apparent in the first year, but in the second year it appears that a proportion of complainants sought redress there. It should be noted here that the need to harmonise the legal practice of the two institutions will become increasingly apparent. Although by law, the Equal Treatment Authority, as a public administration body, falls under the scope of the Ombudsman Act, in my view it would make more sense to harmonise legal practice in a cooperative way. The first steps have been taken in this direction, yet the results remain to be seen at this point.

The impact of the amendment to minority legislation in 2005 made itself felt during the time period covered by this annual report. We shall discuss at length our investigation into the election process. There are several reasons why it is worth considering this issue in depth. Firstly, it concerns provisions relating to constitutional rights of major significance, and secondly, the content of fundamental minority legal institutions, which influence the entire minority protection model. I am thinking here, for example, of the right to free declaration of identity, in particular its collective dimension, and the question of ethnic data handling.

Finally, and regrettably, the issue needs to be addressed in detail because our concerns concerning the election rules, which we noted in our 2005 annual report, were largely borne out by the events of 2006.

Based on the results of our investigation, we cannot agree with the election process, or with the “official optimism” concerning the quality of the related legislation. The fact is that the unsuitability of the chosen solution meant that the original aim of eliminating earlier severe abuses of the election system was essentially frustrated, or far from met. We have a legal theory dispute with the central public administration bodes responsible for drafting the relevant rules of law, which, regrettably, despite all our efforts we have been unable to resolve.

One positive development, however, was that in the parliamentary and particularly committee debates (which slipped to the end of the year due to the 2006 general elections) on our 2005 annual report the need for a rethinking of the election legislation without delay was uniformly expressed.

The election occurrences in 2006 led to the national-level minority self-governments abandoning their earlier scepticism towards the election system we support. This scepticism, in fact, could largely be attributed to a lack of appropriate information. Since then we have received a regular stream of complaints regarding the unsuitability of the Election Act to prevent abuses of the system, and we have also had to face the fact that there is effectively no sanction, let alone deterrent, designed to eliminate infringements of the law (for example: making a false nomination declaration).

The other issue discussed at length in this report is a new set up within the Roma education system, called the integration measures package. In this introduction we would simply like to point to some links between schooling and social issues. It is widely accepted that the main obstacle to Roma integration is their lack of qualifications. This explains why I have treated the issue of schooling as one of the key questions during my time as ombudsman. Successive governments have recognised the dangers arising from ever more prevalent school segregation, and have taken numerous measures to promote the educational integration of the Roma population and to surmount their educational disadvantages.

However, it is also widely accepted that the effectiveness of these measures has been very limited. The question is why? In our view one of the main reasons, which has received little attention, is the link to social issues. Even serious initiatives to combat educational problems and the endeavours of a competent and dedicated teaching staff are doomed to failure if we treat the school as a separate problem from the local social reality. School segregation merely mirrors the inner workings of the local society. In reality it is a question not of school segregation, but of local social exclusion. The latter, however, generally does not manifest itself as clearly as the former (although there are exceptions, such as Roma slums). Poor living conditions, all too often evoking the third world, unemployed families, and a local government that is more interested in “straightforward" segregation than "tougher" integration all regenerate the problems. This closes the devil’s circle, from which there is barely any chance of escape without external assistance (from official bodies).

The European Union declared 2007 the year of equal opportunities, so we could hardly find a better occasion to finally combat these severe problems and to substantially improve the effectiveness of the measures taken that are geared towards this aim.

Minority legislation and changes to the local government system

1. Overview of changes to the Minority Act

In this annual report we cannot yet undertake to give a comprehensive picture of the experiences of applying the new regulations. We wish, however, to indicate those failings, which can only be eliminated through further legislation.

1.1. Coming into force of the amendment to the Act

The Constitutional Court has defined it as a constitutional requirement following from the principle of legal security that legislation – including the amendment of rules of law, and putting into force – should occur in rational order, and amendments should be clearly traceable and comprehensible to both legal subjects and bodies applying the law.

This constitutional requirement was not met fully, since the provisions bringing the amendment into force can be interpreted in various ways.

The act was promulgated on 26 October, 2005, and the amendments affecting the tasks and powers of the minority self-governments came into force on 25 November, 2005. It was not clear, however, whether the new legal status rules could also be applied to minority self-governments already in operation. Our experiences indicated that the vast proportion of minority self-governments had not received the amended text of the act within 30 days of its promulgation.

1.2. The participation of minority self-government members in local government decision-making

A fundamental condition of exercising the rights of joint decision-making (right to consent or opinion), is for minority self-governments to have access to the information allowing them to form an opinion. It is therefore necessary for the presidents of minority self-governments to participate in both the open and closed sessions of the given local government representative body and of its committees.

As is apparent from the complaints we received, in some settlements the question of the instances in which the president of the minority self-government could exercise their right of consultation was subject to regular debate.

In our view, the minority self-government delegate may participate in the debate on points on the agenda, including those which are not strictly connected to minority rights. The majority of the questions discussed by the representative body of the local government or its committee necessarily affect the minority community of the settlement, so it is therefore warranted for the minority self-government delegate to participate in the session.

1.3. Legislation on financial management of minority self-governments

By amending the Minority Act, the Parliament authorised the government to regulate by decree:

he financial management of minority self-governments
the system of conditions for central budgetary support proportional to tasks performed and rules for accounting how the money has been spent.

According to the Legislation Act, these executive decrees should have been brought into force in parallel with the amendment to the Minority Act. However, by the time of completing this report, there was still no rule of law on reorganisation of the financing system for minority self-governments. Until this is remedied, the practice already criticised in earlier reports remains in place: minority self-governments receive an equal level of budgetary assistance regardless of the size of the community represented and the tasks performed.

In this annual report too we call upon the government to fulfil its legislative obligation as prescribed by Parliament.

1.4. Discontinuation of minority self-governments

The discontinuation of minority self-government can raise several problems of property management.

The legal successor of the discontinued minority self-government is the newly elected and formed minority self-government. Until the legal succession takes place, the entire movable and unmovable property and other property rights of the discontinued local or regional minority self-government enters the temporary management of the local government.

The legislator wished by these means to resolve the problem that the property of the discontinued minority self-government has no owner. The local government may use the property with proprietary solicitude and has the right to collect profits, providing that – with the exception prescribed in the rule of law – it does not sell, mortgage, or further transfer the right of temporary management.

The local government, therefore, is obliged to manage the property, without acquiring ownership rights, whilst there is no guarantee at all that a new minority self-government will be formed to which the property must then be transferred.

Nor is it clear for what purposes the local government may use the property of the terminated minority self-government. In our opinion it is reasonable to expect that the local government should manage the property in a way that promotes minority rights.

In our view the problems outlined above require that the Minister of Justice and Law Enforcement review the effectiveness of the amended provisions of the Minority Act this year.

2. Assessment of the local minority self-government elections

As we did for the 1998 and 2002 elections, we conducted an investigation last year to assess whether the legal provisions guarantee the exercise of the right to representation of minorities, and whether they are able to combat election abuses.

2.1. Election preparations

The new legal regulations only allow the right to elect and be elected to those who make a declaration concerning their affiliation to the minority community. In terms of election participation, it was therefore of crucial importance that minority electors be appropriately informed about voluntary registration.

The local election offices had until 31 May to send out the information booklet on the minority self-government elections, with which a form should have been enclosed to request inclusion in the minority electoral register.

As far as we are aware the election offices sent the information booklet to all addressees within the deadline. However some people, thinking it to be advertising, threw away the unaddressed envelopes, without opening them. In several settlements the form to request inclusion in the electoral register was not enclosed, however this omission was rectified immediately once detected.

The National Election Office published the key election information on its website and in the information booklet. The local election offices also had an important role to play in informing electors. However, several minority self-government and civil organisations indicated that they found the measures taken by the notaries to prepare for the elections insufficient.

In some settlements the local election offices were not clear about whether only the original form could be accepted, or whether a photocopy was also admissible.

We requested the opinion of the National Election Office on the complaints we received. The National Election Office issued a circular drawing the attention of the notaries to the fact that the form requesting inclusion in the minority electoral register may be photocopied, or downloaded from the internet.

Despite the failings experienced, it can be said that preparations for the elections were generally in order. However, in future the National Election office needs to pay more attention to preparing the local election offices in advance, and unifying their legal practice.

2.2. Compilation of the minority electoral register

It is the constitutional right of national and ethnic minorities in Hungary to establish minority self-governments in settlements (including the Budapest districts).

In order to ensure the exercise of this fundamental right, the new legislation gives only members of minority communities the right to elect minority self-governments.

In the minority self-government elections those persons can elect and be elected who:

are affiliated to one of the national or ethnic minorities, and who assume and declare this affiliation to the minority,
are Hungarian citizens,
have the right to vote in the local government representative and mayoral elections, and
are included in the minority electoral register

The minority electoral register defines those persons who have the right to vote. There is a similar register for the local government elections, with the fundamental difference that its establishment and continual management is compulsory independently of the wishes of electors, whilst inclusion in the minority register takes place on a voluntary basis based on request, and the information is recorded temporarily until the final result of the election has been established. Another significant difference is that the local government register of names has to be public to voters, whereas the information included in the minority electoral register is not open.

Voting citizens were able to request inclusion in the electoral register between 1 June and 15 July, 2006, by placing the completed form in one of the special collection boxes or sending it by letter to the notary. Electors were only allowed to request inclusion in one minority register, failing which each request was judged invalid.

The inconsistency of the legislation can be blamed for the fact that whilst in theory only members of the given minority community could request inclusion in the minority electoral register, in practice anybody could acquire the right to participate in the elections by making a formal declaration. The election bodies were unable to investigate the truth of the declaration, so the notaries could not reject the requests, even if it was clear that the given person had no tie to the given minority community.

Numerous minority self-governments and civil organisations indicated that large numbers of electors had been included in the register even in settlements where in reality there is no minority community.

Comparing the statistics released by the National Election Office and the Central Statistical office it emerges that in 122 settlements or Budapest districts, at least 30 electors requested inclusion in the minority electoral register, whereas in the 2001 census three or fewer persons declared affinity to the given nationality. Among these in 50 settlements nobody declared themselves a member of the minority community and nobody reported a linguistic or cultural tie to the minority community.

This does not mean that in every one of these settlements electoral an abuse took place, however the figures make one stop and think even if we take into account that the nationality statistics of the census are not accurate, and it is estimated that just a third of members of minority communities declared their identity.

It can therefore be established that due to the failings of the current regulations it was possible in numerous settlements to compile a register of at least 30 persons – the minimum number for an election to be called - where in fact there was no real community legitimacy. The legal amendment only partly achieved its aim: the legislator did not provide appropriate procedural rules to ensure that only members of the represented community would be successful in requesting inclusion in the electoral register

The rules for compilation of the register also need to be changed because the willingness to register of minority electors was significantly reduced by the fact that they had to assume their identity not in front of a committee consisting of members of the community, but in writing to the notary.

Our experiences indicated that this contributed decisively to the fact that by June 15, 2006, a total of 199,789 minority electors had requested inclusion in the register.[1] In several settlements, where there is a significant minority community, and where until now a minority self-government had functioned, elections could not be called due to the low number of registered electors.

We received several complaints concerning abuses in certain settlements when submitting requests for inclusion in the register.

During our investigation a number of notaries informed us that in their view more people had requested inclusion in the electoral register than the actual number of people belonging to the minority community. They also suspected that the person who had collected and submitted the requests had abused the data of those making the declarations, and had in this way managed to ensure that 30 people were registered so that the election could go ahead.

The rules for inclusion in the electoral register are also objectionable because they did not ensure the transparency of the procedure and the traceability of requests.

We received complaints from several settlements that some request forms allegedly placed in the collection boxes had “disappeared” or not reached the election office.

The notaries were obliged under criminal law to ensure the secure protection of the submitted requests. However, due to the difficulties of proof it is almost impossible to clarify whether the requests had really been placed in the collection boxes and if so, who removed them from there and at what time.

In numerous settlements there were rumours that unauthorised persons were able to gain access to the information contained within the minority electoral register.

In the course of our investigation it was not proven in any case that the information contained within the minority electoral registers went beyond the local election offices. The “secrecy” of the identity of the electors could also not be ensured because those living in the neighbourhood could see who went into the minority self-government polling station on the day of the election.

We can, therefore, establish, that it could by no means be guaranteed that the identity of the minority voters not become public. At the same time, the provisions prohibiting access to the minority electoral register, on the grounds of protecting the right of the individual to self-determination of their own details, prevented the communities from being able to take action against infringements of the collective right to self-governance and self-identity.

The failings experienced made it clear that in its current form the minority electoral register cannot guarantee that only members of the community represented are able to participate in the minority self-government elections.

However, we cannot conclude from the above that introduction of the register was a mistake on the part of the legislator. We are convinced that it is the only means which, following an amendment to the procedural election rules, could combat abuses.

This is supported by the fact that, according to the information given by the national-level self-governments, in several settlements, where previously there had been a “bogus self-government”, those not affiliated to the community did not even attempt the establishment of a minority electoral register, or the minimum number of 30 persons did not register themselves for an election to be called.

Nevertheless, this favourable change was not due to the new legislation providing a sufficient guarantee against abuses, but rather the fact that there were just a few months between the amendment entering into force and the deadline for inclusion in the electoral register. This meant that the failings of the election system did not become widely known, nor how they could be exploited.

In order to put an end to the abuses minority communities also need to be allowed to participate in the process of inclusion in the electoral register. It would also act as a safeguard if electors could only submit their request for inclusion in the minority electoral register in person.

2.3. Calling the elections

One aim of the legal amendment was that minority self-government elections only go ahead if required by a sufficient number of members of the given community. The legislator allowed elections to be called only in those settlements where at least 30 persons had been included in the electoral register.

The election offices were obliged to make public the number of electors included in the minority electoral register on a weekly basis. In the majority of settlements the minority communities, in knowledge of these figures, were "satisfied" with the minimum of 30 persons. As a result the deletion of just a few electors from the register was able to put the election at risk.

We received complaints from several settlements that electors had not deleted their inclusion in the register voluntarily, and that members of the election office attempted to influence their decision.

The notaries, however, declared that the electors had requested the deletion of their own accord.

These complaints also highlighted the fact that the regulations do not give a clear answer to the question of whether electors can request their deletion from the minority electoral register. According to judicial practice, however, the members of the minority community have the right not only to request their inclusion in the register, but also to initiate its deletion.

This interpretation is in line with the provisions of the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The framework agreement posits the following: “Every person belonging to a national minority shall have the right freely to choose to be treated or not to be treated as such and no disadvantage shall result from this choice or from the exercise of the rights which are connected to that choice.”

In the interests of legal security, however, it is necessary that this fundamental right not be inferred merely from individual court rulings. Instead, the legislator needs to define clearly the instances of deletion from the minority electoral register.

2.4. Candidacy

At the time of drafting the amendment there was agreement that the conditions of candidacy needed to be tightened. According to the original plans, a person who stood as a minority candidate could not undertake the representation of another nationality.

2.4.1. Criteria of the minority nominating organisations

In the 2002 local minority self-government elections around 65% of nominees ran as independent candidates. However as a result of the 2005 amendment only the nominees of minority organisations could run in the elections.

We received numerous complaints concerning the ban on independent candidates.

In our view the involvement of the nominating organisations is necessary until the time comes when it can be guaranteed that only the members of the minority community may exercise active and passive elective rights.

The legislator, in addition to banning independent candidates (albeit temporarily) also excluded the possibility of being able to influence the elections through creating false minority organisations. Only those civil organisations were entitled to put forward a candidate, which had registered the representation of the given majority in their statute at least three years prior to the elections.

As a result of tightening the rules for standing as a candidate, minority organisations in some cases were able to prevent minority self-governments being established in settlements, where members of the community allegedly represented do not actually live.

However, the National Ukrainian Self-Government reported that due to the participation of several false minority nominating organisations, even now several minority self-governments were formed with no real community legitimacy. We received numerous complaints in connection with certain national organisations deliberately supporting candidates not belonging to their own community.

These cases draw attention to the need to rethink the criteria of nominating organisations, and to tighten the conditions for the registration of nominees, as well as to ensure that these can be examined.

2.4.2. Registration of minority self-government candidates

Candidates running in the earlier minority self-government elections did not have to be affiliated to the given nationality, it was sufficient if they “undertook” to represent the minority. The new legislation, by contrast, has made it a requirement that the candidate be included in the minority electoral register and that they register themselves as a member of the community to be represented.

The elector – regardless of domicile – could be nominated in any settlement where minority self-government elections had been called.

The candidate, by completing a form, had to declare that:

they undertake representation of the minority,
whether they know the language of the minority community,
whether they know the culture and traditions of the minority community,
whether they had earlier been a member or functionary of a minority self-government.

The declaration of the candidate was designed to ensure that only those persons may be minority representatives who possess objective criteria of belonging to the community. The Election Act, however, only prescribed the completion of the declaration and did not oblige the election bodies to check its contents. As a result anybody could become a candidate who had been included in the minority electoral register and who declared that they would undertake to represent the minority.

The majority of the candidates assumed stricter criteria than the election bodies actually demanded. For that reason, many “concealed” the fact that they had earlier represented another minority, or with no basis claimed that they knew the language and culture of the given minority.

One of the fundamental tasks of minority representatives is to ensure the transmission of the minority culture and language. It is evident that it is impossible to fulfil this task properly without actually being in possession of this knowledge. At the time of establishing the minority self-government system, it may have been reasonable to point to the fact that the assimilation policy of the past decades meant that the use of the native tongue within the communities was not widespread. However, from the following minority self-government cycle we think it is justifiable and realistic that only those persons be elected as minority representatives who possess the language skills necessary to carry out their public office. We also regard it as a fundamental requirement that in future only those persons be able to run as minority self-government candidates who earlier have not been the representative of another minority.

2.5. The election campaign

The aim of the election campaign is for the candidates and nominating organisations to win the support of voters. Part of this is that voters should have access to information based on which they can make an informed decision about who they want to represent them.

It is clear, therefore, that election campaigns had the potential to play an important part in the minority self-government elections. However, in practice this was made impossible due to the fact that the candidates had no information on those included in the electoral register so they could not establish contact with their potential voters.

Several minority organisations complained that the written and electronic press did not pay sufficient attention to the minority self-government elections. Minority candidates had considerable fewer opportunities to appear in the local media than the candidates for the local government elections.

The fairness of the minority self-government elections requires that the candidates be able to popularise, and introduce their platform and views, and that voters have access to the information required to make an informed decision. For this reason the legislator needs to harmonise the rules for the minority electoral register with the basic principles concerning elections and the provisions for election campaigns.

2.6. Voting

The local minority self-government elections were held on 1 October 2006, the same day as the local government elections.

2.6.1. Voting checks

Numerous minority organisations objected that their delegates were not allowed to be involved in the work of the vote-counting committees. In some settlements this contributed to the fact that they questioned the credibility of the election results.

The protection of the personal data of the minority voters is an important requirement during the elections. However, the exercise of this right should not be used as a pretext for restricting checks on the organisation of minority self-government elections. We therefore think it necessary that in future minority nominating organisations be allowed to delegate one member each to the vote-counting committees, as is the case for the local government elections.

2.6.2. Organisation of the voting

Several national-level minority self-governments complained that minority voters living in one settlement had to vote at the same place. As a result in the larger cities some voters even had to travel several kilometres. In our view the participation rate would have been much higher if voters could have cast their votes in the polling station closest to their place of residence.

At the time of the legislation being drafted, we indicated that we thought it would be a good idea if voters were assigned to individual constituencies based on their address, and the place of voting decided so that it could be accessed as easily as possible. Our proposal was rejected by the ministry.

We therefore suggest that the legislator establish the rules for establishing constituencies, taking into account the features of minority elections. We advise that the legislator reduce the number of voters needed to create several constituencies, and enable notaries to allocate the place of voting based on local circumstances, and where necessary in different locations in the settlements.

2.6.4. Conclusions drawn from the participation figures

In the 2006 local minority self-government elections 63.81% of those entitled to vote participated. This is higher than the participation rate of 53.12% in the local government elections, yet it was still lower than prior expectations.

It can be presumed that many of those who did not vote were electors not affiliated to the minority community, but who were nevertheless included in the minority electoral register. They registered themselves as an expression of good-feeling or through “persuasion” so that the number of minority voters in the given settlement would reach the minimum of 30 persons.

This is indicated by the fact that in some settlements the participation rate was extraordinarily low. There was even an instance of there being fewer voters than elected representatives.

According to the current legislation, there is no validity hurdle in the minority self-government elections, although the election was only valid if each of the five representatives received at least one vote. However, this vote could be made by the same voter – and even the candidate themselves.

Given the election figures, the question arises of whether a minority self-government elected by just four or five voters can have the necessary community legitimacy.

We think there is a need for legislation which would make the formation of minority self-governments possible only in settlements where both the number of registered voters and of votes confirm that the given community asserts the right to be represented.

We recommend that the legislator consider the possibility of raising the number of electors needed for the elections to go ahead and the minimum number of valid votes for a minority self-government to be formed.

2.7. Election results

In 2002, 1870 minority self-government elections were held in 1308 settlements, of which 1811 were valid.

In 2006 2049 minority self-government elections were held in 1435 settlements. As a result of these elections 2045 local minority self-governments were formed.

Fewer Polish, Serbian and Slovenian self-governments were formed than in the past. The number of Croatian, Armenian, Romanian and Slovakian bodies rose slightly. Some 11-13% more Roma, Greek and German self-governments were created. The number of Bulgarian bodies increased considerably by 26.6%. The number of Ukrainian self-governments rose by 58.3%, and there was a 67.7% jump in the number of Ruthenian self-governments.

It is worth noting that in 2006 minority self-governments were formed in 119 settlements where according to the data from the 2001 census nobody or fewer than 3 persons declared themselves affiliated to the given nationality or reported their linguistic or cultural tie to the minority. In 74 of these settlements minority representatives were elected for the first time.

The communities or their organisations disputed the legitimacy of numerous Romanian, Ruthenian and Ukrainian self-governments. Their requests for legal redress were rejected, however, by the election bodies on the grounds that the elections had been conducted in accordance with the operative regulations.

In the absence of the necessary legal safeguards, minority self-governments were formed in settlements where members of the community allegedly represented do not even live. In other places only the representatives were affiliated to the nationality, and managed to arrange for an election to go ahead by organising a voter base for themselves. These are not real bodies of self-governance, and it is suspected that they were formed with the aim of financial gain.

Based on the complaints and information we received, we can state that despite the amendment to the legislation numerous abuses took place during the 2006 local minority self-government elections. However, it is not possible to estimate how many bogus minority self-governments may actually have been formed, since the minority electoral registers were not public and even the communities concerned cannot know who in reality elected the representatives.

2.8. Our proposals resulting from the investigation

As a conclusion to our investigation, we asked Parliament to frame and bring into force before the next general elections the necessary legal provisions for ensuring that the constitutional right to establish local minority self-governments is upheld, and the rules for acquiring preferential mandates in the local government elections.

In order for Parliament to fulfil its legislative tasks, we asked the Local Government and Regional Development Minister and the Justice and Law Enforcement Minister to draft the new legal amendment, taking into account the conclusions of our investigation. We suggested that safeguards be drawn up to ensure that:

only the members of the given community be successful in requesting inclusion in the minority electoral register;

the minority communities concerned, via their delegates, should be allowed to participate in the compilation of the minority electoral register;

an objective set of criteria be available for inclusion in the minority electoral register, which would enable well-founded decision-making;

only candidates affiliated to the community represented and who have linguistic and cultural ties to the community be allowed to participate in the minority self-government elections;

minority self-governments only be formed in those settlements, where there is a genuine community desire for representation;

the minority nominating organisations be able to delegate a member to the vote-counting committees;

the fundamental rules for handling the minority electoral register be recorded in law, with particular attention to the instances in which electors may request their deletion from the register;

members of the minority communities – if they have stood in the elections as minority candidates – be able to acquire a mandate in the local government representative body preferentially, with fewer votes.

We also asked the Justice and Law Enforcement Minister to review whether criminal law offers sufficient protection against abuses of the minority self-government elections, and if necessary to draft the amendment of the Criminal Code.

We recommended to the director of the National Election Office that greater attention be paid to preparing the local election offices and unifying their legal practice.

We have not yet received a government response to our proposals. However the National Election Committee in its report assessing the elections wrote the following: “In agreement with the opinion of the Parliamentary Commissioner for National and Ethnic Minority Rights, the committee regards legislation as acceptable in the future which allows minorities to manage their own register.” The Data Protection Ombudsman also indicated that he supports allowing the involvement of minority communities in registering voters, and that candidates be allowed access to the data of those included in the minority electoral register. He also regards the current rules for submitting requests as giving cause for concern.

II.

The key to achieving minority rights: minority education

1. Circumstances influencing national and ethnic minority education

As we have stressed in each of our annual reports, minority education is the key to safeguarding individual and community minority self-identity, and ensuring the survival, fostering and transmission of minority identity. Providing high-standard [2] minority education under the appropriate organisational, financial and staff conditions is the most important public issue concerning minorities.

Minority education, therefore, lies at the root of minority cultural autonomy, yet minority cultural autonomy, which can be achieved by maintaining schools, depends on the allowances granted by the state in connection with establishing and taking over schools.

There was no breakthrough in this field in 2006. As we have already described, the maintainers of schools offering minority teaching are typically local governments: national-level minority self-governments currently maintain a total of just eight schools.[3] It is important to note that this number will increase by one from the 2007/2008 academic year, however, the Ruthenian, Armenian, Romanian, Slovenian and Roma self-governments do not maintain a single school.

As a result of the above we suggest that the set of legal conditions for the transfer of the right to maintain schools offering minority teaching needs to be rethought.

Since the local minority self-governments are presumed to be [4] the maintainers of fewer than ten institutes, the realisation of the joint decision-making procedure partially ensuring minority cultural autonomy has remained a crucial question. As a result – perhaps understandably – we receive the highest number of minority education complaints concerning the rights to consent and opinion. (The education complaints of the Roma minority are fundamentally different, since these complaints primarily relate to segregation.)

Nor has there been significant improvement in the field of national minority teacher training. We wish to draw attention to the fact that teacher training extending to the whole of public education only exists for the German, Slovakian and Croatian languages: only these three minorities have nursery, lower elementary, upper elementary and secondary level teacher training in Hungary. There is no secondary level teacher training in Hungary for the Romanian nationality. The Serbian nationality lacks nursery level and upper elementary teacher training in Hungary, and the Ukrainian and Slovenian nationalities lack nursery level and lower elementary teacher training. The Bulgarian, Polish and Greek nationalities only have secondary level teacher training; and there is no teacher training at any level for the Armenian, Ruthenian and Roma [5] language areas.

As a result of the above we think greater state funding than at present needs to be allotted for participation in national minority teacher training.

The construction for textbook support changed last year [6]. The local governments order minority textbooks as permanent textbooks and the central budget refunds the price retrospectively. The schools receive the books for three years (with a ten per cent increase and extra sets of books for those taking the secondary leaving exam and give them free of charge to pupils. (Parents can buy work books and exercise books at a preferential price.)

We must draw attention to the fact that – despite the considerable efforts of the Education and Culture Ministry – the textbook supply for minorities in Hungary is extremely lacking. Even German bi-lingual education, which is in a relatively good situation, lacks fundamental books: for example, there is no German nationality language text book for years 9-12, so it has to be replaced by German foreign language books. In the secondary school years, there is also no German nationality literature textbook, only an anthology and reader.

Despite the lack of minority text books, we do not regard section 24 (3) of the Education Ministry decree 23/2004 on the rules for officially acknowledged textbooks, textbook support and supplying schools with textbooks as an adequate solution, since it makes it possible for books included in the register of supplementary books to be used in national and ethnic minority education without the safeguard rules of the official acknowledgment procedure for textbooks without even stressing that this is a temporary measure and without the necessary regulations.

The lack of minority textbooks is largely due to the lack of authorial capacity, and since it is practising teachers who could write such books, we propose support for contracting teams of writers and allowing sabbatical periods.

We regard it as very positive that the Education and Culture Ministry amended the 13/2006. (III. 31.) OM decree on the rules for claiming, making payable and accounting for supplementary support for national minority teaching tasks to set a new deadline for claiming support after 44% of the entitled maintainers of minority institutions failed to submit their application within the deadline.

One school head asked for our opinion on a theoretical question, in connection with which the need arose to amend the 32/1997. (XI. 5.) MKM decree on publication of the directive on national and ethnic minority nursing education and the directive on nation and ethnic minority school education teaching (hereinafter: directive). Since this rule of law contains the most important rules for minority education, we shall discuss it in detail below.

In the view of the director, since national minority teaching may take place with pupils from several years and classes, there is no obstacle to introducing it at the same time for pupils from all years – and the school applied for the supplementary state grant on the basis of this legal interpretation. (The director consulted us on this question.)

The competent regional directorate of the Hungarian State Treasury (hereinafter: MÁK) found the 2005 accounts of the local government concerned unlawful. For according to the cited rules of law[7] the teaching of minority language and literature, and minority culture has to be phased in from the first class[8].

In our view the lexical interpretation of the State Treasury is correct, however it does not stand up to systemic interpretation: the sections of the directive cited by the State Treasury are inconsistent with section 67 (2) of the Constitution, the second sentence of section 8 (2), with sections 13 (1) and 51 (1) and section 121 (1) point 10 of the Public Education Act, because they violate the right of the parent to choose the education of their child, and without reason restrict the right to teaching of national and ethnic minority native languages, and in violation of the Legislation Act narrow the concept of the phasing in system. The contradiction can only be resolved by amending the directive.

The Hungarian Constitution, among fundamental rights and obligations, gives parents the right to choose the education given to their children, and states that the Hungarian Republic allows the right to national and ethnic minority to teaching in the native language (and within this to teaching of the native language). Section 8(2) declares that the essential content of fundamental rights may not be restricted by a rule of law.

According to the final phrase of section 13 (1) of the Public Education Act – coming under the choice of education – parents have the right to choose a nursery, school or student accommodation for their child according to their national or ethnic minority affiliation.

The Minority Act recognises the native language of minorities as a factor that binds the community together. Sections 43 (3) and (4) of the Minority Act tie introduction of minority teaching in the native language and of the native language to three conditions: the minority education must be viable locally, there must be a concrete demand for it, and it must be possible to arrange the school class based on the provisions of the Public Education Act.

Unfortunately the rules of law do not define what is meant by the phrase “viable locally”. According to our interpretation, a school class has to be arranged for members of the national and ethnic minority if a “normal” class can be created from (at least) eight pupils from the same year group or a class merged from at least eight pupils belonging to different year groups (which as a general rule means pupils from different age groups).

It is less evident, but in the absence of any rule prohibiting it, we also regard it as conceivable that the local government as maintainer – at the request of parents and based on its own judgement – may organise minority education even if not obliged to form a class, or if a class can not be established based on the Public Education Act: if there is a suitable teaching programme we also think it is possible to organise a school group complying with the content requirements of minority education. The Public Education Act enables a wide sphere of differentiation, makes possible project teaching and also allows study requirements to be fulfilled in an academic year or in a shorter time than prescribed. In conclusion, even a significant age difference between pupils need not exclude the realisation of minority teaching.

However, based on the joint interpretation of the directive and the National Basic Syllabus Act minority teaching may be introduced (phased in) from the first year/class. It follows from this that:

the creation of a class composed of pupils belonging to several years is only possible if the pupils of the years concerned have participated in the minority education from the first class;

group teaching is only permitted within the same year group, if the pupils of the year groups/forms concerned have participated in the minority education from the first class.

Nor does the directive comply with the ( pedagogically justified) rules of the Public Education Act concerning phasing in: it is only possible to introduce and modify pedagogical programmes - as generally is the case for changes to study and examination requirements according to section 51 (1) of the Public Education Act – from the academic year following the approval and with phasing in, but the expression “lowest school year group concerned” here refers not to the first class but to the year group specifically affected by the change.

The directive, by making it exclusively possible to start a class operating according to the minority teaching programme from the first year, excludes the parents of children in years above the first class from exercising their right to choice of minority teaching. In addition it impedes the exercise of the right to national and ethnic minority native language teaching of pupils in year groups higher than the first class.

It is worth noting that the directive would also not comply with the necessity/proportionality test developed by the Constitutional Court, since pedagogically it unnecessarily (entirely without reason) restricts the achievement of minority teaching aims.

Last but not least it is worth pointing out that the content of the directive also raises the risk of direct discrimination.

We established that a constitutional irregularity was also caused by the fact that compared to the regulations recorded in law, the directive gave a narrow definition to the concept of the lowest school class concerned”[9] .

In the light of the above we turned to the Education and Culture Minister with legislative proposals that the 32/1997. (XI. 5.) MKM decree be amended so that the phasing in of minority education become possible in the lowest classes concerned, and that the content requirements (language levels) be defined accordingly.

We also proposed that the Education and Culture Minister initiate either the annulment of the “viable locally” expression in section 43 (3) of the Minority Act, which is not interpreted, or clarify its definition with an explanatory provision.

In order that the constitutional right to legal security be upheld – to avoid other similar cases to the concrete case in hand – we also proposed that the minister, in discussion with the Hungarian State Treasury and the National Audit Office inform those applying the law, particularly local governments maintaining schools, of the conditions of the obligation to organise and maintain minority nursery groups and school classes, the relation of these to one another and whether minority education can be introduced in several year groups at the same time (if the pedagogical programme ensures that the phasing in system is implemented).

The minister, when consulted by us, stressed that the right to native language teaching can only fully upheld if the conditions of such are ensured from the outset.

That cannot be doubted, yet it is not an appropriate argument in favour of minority education being introduced exclusively from the first year group/class since firstly there are other legal conditions for whether minority classes may be organised apart from the wishes of the parent, and secondly the right to choose minority education may not be restricted to one age group because of the public education system.

At the same time the minister acknowledged that the lowest year group concerned does not necessarily have to be understood as the first year. The ministry will discuss the proposal firstly with the National Minority Committee, and then with national-level minority self-governments. If they agree the amendment of the decree will be set in motion. Those talks had not come to an end at the time of writing the annual report.

2. Report on our investigation into the effectiveness of educational integration measures

The aim of the investigation

In the twelve years since our office was established, we have always attached particular importance to the issue of education, as proven by the several comprehensive investigations we have carried out – in the areas of minority education, special (remedial) school education, and higher education. In the past decade, in the framework of investigations into numerous individual cases, we dealt with the segregation of Roma children in schools, and put forward several initiatives and recommendations aimed at ending discrimination and unlawful segregation.

In 2002 the Education Ministry launched a programme designed to integrate disadvantaged and Roma pupils, to eliminate and prevent school segregation and discrimination, and in connection with this to spread modern teaching methods.

The aim of this investigation was to review how and to what extent the education policy measures outlined above contribute to the elimination and prevention of educational segregation, and to consider in what direction the system of educational integration could and should be further developed based on experiences to date. We hope that our observations will contribute to the effectiveness and success of the measures.

During the investigation we consistently investigated whether the prohibition of discrimination set out in section 70/A of the Constitution, and the state obligation to promote equal opportunities are upheld in education, and in a wider sense in the comprehensive government integration measures.

The desegregation reform launched by the Education Ministry is still at an early stage. For that reason the investigation was focused on analysing the general concept and coherence of the programme, rather than “calling to account” results which are still unavailable and unmeasurable at this point. The expected change in education financing and the start of the second National Development Plan (NFT II.), also called the New Hungary Development Plan (ÚMFT) could significantly influence the development of integration policy. The other aim of our investigation, therefore, was to offer feedback based on our experiences of the implementation of the integration policy so far in the interests of potentially necessary rectifications.

The method of the investigation

The investigation consisted of several phases built upon one another. In December 2005 we organised a forum, at which the former Ministerial Commissioner for the Integration of Disadvantaged and Roma children gave a talk about the results achieved so far. Next invited education experts [10] analysed the integration measures and some of the schools concerned spoke of their experiences.

In autumn 2006 in the framework of on-site investigations, we visited 20 schools introducing skills development or integrated teaching, the school maintainers and where possible the Roma minority self-government of the given settlement. We spoke with the head teachers and – where possible – with teachers, and visited lessons, with the aim of investigating: what integration means to the schools, how integration has been implemented in the daily life of the school and class work, what results they had managed to achieve and what difficulties they had to contend with. We also gathered information on the education policy of the local governments as maintainers; we looked at how their attitude to integration influences, inspired, or restricted the integration efforts of the schools.[11]

We were also curious as to how those who framed the integration education policy and the staff of the organisation assisting its implementation judge the results so far, and what changes they consider necessary. For this reason we conducted an interview with Gábor Daróczi, political adviser of the Education and Culture Ministry (OKM) and Dr. Judit Szőke, the leader of the National Education Integration Network and Development Centre (OOIH), and carried out interviews with the regional and sub-region coordinators of the OOIH.

In November 2006 we also organised a conference, at which the OOIH leader gave a talk about the work of the networks to date and its results, and then four invited schools gave talks to open the discussion on the topics of teaching innovation, integration, cooperation networks, financing, professional monitoring, and measuring results. Gábor Daróczi addressed the subject of the change in education financing, and the expected opportunities linked to the National Development Plan. The talks were followed by the comments of schools introducing skills development and integration preparation.

In order to clarify the comprehensive system of educational integration we consulted the Prime Minister’s Office, and asked for information on the government integration policy. We also addressed questions to the Education and Culture Minister.

Comprehensive integration measures

The measures of the Education and Culture Ministry can only have a direct effect on segregation occurring within schools. Their impact on segregation occurring between individual educational institutions can only be indirect. The other forms of segregation (for example, residential segregation), and the causes that trigger it cannot be influenced by education policy tools.

Educational integration measures alone, therefore, i.e. without labour market, social, regional development measures etc. cannot achieve results. Real success is only possible through a comprehensive programme aimed at eliminating segregation as a complex phenomenon.

To achieve integration, comprehensive governmental measures are needed. For this the tasks of the various bodies need to be harmonised, and the roles, possibilities of action and sphere of influence of the individual ministries, local bodies and institutions clearly defined. The measures need to react to the causes that create and keep segregation alive (polarising settlement and society structure, social migration, uneven labour markets etc.) and provide a comprehensive response to these. (For example, to eliminate crisis areas there is a need for complex programmes involving job creation, social and health provision, settlement development etc.)

An unavoidable question before we consider measures designed to promote integration is whether we should regard the situation of the Roma population as merely a social problem or also as a minorities problem. The difficulty arises from the fact that the Roma population is both a minority with its own culture and language, and - largely - a multiply disadvantaged group.

The LXXVII Act of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities (Minority Act.) provides for the preservation of the cultural and linguistic identity of the Roma, and the creation of cultural autonomy for the Roma minority. Providing for minority rights, however, does not solve the social problems of the Roma or problems connected to the discrimination they suffer due to the prejudices of majority society.

Strategies aimed at enabling the social integration of Roma and eliminating exclusion need to react clearly to the following:

Firstly, through legislation improvements and education and awareness-raising campaigns, the state needs to tackle discrimination, prejudices and negative attitudes in society, and to promote good relations between the minority and the majority society.

Secondly, by implementing general social-policy measures (social issues, education, housing, regional development, employment, healthcare) the state needs to focus on resolving the problem of the multiply disadvantaged population. In order to avoid social tensions it is an important principle that measures taken to reduce social disadvantages should be established by the social indicators of the target group, i.e. they should not only target the Roma population. In addition it is essential to consistently monitor to what extent the general measures are reaching the Roma population and contributing to improving their circumstances. This means applying the mainstreaming principle, i.e. monitoring at every level of legislation and implementation how the given measures affect the situation of the Roma population and minority-majority relations.

General government strategies also suitable for treating segregation

We requested that the Prime Minister’s Office clarify whether there are government programmes aimed at eliminating segregation and providing a suitable, comprehensive response based on analysis of the causes of segregation.

In response the Prime Minister’s Office informed us that the government – within the Government programme and the New Hungary Development plan- wishes to strengthen social cohesion through a complex set of tools. “The institutions, working methods, legal environment, resources and financing techniques of this social-policy goal need to be developed and expanded on the level of central government bodies, local governments, regions and sub-regions, as well as the efforts and resources of civil society.”

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, complex intersectoral developments will be carried out in the most disadvantaged sub-regions within the framework of the New Hungary Development Plan: the “Inclusive School” project (which is part of the 21st Century School flagship programme) is closely connected to the intersectoral programme aimed at the complex development of the most disadvantaged sub-regions (28 sub-regions + other disadvantaged settlements based on the “Chance for residents of most disadvantaged sub-regions” programme).”[12]

We were also informed that “in the framework of the New Hungary Development Plan’s social renewal operative programme (TÁMOP), the government has defined the set of goals and tools for strengthening social cohesion ...” The government will support the infrastructure developments needed to achieve the social-policy goals through the planned operative programmes of the New Hungary Development Plan’s social infrastructure programme (TIOP).

The Prime Minister’s Office also referred to the international Decade of Roma Inclusion programme, one of whose aims is to “improve the educational qualifications of the Roma population”.

In the period between 2007 and 2013 TÁMOP could promote the social and economic integration of the poorest layers of society through numerous measures. The programme contains both measures designed to establish educational integration in the narrowest sense, as well as to implement general social and economic prerequisites enabling educational integration.

Each of the six specific goals [13] recorded in the TÁMOP could be important for our topic. In terms of eliminating segregation, the goals of strengthening social cohesion, supporting equal opportunities and reducing regional differences in labour market activity are particularly significant. One of the priorities of TÁMOP is ensuring high-quality education and general access to it. All the sub-priorities given here are of directly significance in establishing educational integration: for example, support for teaching groups of different educational needs and integration of pupils with special learning needs, reducing the segregation of the multiply disadvantaged and Roma pupils, and creating equal opportunities in public education.

Another important aspect is the priority titled “health preservation and strengthening of social acceptance and participation”, which has numerous important sub-priorities. These include: supporting the most disadvantaged regions and complex developments aimed at reducing segregation within settlements, and improving the access of multiply disadvantaged groups to the social care system and services in the interests of promoting labour market integration.

Of the TÁMOP’s three horizontal goals, the promotion of equal opportunities is extremely important. In light of this, the question of equal opportunities need to be taken into account in the course of planning, implementing, evaluating and monitoring the priorities and measures, and ensuring that equal opportunities are really achieved. The TÁMOP reflects the view that enforcing equal opportunities strengthens social, economic and regional cohesion.

The necessary action plans for the call for applications are currently being prepared. Applications are expected to be invited in 2007.

TÁMOP, we hope, can provide a real opportunity to eliminate regional and social inequalities, thus creating the social and economic background for educational integration. Hopefully, the very complex apparatus involving many official bodies will be suitable to ensure that the programme’s developments really do reach the members of the poorest groups on the edges of society. The Roma population is particularly important from this point of view, since its opportunities are reduced not only by social disadvantages, but by social discrimination, often in an institutionalised form. The wide-scale success of the programmes is promoted by the principles of equal opportunities and partnership as horizontal principles of implementation, which must be taken into account at all stages from evaluating project proposals and inviting applications to project support, monitoring and inspection functions.

The principle of equal opportunities also features among the horizontal aspects of TIOP which is designed to develop the infrastructure of human services (education, training, healthcare, employment, social services, and culture).

Summarising the above, we can establish that there are numerous new apparently effective initiatives that could promote the development of social acceptance. However, it is important to place great emphasis on ensuring that laws and government measures not specifically serving this aim do not weaken the effectiveness of the programmes outlined above.

During our on-site investigations we frequently came across conflicting measures that weakened the effect of one another.

One example relates to funding: within the National Development Plan I, funding assigned through the Human Resources Development Operative Programme (HEFOP) was aimed at achieving desegregation, yet small schools in small settlements where full segregation took place received EU funding through the calls for applications of the Regional Operative Programme (ROP). In these cases the horizontal aspect of equal opportunities was not upheld.

We received numerous observations from the leaders of the local governments and school heads that the current legislation for sub-regions [14] could lead to processes with an anti-integration effect. Whilst local governments are forced for financial reasons to create multi-purpose sub-region partnerships, the legislation for sub-regions does not contain provisions motivating the educational integration of disadvantaged children. The catchment area of the schools participating in the partnership does not change, and they continue to carry out educational tasks according to the accustomed division of labour, which often means the separation of the elite school and the school of the multiply disadvantaged. According to experts, on a regional level one form of segregation is for the “Gypsy school” settlement to be forced out of the partnerships.

The examples given above also convince us that the aspects of equal treatment, equal opportunities and social integration must be present and put into place as horizontal principles in legislative and executive processes.

Special government measures aimed at integration of the Roma minority

The Decade of Roma Inclusion programme (RIÉP) is a collaboration of nine Central and Eastern European countries, within which each country has to draw up a strategic plan based on unified goals and methodology. For the implementation of this the participant states, including Hungary, have to prepare a two-year action plan comprising concrete government measures. The strategic plan, which has yet to be adopted, determines comprehensive and concrete goals, indicators and measures for the social and economic integration of the Roma population in four priority fields (education, employment, housing and healthcare). The achievement of these is promoted by horizontal aspects (for example, equal treatment) which extend to the whole plan. According to the RIÉP, particular attention must be paid while planning and carrying out developments to ensuring that the developments do not increase educational and housing segregation, and that the elimination of segregation be made a condition of access to funding. The mainstreaming principle is promoted by the fact that the strategy targets the involvement of Roma experts at all levels of planning and implementation.

The RIÉP refers to the early government measures packages affecting Roma, including the 1021/2004 (III.18) government decree, which is still in force, on the government programme promoting the social integration of Roma and connected measures. It does not, however, evaluate to what extent the earlier government decrees aimed at Roma integration were able to achieve the planned goals and tasks, and does not clarify unambiguously the relationship between the RIÉP and the government decree currently in force.

The tasks featured in the Strategic Plan are partly in accord with the tasks of the current government decree, i.e. they are not new, and are partly a “redraft” of tasks included in the old documents which have not yet been carried out, or which have not been implemented satisfactorily.

The Roma Integration Council, which is the successor of the earlier Gypsy Affairs Inter-ministerial Committee [15] and was formed by government resolution 1129/2006. (XII. 25.) is responsible for division and harmonisation of labour between the ministries in implementing the government Roma programmes.

Tasks determined earlier, but not implemented have been placed in a structure with a new name, but which essentially works according to the former mechanism. The re-named structure has essentially not changed: it has a consultative, coordinative role. It is debatable whether the Roma Integration Council in this way will be suitable to operate more effectively than the Gypsy Affairs Inter-ministerial Committee.

We must also mention the housing and social integration programme drawn up in 2005 aimed at rehabilitation of the Roma settlements based on the medium-term government action package. In Hungary approximately 100,000 people live in around 500-550 slums or slum-like environments. The majority of these are found in small settlements, or beyond the municipal boundaries of these. The programme divided a total of HUF 680 million among the local governments of nine small settlements. The programme contains complex elements promoting access to housing and education, labour force mobilisation and social and healthcare services, placing great emphasis on the development of small communities.

In terms of improving living circumstances numerous problems have arisen during significant slum-rehabilitation programmes. There were some settlements where greater stress was placed on improving the segregated environment than on eliminating the segregated environment itself. As a result the Roma population remained in an environment, which although cleaner and more liveable in, remained segregated. When it comes to ensuring the sustainability of the results, one difficulty is that in certain areas the Roma population concerned could only be given temporary employment as communal work and public-utility work. The dysfunctional operation of the programme is illustrated, for example, by the case in which, according to the complaints of residents, the most disadvantaged layers were left out of the slum rehabilitation.[16]

Nevertheless, the irregularities mentioned above should not detract from the importance of the programme continuing in 2006-2007 with the inclusion of eleven new settlements. This is another reason why it is necessary for a detailed comparative evaluation to be made as soon as possible based on concrete experiences of the implementation of the model programme in 2005-2006.

Evaluation of the government strategies and follow up system

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, “the government continually tracks the implementation of the government programmes and action plans outlined above, and the indicated programmes include monitoring-type actions and measures to measure the effectiveness of the individual steps.”

We did not, however, receive detailed information on the concrete realisation of the above. One reason may well be that the monitoring of both TÁMOP and RIÉP was only at the level of strategic planning at the time of our investigation, i.e. a developed system capable of providing continual feedback was not yet in place.

In view of our previous experiences, we regard it as important that the indicators be determined to allow the tracking of real changes, expenditure, results and sphere of those affected by the changes. The indicators need to be defined in the same way in the various areas: currently multiply disadvantaged children are the focus in terms of desegregation in education, whereas other programmes mix up measures aimed at the Roma population and those aimed at disadvantaged groups. It is dubious whether we can obtain information which can be evaluated uniformly and analysed in terms of interconnections in such a manner.

It has an extremely negative effect on society's view of the Roma population if money spent on programmes generally also affecting the Roma population, is presented as funding spent on the Roma population in reports on implementation of government strategies, and becomes thought of as such by the public without information being available about the programmes really reaching the Roma population. For this reason, the mainstreaming principle also has to be consistently followed during the monitoring.

We would also like to stress that we do not consider feedback on effectiveness measured through retrospective research after a delay of several years to be sufficient. Without continuous monitoring built in to the programmes, the necessary corrections cannot be made in time, and conformity between the programmes cannot be created and maintained.

PROPOSALS

The government should include and consistently apply the principle of mainstreaming not only in the general and specific integration programmes, but also in the general government measures focused on other aims, and in legislative activity, and where necessary initiate the amendment of those rules of laws which weaken the social process of implementing integration. Within this framework the government should initiate the amendment of legislation relating to sub-regions so that the regional-level segregation of pupils can be prevented and hindered, and the government should draft legislation which is designed to promote integration.

The aspects of equal treatment, equal opportunities and social integration should feature and be enforced as a permanent horizontal principle in legislative and executive procedures.

While drawing up the government action plan for 2007-2008 based on the RIÉP strategic plan, the government should clarify the relationship to the 1021/2004. (III. 18.) government decree on the government programme promoting the social integration of the Roma population and the related measures, in order to eliminate parallel legislation.

The ministries should review the new and old systems of cooperation and coordination of Roma-related programmes, and take measures to ensure the effective operation of the RIT.

The government should analyse and evaluate comparatively the experiences so far of implementing the model programme for the housing and social integration of those living on Roma slums. On this basis the model programmes should be amended where necessary and the experiences used in implementing the “Chance for residents of the most disadvantaged sub-regions” in the framework of the New Hungary Development Plan.

In order to ensure the effectiveness of the individual strategies, a precise and quick tracking and monitoring system should be developed which allows comparative analysis of the programmes. When releasing the results of this monitoring, particular attention should be paid to accurately labelling the purpose of the money spent on individual aims, to avoid inflaming prejudices against the Roma population

Integration in the field of education

Equal opportunities reform

Those education systems are capable of ensuring the equal opportunities of children from different social and cultural backgrounds, in which high-quality education is available to all for as long as possible, and where selection begins at a higher educational level.[17] In the Hungarian public education system, however, as a result of schools’ possibility of “free choice of pupils” and the right of parents to free choice of school, currently massive selection occurs even at a very early stage.

From 2002 a reform got underway in the public education system, which is intended to give disadvantaged children greater chances than before by creating the conditions for integrated education and by improving the quality of education services. Within this reform process, changes have taken place in terms of political, legal, financing and teaching methodology.[18] The government took a strong stance against all forms of educational segregation, and the prohibition of school segregation entered the Public Education Act. Two new educational programmes were introduced: skills development and integration preparation, for which extra support in the form of supplementary grants was awarded, and an institution offering professional assistance to modernise teaching methodology was also established, named the National Education Integration Network and Development Centre. A new sphere of financial support for educational integration was also introduced: there were new application possibilities, for example during the 2004-2006 period in the framework of the National Development Plan’s Human Resources Development Operative Programme, and new scholarship [19] types.

The modifications [20] to the LXXIX Act of 1993 on Public Education which entered into force on 1 September 2006, also include several suited to promoting equal opportunities. In schools with 12 or 13 year groups, the continual progress of pupils has to be ensured and the local government action plan has to include measures aimed at giving pupils equal opportunities. The Education and Culture Minister singled out improving basic skills as the most important aim of the 2006 amendment. The new regulation for drawing up catchment areas [21] which came into force from 1 January 2007 could also represent an important step forward in halting segregation between institutions. .

At the time of our investigation the National Development Plan II. was at the planning stage. According to the Education and Culture Ministry one of the most important planned changes is that desegregation goals will appear as horizontal aspects in every development related to education. It is the firm intention of the ministry to use all European Union funding for educational development in such a way that it also improves equal opportunities in education.

Lack of coherence between education measures

A reform containing several elements designed to end and prevent the massive selectivity and segregation in the education system has been launched and is in progress. However, we did not receive a satisfactory reply from the Education and Culture Ministry to the question of what strategy is being applied during the planning of these measures, and how measures relating broadly to selectivity within the education system and integration measures in the strictest sense are connected to each other. Yet without a comprehensive concept there is the danger that the individual measures may weaken or even cancel each other out. In the course of our investigation we met with several such instances.

The application of the new legislation on catchment areas has not been sufficiently thought through in every respect, and this could lead to an outcome at odds with the original intention. According to the new rule, maintainers have to set the catchment areas of schools in such a way that in the individual catchment areas the proportion of disadvantaged children may not differ from one another by more than a certain percentage (25%). It is mandatory for local governments maintaining several schools to implement this new regulation, as a result of which, unlike now, disadvantaged and Roma pupils will study in schools where previously they were not present or only in very small numbers. Nevertheless, only those schools have the opportunity of acquiring innovative teaching methods which have elected to participate in the skills development or integration programmes. Even these schools only have access to the appropriate level training if they are successful in their application for European Union funding for adaptation and spread of pedagogical innovation. So on the one hand the measures oblige maintainers to develop schools with a heterogeneous mix, whilst on the other hand the necessary staff and financial resources to achieve real integration are only made available to a restricted sphere of schools on an optional basis. This policy, which lacks coherence, could result in “cold integration”[22] which is not at all what the legislator intended. In addition, the possibility cannot be ruled out that despite the clear prohibition in Act CXXV of 2003 on Equal Treatment and Promotion of Equal Opportunities, the implementation of the measure is likely to result in an increase in segregation within schools.

The following phenomenon points to the lack of a coherent strategy: it is a sociological fact that there are a greater proportion of disadvantaged pupils studying at small schools in small settlements. In many of these, due to the low pupil numbers, disadvantaged and Roma children were also educated together with the other children in the past. In 2003, as a result, the skills development and integration preparation began in many of these schools. The 2006 amendment to the Public Education Act, planned steps to develop an “economic" and "rational" school structure. This has meant that small schools with low pupil numbers are being affiliated to other schools without there being any kind of guarantee or obligation that the recipient large city schools will adopt the pedagogical programmes and innovative practices of the future affiliated schools, which have been using integrative, modern teaching methods. Without these guarantees, the results achieved so far through the work and money invested in integration and teaching innovation could be wasted. .

The other focus of public education rationalisation is promoting the formation of increasingly large classes through changes to grant support. A clear consequence of the launch of such a process is that it becomes more difficult (if not impossible) to establish the conditions for integrated teaching. There is consensus among institution heads and teachers that the teaching of disadvantaged children is effective in small groups, so if the number of pupils per class rises, the chance of achieving differentiated teaching and integration decreases.

In certain cases the financing system itself induces segregation processes. As an example, we could mention the strikingly, and unjustifiably, high number of children classified as having special learning needs as compared to in other European countries. During our investigation we encountered local governments that had inquired into introducing the integration preparation, and then – after comparing the amounts of the two different grants – had decided to continue running the school or set following a different syllabus.

Here too we must mention the financing of schools not maintained by local governments: whilst these institutions are run from central funds, similar to the local government schools, they represent one of the largest obstacles to the central equal opportunities and desegregation policy.[23]

Whilst acknowledging the commitment of the Education and Culture Ministry and the endeavours made to date, we have to point out that the education reform is lacking in-depth analysis and a comprehensive strategic approach. According to the information supplied by the ministry, the effects and failing of the measures were only analysed through retrospective research measuring effects, rather than through an extensively planned monitoring system built into the reform that would offer continuous feedback. The ministry informed us that they will continue to rely on research, however they intend to use public education statistical figures more “more intensively than at present”[24]. However, without measurements of effectiveness and results there is no feedback allowing the strategy and measures to be suitably modified as soon as possible.

PROPOSAL

The Education and Culture Ministry should review the measures (not only the provisions that have directly a desegregation aim, but also the whole system and its interconnections) in order to create coherency, and remove those measures that are cancelling each other out to allow equal opportunities to be achieved.

Skills development and integration preparation

Educational integration measures in the strictest sense

In the course of the ombudsman investigation, we reviewed the government measures on integration, and also examined whether there is a comprehensive strategy and concept for general measures in response to the selectivity of the entire education system and for the skills development and integration preparation, i.e. how educational integration in the strictest sense (skills development and integration preparation) fits in with general educational measures. Below we discuss in detail the skills development and integration preparation.

In August 2002 the Education Ministry’s Office of the Ministerial Commissioner for the Integration of Disadvantaged and Roma children drew up the regulations for two new educational forms, the skills development and the integration preparation. Accordingly in November 2002, the 11/1994. (VI. 8.) MKM decree on the operation of public education institutions was supplemented by sections 39/D and 39/E.

The aim of the skills development and the integration programmes is the same: improving the school performance of children of poor and unschooled parents by using innovative teaching methods. The integration preparation requires that this takes place without separating or removing children, in a heterogeneous class or group. The decree links the introduction of the integration preparation to a defined proportion of disadvantaged children. The skills development education, however, has no such condition, i.e. segregating/segregated schools have been/are able to introduce the elements of high-quality education.

The target group of the measures are disadvantaged and multiply disadvantaged children, which the ministry has defined by social indicators.[25]

The integration and skills development preparation of disadvantaged children has to be run according to the “Pedagogical system of the integration and skills development preparation of disadvantaged children” (IPR)[26], issued as a communiqué by the Education Minister.

For introduction of either of the two forms of preparation, the local government as maintainer can claim an additional grant from the central budget. The amount of the two grants has changed several times, but the relation between the two has remained the same, i.e. the grant for integration preparation is three times [27] that of the skills development preparation, thereby motivating integration.

Based on the Integration Teaching Framework System, those schools claiming the grant are obliged to draw up an integration strategy, pre-school preparation, develop cooperation and partnership relations and apply numerous elements of a set of tools assisting teaching and learning. Based on the IPR, the schools have to draw up a two-year introductory schedule.

The task of the OOIH which was established in 2003 is to offer professional support for the spread of inclusive, integrated teaching.

In the following we shall look at the organisational background of educational integration programmes in the strictest sense, the timescale of the programme, influence, the target group, the contents of the preparation methods, staff requirements, and measuring effectiveness and financing.

Although the catchment area legislation [28] coming into force from 1 January, 2007 does not strictly belong among the educational integration measures, it is directly connected to the two types of preparation, so we shall analyse it in detail due to the close logical connection.

Organisational framework

In 2002 the Office of the Ministerial Commissioner for the Integration of Disadvantaged and Roma Children was established within the Education Ministry, and in 2003 the National Educational Integration Network and Development Centre was set up as a background institution of the Ministry. The OOIH is an organisation providing professional support to implement integration policy, and whose aim is the spread of an integrated, inclusive teaching culture, and development of a professional network based on the horizontal cooperation of teachers and institutions. The OOIH began its operation with a central office and four regional offices, with four regional and 45 small region coordinators [29], and with 26 advisors. In 2003 an independent expert committee selected those 45 base schools, on which the OOIH modelled the Integrated Teaching System, issued as a ministerial communiqué. The base schools were segregated schools, but displayed particular pedagogical innovation. After the first year, in tandem with the depletion of ministerial resources, the base institute programme was built into the “A” component of HEFOP 2.1. and continued as a pilot programme, and the central 2.1.1 “A” programme is implemented by suliNova Kht. under the professional direction of the OOIH. From 2006 it is mandatory for schools claiming supplementary grants for skills development and integration to cooperate with the Network.

During our on-site investigation we also asked the institutions about the role of OOIH, whether they were satisfied with the services offered and whether they receive the necessary professional help. From the replies received it became clear that those schools which were base institutions in the first year could to a great extent rely on the help of the sub-region coordinators, and were in contact with them almost on a daily basis. Later when the number of schools receiving grants was extended, and the financing of the sub-region coordinators became uncertain, the daily communication came to an end. Those who joined the integration programme at a later date complained of the lack of direct connections and assistance on-site to solve concrete problems.

The Roma sub-region coordinators, alongside spreading the IPR, also play a significant role in changing attitudes, and it is necessary in the future to ensure their sufficient numbers, and continuous, reliable financing.

PROPOSAL

The government bodies should reinforce the status of the OOIH, and create the stable legal status of the network independently of application financing.

The Education and Culture Ministry should adjust the number of sub-region coordinators to the number of schools participating in the programme so that in the initial year each school receives direct help in starting up and introducing the IPR.

The Education and Culture Ministry should create the legal and financial background for the consistent use of the sub-region coordinators.

The timescale question

The programme in the long-term:

We also asked the Education and Culture Ministry within what time period concrete results were expected from introduction of the two types of preparation, and whether they had set numerical goals. We asked when they planned that a general integration education policy could replace the current desegregation “crisis programme”. It emerged from the reply received from the ministry that such a plan had not been drawn up with numerical and accountable goals, and the continuation of the programme was planned until the achievement of generally expressed goals. Such goals were a reduction in the level of segregation, for the over-representation of disadvantaged children among children with learning needs to fall; for the proportion of disadvantaged pupils continuing their education to significantly approach that of non-disadvantaged pupils; and for the social economic status of families to have no greater influence on the performance of pupils than the European Union average.

In our view, these aims go beyond the real possibilities of the programme, and already look forward to the result of a general integrated education policy, whose necessity in the long-term we naturally entirely support.

In our view the lack of concrete indicators and numerical aims represents a problem from several points of view. Firstly, without these it is difficult to measure the successfulness and efficiency of the programme.[30] Secondly, the conditions of concrete institutional checks are only being established now, and if these do not prove effective, the danger may arise of certain schools “using” the programme as a means of obtaining funds rather to really implement educational integration.

As a result of the new legislation on catchment areas, demand for the programme could become widespread, so it is important that the relevant general pedagogical and infrastructure framework be developed to ensure integrated, high-quality education beyond the special integration programmes.

The programme in the short-term:

During our on-site investigation we found that in those schools where other reform pedagogical methods [31] had not been used for a period of at least five to six years prior to the introduction of the IPR, in almost all cases the two-year period prescribed for introduction of the IPR was too short. The teachers themselves remarked on this, and it was also evident from visits to lessons. Even those schools with experience of reform teaching methods said that without their earlier "experiments” there would not have been enough time for real implementation of the IPR. During this time the attitudes of teachers have to be transformed, and teachers who for years for decades have been using the frontal method have to be persuaded to build what they have learned during the further trainings into their classroom practice, which is a difficult task even if the teaching staff is dedicated.

In this respect it is also worth mentioning the attitudes of parents. The “beginner schools” – those where no pedagogical innovation had taken place before 2003 – were less able to communicate the changes and to make the parents of both disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged children accept the reasons and aims. The parents of disadvantaged children were often mistrustful and afraid of losing the accustomed teacher and school, whereas the parents of better social status were afraid that the introduction of the programme would lead to the school becoming "Gypsified" or a depot for "problem" children.

From the above it can be seen that a process aimed at reforming teaching methods and attitudes requires much longer than the 2 years prescribed for introduction of the IPR.

PROPOSAL

The Education and Culture Ministry should set out concrete goals to be achieved through the desegregation “crisis programme”, and draw up a concrete schedule for the switch to high-quality general integrated teaching.

The ministry should examine the time prescribed for introduction of the IPR, and consider extending the time available.

The limited influence of the measures

Within the extremely decentralised Hungarian education system, the Education and Culture Ministry does not posses means by which it could directly influence the decisions of maintainers or institutions, and it is often difficult to enforce central government aims. Endeavours to combat social prejudices, like the desegregation measures, naturally meet with greater opposition, since they go against the interests of those parents, maintainers and the institutions who want segregation to remain.

The right to free choice of school of parents [32], and the right of parents to free “choice of pupils”, together with elitist efforts results in an extremely selective school system even at an elementary level. According to the figures of the PISA reports, in Hungary the performance of pupils is influenced to a much greater extent by the social-economic background of parents than the OECD average, and the Hungarian school system does not merely mirror, but actually reinforces the differences and inequalities arising from social standing. The system has produced two extremes, and this in itself significantly limits the influence of the desegregation measures.

Elite education

One extreme is elite education, which in Hungary mainly takes place in church and foundation schools. These schools are largely financed from the central budget: it is the constitutional obligation of the state that non-state schools taking on the obligatory task of the local government must also receive the standard grant and the basic contribution for pupils.

Church-maintained schools are also entitled to a supplementary contribution beyond the grant support. All these forms of support are granted without taking into consideration whether the principle of equal opportunities is upheld by the church-maintained school. In addition to the fact that this practice infringes the principle of sector-neutrality, it also contributes to an increase in selectivity and reinforces segregation between schools.

Experts have established, and it has been confirmed by the Education and Culture Ministry, that the majority of children from middle class families study in elite schools, and integration at most occurs between multiply disadvantaged and “relatively disadvantaged” pupils (those falling outside the strict legal category, but in a similar situation in terms of lifestyle, family models and opportunities), i.e. the measure does not affect the children of the highest social status. Selectivity and segregation typically go hand in hand with the polarisation of human resources too: the better-trained teachers go to teach in foundation and church schools.

Not only are church and foundation institutions able to ignore the principle of equal opportunities, but in certain cases the way they are run can even undermine the educational desegregation efforts of a whole settlement. In settlements/districts with several schools, children attending church and foundation schools have to be taken into account when dividing the proportion of multiply disadvantaged children. However, since the church and foundation schools usually operate as homogenous elite schools, and often barely teach multiply disadvantaged children, in numerous cases it is impossible to ensure that the proportion of disadvantaged children does not differ between schools by more than 25%.[33] This results in integrating schools not being able to access the supplementary grant, for reasons beyond their own control. Nor do the new rules for establishing catchment areas apply to foundation and church schools. The maintenance of these schools from the central budget without limiting rules reinforces processes counteracting the integration efforts of the Education and Culture Ministry to date.

PROPOSAL

The Education and Culture Ministry should extend the integration rules – in line with the Equal Treatment Act – to non-local government institutions financed from public funds which participate in performing local government tasks.

Pupils with special learning needs

The other extreme is the high number of pupils with special learning needs. Whilst in the European Union 25% of children on average are classified as having a learning disability, in Hungary the expert boards [34] classify 5.3% of pupils as such. This figure in itself also gives an indication of the extreme selectivity of the education system.

Since the Minority Ombudsman’s investigation [35] into special (remedial) school teaching of Roma children, on the part of the Education Ministry there have been continuous endeavours to reduce the number of children classified as having special learning needs, and to establish high-quality education.

The high level of children classified as having special learning needs, for which the financing system is also to blame, has barely changed despite the tightening of legislation in the past years. In the 2004/2005 school year the National Public Education Assessment and Examination Centre (OKÉV) produced a report on the experiences of the national inquiry into elementary school sets providing education of pupils with mild mental disabilities. According to this, in more than a third of schools with a set following a different curriculum there was an absence of a special learning needs teacher, or the level of group merging was greater than allowed by law, and in the majority of cases, despite the special grant, the standard of education offered was lower than in the classes following the standard curriculum, i.e. lower than the education offered even at the same school.

From the Back Bench Programme

In 2004 as part of From the Back bench Programme independent experts reviewed pupils in the second class who had earlier been transferred with special learning needs. They found that 11% had been unjustifiably placed in a school or division with a different curriculum. The review resulted in 222 children being placed back into standard curriculum education. Nevertheless, this was a one-off programme, since according to the Ministry: “in higher year groups, as a result of the several earlier years of following a limited curriculum and academic requirements, re-transferring the pupils would be risky from a professional point of view”.

As is acknowledged here, declaring a pupil as having special learning needs can after one or two years result in them falling behind irreversibly, which can determine the school career and entire life of such children. Such a decision can be made as the result of error, negative professional habits, or the schools’ presumed interests, and without professional control.

One further failing of the system is indicated by the fact that the Education and Culture Ministry was not capable of acquiring information about what has happened to the 222 pupils placed back in the framework of the From the Last Bench Programme, i.e. there is no possibility of monitoring and measuring the programme’s effectiveness. The Ministry –presumably due to lack of powers resulting from decentralisation – did not receive a response from teachers dealing with the pupils who had been placed back or from the schools which received the children “despite repeated attempts”. The inability to solve this problem of tracing the fate of these pupils is particularly glaring, because the schools did not undertake the teaching of these pupils without financial award.[36]

Diagnosis process

According to the experts we consulted [37], the categorisation itself (examination of children by an expert board and learning advisor) is a cause of the selective system. The categorisation should start from the assumption that children at the age of five or six can pick things quickly up and easily, and that it is possible to make up for any shortfalls in learning so far. Categorising a pupil as having special learning needs can be much more decisive than the actual development itself.

In the special needs classes from the outset the “equalising channels” typical of the other classes do not operate, such as the higher set of requirements, better-off children as the reference group etc. The ability assessments construct a hypothetical school career from the nursery pre-history. This attitude leads to “pedagogical fatalism”, according to which everybody will attend the school or class where they belong. The ability assessment tests regard abilities as being innate, strengthen the notion that abilities are biologically determined and serve to legitimise selection.

Early selection is particularly dangerous because the higher the education level, the less selection is influenced by social background. Parents of different social status vary in their ability to make use of the right to choice of school, and early institutional selection reinforces the self-selection mechanisms of lower social layers. (The earlier the choice takes place, the greater will be the inequalities that develop, since the choice is influenced more strongly by the cultural and social capital of the parent.)

The diagnostic tools are in the process of being modernised, and the WISC4 test of general intelligence is being standardised under the central measure 2.2.1b of the National Development Plan HEFOP. These modernised tools, however, have not been placed in a monitored institutional structure, nor is there the necessary staff competence to use the tools. This is despite the fact that the members of the expert boards in the B component of the measure 2.1 of the National Development Plan HEFOP took part in a 60-hour accredited training aimed at professional development and quality improvement, however the results are not (yet?) apparent.

The Education and Culture Ministry is planning state monitoring of the expert boards, which in future will be performed by the Education Office. In addition within the National Development Plan II the Education and Culture Ministry plans to conduct targeted reviews in those areas where the proportion of pupils classified as having learning difficulties significantly exceeds the already high national average.

Limiting the sphere of children classified as having learning difficulties

As a result of the 2006 amendment of the Public Education Act, children hindered in the learning process by psychological development disorders no longer classify as having special learning needs.

Overall we can say that despite the endeavours made, the situation of children declared as having special learning needs has remained almost unchanged, and further measures at present are still in the planning phase.

PROPOSAL

The Education and Culture Ministry should continue the From the Last Bench programme, and review the second class in each year.

The ministry should create the conditions for development-aimed school maturity examinations to be carried out instead of the current selection-based tests.

The ministry should support those pedagogical developments which promote children with special learning needs being taught within the majority school system where possible.

In summary of point 5.4. we can establish that the system is closed from two sides when it comes to the influence of the integration measures. Firstly it is not, or only slightly capable of including the better-off layers of society with the most advantages, so from a social point of view it is not possible to create a genuine heterogeneous school environment, whereas one of the conditions of effective integration would be for disadvantaged children to see around them models of school and social success which could make, for example, further study attractive to them.

Secondly, it excludes the majority of the genuinely most disadvantaged members, who in given cases differ from the majority society only in socio-cultural background, from the possibility of educational integration, by setting them on a school career from a very young age, which acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy and recreates the devil’s circle of lack of education, unemployment and poverty.

The target group

The target group of the integration and skills development programmes are multiply disadvantaged children. This concept is defined in point 14 of section 121 (1) of the Public Education Act, moreover using social indicators.[38]

There are problems relating to two aspects of the category: one is the lack of ethnic dimension, and the second is the narrow definition of what it means to be multiply disadvantaged.

Ethnic dimension

As we explained in chapter III, we regard those measures as appropriate which are based on disadvantaged social situation measures using social indicators. At the same time, however, we think it is essential that the mainstreaming principle is employed to measure the effect of the two types of preparation on the Roma situation and minority-majority relations.

According to the Education and Culture Ministry, it was a deliberate decision to determine the sphere of those entitled using social indicators. The ministry referred here to the abuses concerning declaration of ethnic affiliation, the general reluctance of the minority to declare their ethnicity due to fear of prejudices, and the fact that the official registration of Roma within the education system ceased in 1993.

We agree with this definition of those entitled, particularly because using neutral indicators (parents’ level of education and social factors) also reacts to the systematic selectivity in Hungarian education.[39] At the same time the socially-based definition, due to the low education levels and poverty of the majority of the Roma population, is also suited to reach the Roma children concerned.

Nevertheless consistently thinking through the principle of mainstreaming, several questions arise:

The programme does not take into account the phenomenon that the number of Roma children – independently of the education on offer – is in itself a factor influencing the decisions of parents, maintainers and schools. Naturally education policy cannot directly influence the school selection habits of parents. The rules applying to maintainers, however indirectly can significantly form parents’ attitudes. We discuss the review of these rules and the examination of whether they are suited to ensuring that the decisions of maintainers promote integration in the sections on financing and catchment areas.

A large number of disadvantaged children are also of Roma origin, and we know that prejudice also plays a part in their segregation. We examine this point in point 5.7 in relation to staff resources.

The question also arises of how the measures can take account of Roma children who are taught in a segregated manner, but who do not classify as multiply disadvantaged. According to the response of the Education and Culture Ministry, 75-80% of Roma families are also disadvantaged, i.e. the number of those left out of the "system" is relatively small, so the ministry decided that the anti-discrimination warning system is suitable to treat the discrimination they face. The development of this, however, is still at an early stage.[40]

Roma minority education

During our on-site visits we also investigated how in practice integrated teaching and Roma minority education designed to foster the culture of Roma children and preserve their identity can take place in parallel, i.e. whether minority education results in Roma children being left out of the integration programme. We also sought a reply to the question of whether the two types of preparation make it impossible to organise Roma minority education, i.e. whether the aim of integration in practice turns into assimilation expectations.

Only a fraction of the schools visited organised Roma minority education alongside the integration and skills development preparation. Where it was the case, most frequently we came across multicultural elements built into the syllabus and afternoon tradition-preservation sessions without language teaching. In several schools we found that no distinction was made between the elements of Roma minority education - Roma ethnography, Roma cultural activities – and multicultural elements: the schools thought they could fulfil the compulsory Roma ethnography teaching by building it into lessons on multiculturalism.[41] Nevertheless, it could be established that the failings of Roma minority education had not arisen as a result of the integration preparation. Nor did we experience assimilation efforts being disguised as integration.

The organisation of Roma minority education nowhere meant that the participating children were left out of the integration, and children were able to participate in both programmes. In schools which had enthusiastically adopted the integration approach we could observe that the majority children also got increasingly involved in the Roma minority cultural activities. All the school pupils took part with total ease in tradition-preservation events, often project days, organised together with parents.

PROPOSAL

The Education and Culture Ministry should consistently analyse – in accordance with the mainstreaming principle – the effect of the two preparation types on Roma children, and accordingly where necessary initiate the amendment or supplementation of the legislation.
The ministry should consistently monitor whether

there are Roma children who are excluded from the sphere of those included in the two programmes,
assimilation expectations arise under the name of integration,
whether teachers have the right attitudes for real integration,
whether the anti-discrimination warning system for Roma children who are segregated but do not count as disadvantaged is working.

The sphere of those coming under the category

The majority of the schools found the definition of the category of multiply disadvantaged too narrow: everywhere they spoke in a wider sense of disadvantaged pupils needing to be integrated.

The sociological experts we consulted also said unanimously that a parent who has completed only eight elementary classes and a parent who has completed a vocational school but who has out-dated skills which cannot be sold on the market, do not differ significantly from one another in terms of way of life, family models and opportunities, particularly in straggling peripheral settlements where there are no or very limited possibilities of employment. From a sociological point of view, these layers form one category, so it is not justifiable to limit the definition of “multiply disadvantaged” pupils to those whose parents have completed a maximum of eight elementary classes. The rule according to which school heads may also include pupils who are not multiply disadvantaged in the skills development preparation – at a level not exceeding 10% of those already included – does not offer appropriate freedom of consideration, and is not sufficiently flexible with regard to those pupils who are disadvantaged in terms of actual social indicators but do not come under the narrow legal definition.[42]

At those schools which, mirroring the population composition of the given settlement, had a proportion of multiply disadvantaged pupils approaching that defined as segregation in the decree, i.e. where the unfavourable circumstances of the area determine the possible extent and sphere of integration, it was clear that the blame for the disadvantaged situation of the whole area or region could not be shifted onto the schools.[43] These schools cannot meet the prescribed proportions because the school’s social environment means that “there is nobody to integrate the children with”. In disadvantaged areas and regions the number of children who in the general sense of the world are “disadvantaged” far exceeded the proportion of students defined by law. These schools often had to integrate those suffering from dyslexia, dysgraphia or dyscalculia,”[44] pupils with special learning needs taught by the integrated method and pupils suffering from behaviour and study disorders into classes where the aforementioned pupils made up more than 50% of the class. The school heads and teachers consulted unanimously said that from a pedagogical perspective effective integration is only possible if in the given class or group the number of children to be integrated does not exceed 10-15%, and even 20% is a borderline case.

We are convinced that those schools, which for reasons beyond their control, cannot maintain the proportions prescribed by law should also be given access to good-quality public education services. We also believe that in these areas there is a need for complex desegregation programmes.

PROPOSAL

The Education and Culture Ministry should consider the need to amend the "multiply disadvantaged" category, so that it includes the children of parents who either have completed a maximum eight elementary classes or who have a skilled labourer training or vocational school qualification, provided that the condition of entitlement to child-protection benefits is also met.

The government, alongside implementing the planned “Chance for those living in the most disadvantaged sub-regions” programme (affecting 28 sub-regions) , should offer support to those areas which are segregated not through their own fault and which are left out of the programme, i.e. give schools which are segregated beyond their control access to good-quality education.

Content of the skills development and integration preparation[45]

The skills development introduced in the 2003/2004 academic year represents the introduction and use of the IPR issued by the Education and Culture Minister.

Analysing the contents of the IPR, we came to the conclusion that schools with wide-scale methodology, which pay attention to skills development alongside teaching the syllabus, adapt to individual needs, and realise the importance of contact with the social environment, and in particular parents, know and apply everything which the IPR prescribes. It is not a "special programme" geared to the unique situation of multiply disadvantaged pupils, but contains the fundamental principles and teaching methodology of a well-working school.

In the current public education system frontal teaching is the most commonly used pedagogical method. The IPR is an innovative pedagogical programme, which is available to schools specifically teaching the most disadvantaged children in the framework of the skills development preparation.[46] This preparation in general terms, without setting proportions, wishes to create heterogonous classes and groups, so it can also be introduced in segregating or segregated schools.

The integration preparation differs from the skills development in that those pupils participating in the skills development have to be taught together with other pupils not participating, i.e. multiply disadvantaged pupils have to be taught together in an appropriate proportion with non-multiply disadvantaged pupils. The IPR pays a large part in avoiding “cold segregation”: its function is for each child to have the chance to develop their skills optimally in an accepting pedagogical environment.

During our on-site visits we could not discover precisely in individual schools what proportion of teachers apply how often the elements and methods of learning organisation included in the IPR pedagogical programme. School heads generally do not force teachers to do so: there were cases where the cooperative method was used in every lesson, whereas we also visited schools where the aim was for teachers to give 20% of lessons based on the IPR. Based on the reports of school heads and teachers as well as our own experiences we can say that, for example, the use of cooperative learning, the project method and drama-pedagogical elements are methods which improve the school performance of multiply disadvantaged children.

Although the rule of law (section 39/E) speaks about integration, it determines the types of segregation in reference to one-school and multi-school settlements – in terms of proportions between schools and between classes. The exact phrasing of the rule of law and the clear definition of the proportions is indispensable [47]. At the end of 2006 an argument developed in the case of one city between the State Audit Office and the OOIH, as well as the Education and Culture Ministry. According to the OOIH, the city which had adhered to the regulations was entitled to the support, however, the State Audit Office had calculated differently and wished to reclaim the integration and skill development grants previously claimed. We regard it as essential that the state bodies take a common stance on calculation of the proportions, in order not to cause total uncertainty to maintainers and schools in introducing the programme.

The current legislation does not name member schools explicitly, which allows for an interpretation according to which the prescribed proportions for parallel classes do not apply to affiliated member schools and the central school which they are affiliated to. It needs to be made clear in the rule of law that the prescribed proportions for parallel classes cannot be waived in the case of affiliated member schools.

In point 5.10. we look at the question of how the current legislation does not take into account the unique situation of the districts in Budapest. Here we would simply like to point out that for a school really implementing integration and its pupils this has the consequence that the school, through no fault of its own, because of the “proportion-spoiling” effect of the decisions of the maintainer or the non-local government schools, will lose out on the integration grant and the possibilities of infrastructural modernisation. Such integrating district schools cannot influence the decisions of the local government, or those of the maintainers of non-local government schools. In our view the rights of the children attending such schools are breached in the current system, because they cannot receive those extra services which others in a similar situation but "more fortunate environment" have access to.

According to the current legislation, integration preparation can be launched in the first and fifth classes and the ninth class of the vocational school. If the model works as hoped then disadvantaged children taught with integrated, innovative pedagogical methods will appear in greater numbers in secondary schools giving a school leaving certificate instead of vocational schools. It is also a declared public education goal for greater numbers of disadvantaged children to attend nursery at an early stage, where their integrated teaching is essential. For that reason we think the two types of preparation also need to be launched in nurseries and in secondary schools giving a school leaving certificate.

PROPOSAL

The Education and Culture Ministry should carry out talks with the state bodies concerned, and draw up a joint standpoint on the means of calculating the proportions required for integration, so that the OOIH can offer assistance in the unified application of the rule of law.

The ministry should amend the rule of law, by naming member schools: i.e. it should become clear that the prescribed proportions between parallel classes also apply to affiliated member schools.

In order for the integration system to operate more fairly, the ministry should create the conditions for integrated schools, which though no fault of their own are not entitled to the integration grant, to have access to similar material and methodology innovations.

The ministry should amend the legislation so that the integration and skills development can also be introduced in nurseries and secondary schools giving a school leaving certificate, and so that the necessary support for the implementation of these is available.

Multicultural elements

Multicultural education, by removing ethnic stereotypes and prejudices, can promote harmonic cohabitation in an increasingly diverse society. The introduction of multicultural elements into the syllabus and teacher training is a basic condition of changing attitudes and avoiding “cold integration”. The information provided by the Education and Culture Ministry offers the following picture of the situation: as a general requirement, the National Basic Syllabus (NAT) prescribes that at all levels of education every pupil has to become familiar with the cultures of minorities; knowledge of minority cultures has also been built into the set of secondary school leaving exam requirements. At the same time, it became clear that the educational packages enabling real teaching are still being approved or tested.

A teacher further training programme has also been developed which in this academic year is available to 50 teaching bodies free of charge. According to the plans, under the National Development Plan II several hundred schools will get access to the training.

A review of the presentation and portrayal of Roma in text books and educational aids is planned, looking at the nature of the content concerning Roma and what content is lacking from the given text books and aids.

However, we did not receive a response to our question of how the ministry wishes to ensure generally the appropriate knowledge and attitudes of teachers for this, i.e. how it will be built into the teacher basic training.

Overall, it can be seen that in this area only the first steps have been made both in terms of preparing the curriculum and preparing teachers.

PROPOSAL

The Education and Culture Ministry should take the necessary measures for the real teaching of multicultural elements – including in the areas of curricula, textbooks and teacher training.

Staff requirements

Pedagogical methodology within the programme

A pre-condition of the success of the programme is knowledge of innovative pedagogical methods. Currently the further teacher training offering knowledge of innovative pedagogical methods is only available to schools participating in the integration models and those who have been successful with their HEFOP applications. Our in-site investigations revealed that those schools which were introducing the system but whose HEFOP applications were not successful, without further training were only able to achieve “cold integration”. Currently this significant pre-condition for implementation of the IPR is not guaranteed.

The Education and Culture Ministry informed us that “In addition to the schools who were successful with HEFOP applications, those schools which have introduced the two “preparations” can also apply for free staff further training in the call for applications to be announced in January, 2007, allowing 270 teaching bodies to participate in the training. Later within the National Development Plan II around 3,000 schools will have the chance to get involved in the programme.”

From this it is clear that it remains the plan in future to give schools access to the trainings through calls for applications.[48] We do not regard this system as appropriate since the situation can arise that a school formally participates in the programme, but in reality, however good its intentions, simply moves from segregation between classes to segregation within the class. In the absence of knowledge of appropriate inclusive pedagogical methodology and prejudice-free attitudes the possibility cannot be excluded that the development of disadvantaged pupils will be hindered even more than before. There is the risk of segregation with the class, and the educational failure of the multiply disadvantaged children. For that reason we regard it as indispensable that teaching staff schools introducing either of the two preparations should be obliged to complete the IPR training.

PROPOSAL

The Education and Culture Ministry should ensure that the IPR training becomes a compulsory element of the programme, i.e. that teaching bodies introducing the two types of preparation should be obliged to participate in the IPR training.

Pedagogical methodology in teacher training

All the teaching staff and participants in teacher training need to acquire innovative pedagogical methods. If the legislation regarding catchment areas fulfils the hopes placed in it, then the appearance of disadvantaged children in more and more institutions can be expected. In order to avoid “cold integration” teachers need to be ready to create an accepting atmosphere, and to use methods assisting integration. For this reason the basic teacher training also needs to contain these elements. Currently the introduction and testing of such basic training programmes for teachers is underway in higher education institutions which volunteered for the task but until the programme becomes a compulsory part of basic training in every institution, the appropriate possibilities of classroom observation have to be provided. In one of the schools we consulted, the complaint was made that they had turned to the local teacher training institute in the hope of cooperation, but the training institute had not even deigned to reply. One head of a former base school reported that several future teachers had written degree theses about his work, but based only on the materials downloadable from the school’s homepage because nobody had visited the actual lessons. This situation is clearly untenable.

PROPOSAL

The Education and Culture Ministry should make further efforts so that integrated pedagogical methods become a real part of the basic teacher training as soon as possible.

The ministry should take the necessary measures to further develop the basic and further teacher training based on the experiences of the integration model.

The ministry should promote future teachers doing classroom observation as part of their basic training, to take place in integrating schools teaching large numbers of multiply disadvantaged children.

Anti-discrimination trainings for teachers

We agree with the concept that the target group of the programme is multiply disadvantaged children. At the same time we can regard it as a sociological fact that a large proportion of these children, in addition to being multiply disadvantaged, also belong to the Roma minority. The mainstreaming principle means that when deciding on every measure and implementation, attention has to be paid to how this will affect the situation of Roma and relations between the minority and majority society. This is particularly important in the case of a programme whose target group is well known to consist in the majority of Roma children. It also needs to be taken into account that the cause of the segregation is often not only the disadvantaged situation and the extreme selectivity of the whole education system, but also prejudiced attitudes. For that reason we do not regard the methodology training of teachers as sufficient to implement the integration preparation. A teacher with personal prejudices who has the appropriate methodological background will create “cold integration” just as will their counterpart who is lacking in methodological knowledge.

We were informed by the OOIH that although attitude-changing does not feature explicitly in the IPR trainings, this question is always raised in the further trainings, particularly in the teaching of cooperation and multicultural elements. At the trainings and further courses teachers are effectively confronted with their prejudices, and receive tools and methodologies to deal with these.[49]

We were not able to examine to what extent acquiring the elements of the IPR is comparable with an attitude-changing, antidiscrimination training for teachers. Nevertheless, we regard it as vital that the teaching staffs of schools introducing either of the two types of preparation, in addition to the IPR training, or included in it should participate in an attitude-training course – compulsorily and not simply as an application possibility.

PROPOSAL

The Education and Culture Ministry should ensure that attitude-changing and anti-discrimination preparation becomes a compulsory element of the programme, i.e. the teaching staff of schools introducing either of the two preparations should be obliged to complete attitude-changing, anti-discrimination trainings.
The ministry should make further efforts to ensure that the attitude-changing and anti-discrimination preparation becomes a real part of basic teacher training.

Classroom observation within the programme

Some of the schools visited commented that they had learnt most about innovative pedagogical measures through mutual classroom observations, however with the discontinuation of the base school system, these mutual classroom observations had come to an end or become occasional among schools participating in the programme. The situation of those schools is particularly difficult where there are no integrating institutions in the immediate environment or within accessible distance.[50]

Innovative pedagogical practices cannot be spread and built into the lives of schools in a modernising way without mutual classroom observations and learning from one another. The framework for these – both in a temporal and financial sense - needs to be created within the programme.

We were informed by the Education and Culture Ministry that they are planning to create a classroom observation centre of schools which are at a more advanced stage in the integration process and the operation of professional networks offering professional and mentorship services. The OOIH also informed us that within the National Development Plan II the base school system will be re-launched, and this year county-level school meetings will be arranged for the purpose of information exchange. We regard this task as indispensable, and we support its implementation as soon as possible.

Teaching assistants

We regard the use of teaching assistants in school to assist teaching and professional activities as essential since they can offer help in bridging the gap between the majority and minority society, in resolving conflicts and in developing dialogue between the school and parents. Their presence and activity can contribute to reducing the distance between the school and disadvantaged parents who are often little able to assert their interests.

Our on-site investigations also convinced us that the intensity of contact with parents is entirely different and their involvement in school life more successful where Roma teaching assistants also participate in the daily work of the school.[51]

Currently there is the opportunity to use teaching assistants, however we think their use should be made compulsory in those schools where there is a high number of multiply disadvantaged children.

PROPOSAL

The Education and Culture Ministry should initiate the amendment of the relevant provisions of the Public Education Act to make the use of teaching assistants compulsory - and at the same time ensure the necessary personal and financial conditions – in those schools where multiply disadvantaged children are over-represented.

Measuring the effectiveness of the integration measures

Assessments

One of the fundamental problems of the education system is that the regular assessment of teaching work in the schools has not been solved, and this failing naturally also applies to the integration measures and the work taking place in integrating schools. The inspections of the OKÉV were only in the nature of spot checks. As we are aware, the system currently only measures the “input” (grants, further training, teaching programmes drawn up), and there are no suitable methods for measuring output (pupil performance, real integration).

According to the expert [52] we consulted, the success of the integration policy can be judged best based on the “longitudinal measurement” of pupil performance, by the comparison of performance measured at different time-points on an individual level.

Other indicators do not offer reliable information on the results of integration and achievement of development:

- Analysing the average performance of the disadvantaged pupils can be heavily influenced, for example, if one or two pupils change school.

- Indicators such as fewer failures, and a decrease in those leaving the system before the compulsory education age limit can be manipulated (for example, by lowering the performance requirements), so they do not offer a reliable picture.

- In the case of the further study figure it is worrying that because there is no fixed level, a minimal increase in those continuing their studies can appear as a success. The admissions requirements of secondary schools can change due to falling pupil numbers. In addition the fact that somebody has been accepted does not necessarily mean that they are capable of completing the given school.

We also consulted the Education and Culture Ministry on how they measure the effectiveness of the integration measures. The Ministry referred partly to the new rule for the data collection of multiply disadvantaged pupils.[53] Although we do not find this means of data collection (by the notary and school) entirely without concern,[54] it cannot be denied that it creates the conditions for the declaration to be checked by the ministry and can be a starting point of a legality investigation.

The Education Ministry also referred to a grants application system which is to be framed at the start of 2007 and is designed to make access to support more targeted and auditable. The grant which was of entirely free use will be replaced by applications tied to indicators, to which the inspection system will then be connected. The aim of the ministry is to enable preliminary checks on entitlement, the integration of effectiveness indicators, and the operation of the system of professional inspections. According to the plans, the concrete inspections will be carried out by the Education Office established on 1 February 207 and also integrating the OKÉV.

At present we do not know more about the planned system, but we must stress that it is not sufficient if the checks on use of funding rest solely on data supplied. The professional checks also need to examine the actual use of new pedagogical methods. (Almost everything can be documented, however the difference between genuine and cold integration can only be established through participation in the lessons.)

During introduction of the IPR, schools are expected to meet certain indicators [55], but until now due to lack of resources the OOIH did not have the means to carry out complex investigations. It is hoped that the self-inspection system which the OOIH has tested in 150 schools will change this. In order to provide a framework for professional inspection and offering assistance, maintainers applying for the grant and schools introducing the IPR have to sign a cooperation agreement with the OOIH.[56] According to this agreement, schools have to complete a self-assessment questionnaire with the assistance of an integration expert. (The maintainer or school has to cover the fee of the expert.) If the school on this basis establishes that its practice partially or fully does not comply with the contents of the rule of law, then it must carry out the necessary rectifications and inform suliNova Kht. of this. The OOIH offers targeted professional assistance to carry out the rectifications, if it is sent the self-assessment documentation by the school.

Although signing the cooperation agreement and carrying out the self-assessment is compulsory for schools claiming the grant, and an expert assists in establishing the correctness of the self-assessment, the rectification itself is left to the school, in which it may potentially get help from the OOIH. The fact that the school has to cover the cost of the expert’s fee could cause a problem to those schools in disadvantaged settlements with a lack of resources. During our on-site investigations, more than one school commented that in their view it was impossible to fill out the self-assessment document since all information needs to be gathered in a different format from that required by the public education statistics. We observed that alongside the IPR, which itself involves a lot of administration, the level of documentation required takes away energy from the teaching itself, and there are some expectations, such as tracing the secondary school success of pupils continuing their studies, which given the current resources of schools is impossible to carry out. [57]

At any rate there has been a shift from complete lack of checks in the direction of assessments, however naturally this can only credibly show the changes occurring as a result of the programme in the case of those schools which start the use of one of the types of preparation together with introduction of the self-assessment.

The results of the programme can only be measured in comparison to the “zero point” (In the case of the schools which launched the programme in 2003, nobody checked the performance of the goals, so it cannot be measured whether a change has taken place, and if so then of what nature.)

The Education Ministry also reported in 2005 that it was planning the operation of an anti-discrimination warning system to eliminate and prevent discrimination. The ministry, however, also provided the information that the databases for financing and pupil performance currently cannot be connected, i.e. the entitlement of schools to claim the grant cannot be checked, or rather checks can only occur indirectly through the maintainer, and individual on-site investigations would not be sufficiently efficient. In the interests of the databases being connected, we initiated talks with the participation of the State Audit Office (ÁSZ), Hungarian State Treasury (MÁK), the Interior Ministry (BM), and the National Public Education Assessment and Examination Centre (OKÉV). These discussions however reached a standstill, and have not yet been continued.[58]

Currently within the framework of national skills assessment, the law makes compulsory full assessment in years 4, 6, 8, and 10, however the possibility of connecting results to individuals and looking at consecutive results to measure development on an individual level is lacking, as is the assessment of pupils in the years 1 to 3. In this respect the Education and Culture Ministry informed us that: “The creation of the conditions for measuring pupil performances on an individual level in a standardised way throughout the country is one of the most important aspects of public education. The drafting of the legal amendments has a particular place as one of the ministry’s most pressing tasks, whilst the related development offering a long-term solution will get under way within the National Development Plan II.”

PROPOSAL

The Education and Culture Ministry should take further measures to create the conditions necessary to assess results on an individual level in a standardised way across the country.

The ministry should continue discussions on developing the anti-discrimination warning system with the competent bodies in the interests of being able to connect data.

The ministry should ensure that the decree now being drawn up on applying for the grant should also include the professional assessment and monitoring of the real implementation of new teaching methods within the system of checks.

The ministry should create the conditions for the OOIH to offer assistance to schools compulsorily in carrying out the corrections following completion of the self-assessment.

On-site experiences concerning effectiveness

In those schools where integration appears to be working,[59] the teachers mentioned the change in atmosphere as the greatest result achieved. The pupils enjoy attending school and the number of absences drops. The schools commented that a precondition of this is developing good relations with the parents. Poor, unemployed parents who are hostile to the school are often sceptical regarding the educational progress of their children.

Typically in those areas where the composition of the population itself would not result in segregation, the schools commencing integration – at least at the current stage of the programme – were unable to “re-attract” the children of parents of better social status. These schools are generally put at a disadvantage in terms of meeting the prescribed proportions: the other schools are happy to transfer there those pupils which they regard as unmanageable. This is the point where the competence of the school is not sufficient to manage these processes, and where the only solution can come from the appropriate policy of the maintainer. [60]

The results of the application of the IPR emerge everywhere as “value added”, i.e. the progress of the children in comparison to their own level. This means that the schools (investigated by us) introducing the IPR cannot compete (at least not yet) with the elite schools on the objective scale of national skills assessment.

We also visited one school where the local government as maintainer was the one which forced the change and application for the grant. The discussions we had in schools and the lessons we visited convinced us that without the commitment and activity of the teaching staff, local government decisions are not sufficient to implement real change. (The school in question did not even participate in the HEFOP call for applications, and within its walls we encountered a textbook example of cold integration.) Here we must stress again that without methodological and attitude trainings only formal accomplishment can be expected. For as long as these trainings are only available by application, and nobody is checking the changes in teaching practice, the extent and implementation of the system, not to mention the effectiveness of the programme, cannot be measured by the number of grant applications. The programme can only be successful if the expectations of the maintainer/local government and the conviction of the school and the ability to apply the new teaching methods go hand in hand.

Financing

Grants

The skills development and integration preparation meant a supplementary grant for the 2006/2007 academic year for those schools launching the programme, which local governments as maintainers could apply for based on the number of pupils participating in the programmes. In order to promote integration, the level of the grant for the integration preparation is three times that awarded for the skills development programme.

According to our expert [61] there are no precise figures, but based on rough estimates, local governments applied for the grant for a third, and at most half of disadvantaged pupils.

Fifty six of schools applying for the grant said – on their own admission – that they had already used integrated teaching in the past, and according to information supplied by the Education and Culture Ministry only one-sixth created the conditions for integrated teaching as a result of the grant. The question arose to what extent the grant was successful in prompting the introduction of integrated teaching.

According to the expert we consulted, there was a not a significant difference between the expenses of schools claiming the grant and those not claiming it. There may be three reasons for this:

1. It did not reach the schools,

2. The level was not high enough to be traceable,

3. The expenses of the schools supported were in any case low.

The expert established that if the proportion of disadvantaged pupils is medium or high, the grant can be sufficient to finance the introduction of the programme, the further training of teachers and the employment of a development teacher. However if the proportion of disadvantaged pupils is low, the grant is only sufficient for formal accomplishment of the programme.

The grant is not sufficient (even if it fully reaches the school) to counterbalance the difference in financing between “rich” and “poor” schools. The grants are typically claimed by those settlements where large numbers of disadvantaged pupils live. Here the budget of the settlement, and therefore of the school is lower than in better-off settlements. In the poorest quarters of cities roughly HUF 380,000 is spent on each pupil, whilst the figure is HUF 60,000 in the richest quarters. The integration grant is HUF 60,000, i.e. it is not even sufficient to counterbalance the discrepancy in financing arising from the development level of the settlements.

International experience tells us that the education of disadvantaged pupils, in order to be similarly effective to that of other pupils, requires 30-70% more expenditure. By contrast, the skills development grant covers only 5% of expenses, and the integration grant is only 15%, i.e. it does not come close to covering the extra costs of educating disadvantaged children.

It is also not sufficient to counterbalance the counter-selection of teaching staff. The grant cannot make these schools more attractive to the best teachers, or to the parents of non-disadvantaged children. In itself it is not sufficient to ensure high-quality education, and so it is not able to influence parents’ choice of school.

During our on-site investigation schools in general reported that they could only spend on the programme, for example rewarding the more active teachers or acquiring the tools necessary to implement innovative methods, through application funding. School heads rarely said, for example, that the grant was sufficient to employ a development teacher, or that they used it to fund the increased equipment requirements associated with introducing the IPR. The supplementary grant, whose use is not fixed, generally goes into the common “budgetary hat”. There were even instances of the local governments as maintainers reducing the level of their support by the sum of the supplementary grants. Despite every effort to extend the sphere of schools applying for the grants [62] there are some schools/maintainers which fit the conditions yet which are not motivated to introduce integration by the potential support. According to our experts, the reason for this may be that they do not wish to cease the existing practice and/or that they can access more funds by introducing Roma minority education and/or by teaching pupils classified as having special learning needs.

Due to the changes to the financing system at present we do not know to what extent the findings mentioned above will remain valid. The comments on the level of the grant, however, definitely give cause for concern. At present it is not yet clear to what extent the planned 28 complex sub-region programmes will be able to counterbalance the problems arising from the undifferentiated nature of the grant.

The most successful schools (or those the OOIH was keen to display) had even before the appearance of the grants moved towards pedagogical innovations as a result of necessity, the proportion of disadvantaged children and/or the openness and dedication of the teachers. We heard several times phrases from the heads of these schools, like “we saw that the IPR had been made for us”, “we’d been doing this even before then”, “why wouldn’t we have requested money for what we’d been doing until now anyway”. In these schools the differentiated forms of teaching aimed at the individual development of children had been built into daily practice to such an extent, that the head teachers could credibly say that even if the grant would stop “nobody would deprive us of the project method or cooperative teaching...”, and that “the integration does not depend on the grant”. The other, presumably greater proportion of schools, however, were not on such strong professional footing, and were not even necessarily convinced of the welcome nature of integrated teaching and had thrown themselves into skills development and integrated teaching perhaps at the instigation of the maintainer or in order to supplement their funding. The worry is that hesitant schools will not apply for the support if conditions are stricter. It is a problem, which must be solved by making it in the interests of those schools which are not yet committed to adopt and use innovative practices to eliminate segregation.

We were informed, concerning the new system of grant applications, that the Education and Culture Ministry wishes to create preliminary entitlement checks, to build in effectiveness indicators and to create a system for professional support and checks. The aim of changing the form of the support is not only to enable more effective checks on use of the funding, but also to enable schools teaching by integrated methods to be able to rely in the long-term on this form of support.

After 1 September, 2007 applications for support will be able to be submitted to the “Support for equal opportunities and catching up” central budget provision according to the conditions of the decree expected to be published by the Education and Culture Ministry in March, 2007.

Here too we have to mention the risks connected to the transformation of the whole education financing system. The group financing planned from the 2007-2008 academic year – according to the experts we consulted – does not favour schools working with small classes and groups. If the maintainers cannot finance the schools, they will be forced to restrict the sphere of pedagogical services, or even close the school. We find it difficult to believe that the school head is wrong who commented that “group financing is opposed to integration”, particularly since we know that the majority of the schools affected are small schools.

PROPOSAL

In drawing up the decree concerning the “Support for equal opportunities and catching up” centralised budget provision, where necessary negotiating with the Finance Ministry, the Education and Culture Ministry should:

consider the possibility of differentiated support, as arising from the differing financial situations of the schools requesting support.
create a guarantee that the support will go to integrating schools and can be used for the tasks targeted,
take into account when determining the level of the support the real costs of tasks to be performed in the course of integration, and create the ability for the new grant to motivate in relation to other forms of support,
build in safeguard elements to ensure that in consequence of the change those schools which have earlier successfully achieved integration will not be left out of the support system.

The Education and Culture Ministry – where necessary in cooperation with the Finance ministry – should create the guarantee that in addition to the group financing which is to be introduced, the teaching practice of integrated, differentiated teaching in small groups and high-quality education will also be sustainable.

Calls for applications

In the framework of the HEFOP National Development Plan between 2004 and 2006 almost HUF 3.5 billion [63] was available for programmes supporting the equal opportunities of disadvantaged pupils, which was available in the form of calls for applications. At the end of 2006 roughly 150 schools received support through the sub-programmes of the 2006 HEFOP 2.1. programme. The teachers of the successful schools could take part free of charge in professional trainings and further trainings, and there was also a possibility to use the support to acquire the necessary mobile furniture, objects and equipment needed for integration.

In connection with the calls for applications, we can say in general the schools most in need do not have the financial or staff capacity to apply, so schools in the poorest, most disadvantaged settlements are left out of the retrospective financing application programmes. The lack of experience in writing and conducting applications, and of infrastructure and administrative capacity further reduces the chances of these schools to submit a successful application. In our view, the process of polarisation cannot be effectively halted with the system of calls for applications, and in fact it can even deepen the existing regional inequalities.

Each of the schools we visited in the course of our on-site investigations which had submitted a successful HEFOP application had criticisms of the administration of the calls for applications and the payment of the support. The system of post-financing put the majority of schools in an impossible situation, and many had to take out loans. Although they received the money won through the applications retrospectively, they had to cover the costs of the interest on the loans.

PROPOSAL

The government should take the necessary measures so that

while planning the New Hungary Development Plan (National Development Plan II.) the system of financing and payment of support should be modified so that those schools which applied successfully not be placed in an impossible situation due to the payments being paid at a late date,
while planning the New Hungary Development Plan the application conditions should be modified so that the administrative burdens of schools applying are reduced,
calls for applications emphatically enforce the equal opportunities aspects of disadvantaged regions.

Catchment areas

The new legislation concerning catchment areas came into force from January 2007 and is designed to promote integration and desegregation. According to the Education and Culture Ministry “the amendment of section 66 of the Public Education Act[64] is primarily aimed at settling the “right” of schools to free selection of pupils, and selection mechanisms which are not allowed by law. In this light disadvantaged pupils primarily will have the possibility of attending a different school from that in the designated area, since they have to be placed at an advantage.”

Problems of interpreting the preferential rule

The aim of the legislator was presumably that in the first round the school should accept children living in the catchment area, and in the second round, if there are still free places, those disadvantaged pupils who live in the settlement but beyond the catchment area, and if after this there are still free places and more applicants than places to decide by lots.

The text of the rule of law, however, does not clearly express this: the sixth sentence of the paragraph states that if, after accepting those applicants which it is obliged to do so, and there are still free places a school may only reject multiply disadvantaged pupils if there are not enough free places. The rule of law does not extend to what the procedure is if more multiply disadvantaged pupils apply than there are places and on what basis to decide who to accept. The law also does not make it clear whether lots can be drawn only in the case of further admissions once applicants from the cachment area have been compulsorily admitted, and multiply disadvantaged pupils from the settlement but beyond the catchment area, i.e. if there remain unfilled places after the children in the two rounds have been admitted. So if the number of applicants exceeds the available places, it can occur that schools begin drawing lots as early as the second round. In the case of drawing lots, schools have the possibility to give the preference to multiply disadvantaged pupils but this is not compulsory.

This type of interpretation, which unfortunately is possibly given the current text of the law, restricts the sphere of giving preference to minimal. For that reason there is the need to make the legislation clear – in accordance with the intention of the legislator.

Failings of the legislation

The aim of the legislator was to create catchment areas of roughly the same social composition and to desegregate disadvantaged children. Alongside the familiar demographic processes (falling number of pupils) and the accompanying freeing up of places, the provisions for the proportions of disadvantaged pupils between catchment areas and for preferential treatment of disadvantaged pupils are not sufficient.

Under the current legislation, nothing excludes the possibilities of multiply disadvantaged pupils flowing back into segregated schools. Although as a consequence of the new catchment areas they perhaps no longer belong to the catchment area of the segregated school, out of fear of the new and/or insistence on accustomed teachers and schools familiar for generations they can reapply to segregated schools, since the parents of disadvantaged pupils also have the right to free choice of school. According to the legislation, schools are obliged to give the preference to disadvantaged pupils from beyond the catchment area. So it can occur ad absurdum that the local government and schools fulfil the new provisions, whilst everything remains the same: multiply disadvantaged children continue to be taught in a segregated way. For this reason the catchment area rule can only achieve its original aim if there are realistically determined pupil number limits, i.e. the maintainers should determine the number of pupils to be accepted by school and the number of classes that can be launched in the way necessary for adherence to the prescribed proportions and the creation of schools and classes of heterogeneous composition.

The other serious problem is the polarisation, already indicated in Chapter III, created by the sub-region partnerships. Currently the obligation of proportionate catchment areas does not apply on the regional level. This means that within one sub-region the schools can continue to operate according to an elite-segregated "division of labour". It is indisputable, however, that if the legislation were extended to this level that it could cause practical problems, for example children have to travel large distances to reach the integrated school. So in order to solve this problem we regard as essential the introduction and further development of the school bus system.

The difficulties of implementation

During our on-site investigations we inquired about the stance of the local governments as maintainers to the new catchment area legislation. Several local governments attempted to implement the creation of proportional catchment areas before the legislation comes into force. Here is an example of the difficulties which one of these schools encountered:

“Several times the number of recorded children in the catchment area registered for the elite school. The local government was helpless: they carried out data comparisons, talked to the nurseries and then to the district nurses so that slowly the “externals” could be sifted out. The rest were invited for a discussion, and the parents were made to give a declaration, some of whom even made claims such as that they were divorcing, but the divorce procedure was not yet complete, which explains why the change of address cannot be tracked. The local government had to carry out real investigative work to work out who to accept and who not. They can’t possibly carry out such a lengthy investigation every year.”[65]

As we already stressed in Chapter III of this annual report, without complex programmes educational desegregation is impossible if residential segregation remains. During our on-site investigations the problem arose on several occasions that it is impossible to make the social composition of schools comparable by the drawing up of catchment areas in schools which are located in the immediate environment of closely-packed Roma slums.

Nor will the modification of catchment areas help in distributing disadvantaged children more evenly in the Budapest districts. Parents can without any difficulties take their child from a school which has a higher number of disadvantaged children as a result of the catchment area modification to the school in one of the districts with a low level of disadvantaged children.

It is questionable to what extent the new catchment area legislation, given these contradictions and failings, is capable of halting the process of segregation between schools.

PROPOSAL

The Education and Culture Ministry should initiate the amendment and supplementation of the Public Education Act and the related legislation in such a way that

the rules for giving the advantage to disadvantaged children should be made clear, i.e. whether there is only a possibility of drawing lots after having admitted the children within the catchment area and if there are still free places after admitted the multiply disadvantaged children, if there are still free places after admitting children falling into both categories.
the principle of drawing up catchment areas (the 25% proportion) should also be enforced within sub-region partnerships,
give guidance to local governments as to how to establish school pupil number limits in such a way that they ensure the genuine establishment of schools and classes of heterogeneous composition.

The question of data collection

It is a familiar obstacle to integration efforts that it is not always in the interests of schools or maintainers to collect real data serving as a basis for the integration measures.[66]

In this respect the Education and Culture Ministry provided the following information:

“In drawing up catchment areas and “producing” data we wish to rely on the bodies whose task is to ensure legality to a much greater extent than previously, i.e. on the local notaries and where necessary the Public Administration Offices. According to the 20/1997 government decree, the establishment of disadvantaged situation (entitlement to regular child-protection benefits or educational level of parents) is now carried out by the notary and no longer by the schools. With this modification we aim to motivate parents to provide a declaration on both of these conditions, and to put an end to the practice of directed or limited collection of declarations by schools. Since all data will be together in the hands of the notary, in the future their task will be not only to collect the data and supply it to the appropriate bodies, but also the initiation of integrated teaching. Our aim with this modification is that – unlike now - we will receive exact data about all year groups (classes) for each school in each catchment area. In the future it will be necessary to consistently monitor and potential correct the system - with particular regard to high levels of refusals to respond or high level of missing data.”

The situation outlined below poses a problem: data protection legislation does not enable the notary to forward data by name to the schools. The schools, however, need this data since otherwise they cannot assemble the classes so that they are integrated, i.e. they inevitably have to begin parallel data collection. What happens if as a consequence the figures of the school and the local government differ? It is also a fundamental fact that the likelihood of irregularities and abuses rises with an increased number of data handlers.

During our on-site investigations some local governments said that the did not have the capacity to collect the declarations of those receiving child-protection benefits and intended to continue to collect information regarding the school level of parents through the schools, i.e. in practice it can happen that schools continue to collect the data.

The whole system of integration preparation rests on the category of "multiply disadvantaged children". A fundamental condition of achieving real integration is that accurate data be available. The rule of law prescribes that the notary must send the compiled data – by school and by nursery – to the Public Education Information System (KIR). The notary has to store the statements of parents – as is the case for the child-protection documents. The ministry, in this way, may – at least partly – check up on the accuracy of the data sent (compliance with declarations), and entitlement to the grants.

In our view, however, this rule does not create a guarantee that abuses will be eliminated. The large number of refusals to respond and the reasons for lack of the data remain unverifiable. We therefore support the efforts of the Education and Culture Ministry to make more precise the system of data collection and handling by consistently examining the implementation and effectiveness of the above legislation.

Summary

We can regard it as the greatest achievement of the integration educational policy that it both contributes to the spread of modern methods which are differentiated and geared to the skills and individual development of children, and secondly promotes multiply disadvantaged Roma pupils gaining access to higher level educational services through these methods. Whilst acknowledging the results of the programme, we wish to repeat here the most important points raised during our investigation connected to the need for changes or modifications.

It is a pre-condition of effective educational integration that there be a comprehensive government programme aimed at eliminating segregation occurring in the various areas, and that these measures work in tune with each other, i.e. not weakening or neutralising each other. The coherency of educational measures also has to be ensured if equal opportunities are to be achieved. We also regard it as a fundamental requirement that the switch to general integrated and high-quality education extending to the whole of the public education system be planned, by setting concrete indicators, the desired results of the educational integration programme, and its timescale and schedule.

The integration programme, without including schools not maintained by local governments is only capable to a limited extent of bringing about reforms. In our view the integration rules also need to be extended to these schools.

The influence of the integration measures is currently limited and does not extend to the most disadvantaged children who have been declared as having special learning needs. The measures are unable to influence the phenomenon that the segregation of multiply disadvantaged and Roma children to a considerable extent occurs through declaring them as having special learning needs. We regard it as essential that the integration programme be further developed to promote, using the appropriate teaching developments, children with special learning needs where possible being taught within the majority school system.

We agree with the fact that the target group of the programme has been defined by social indicators. At the same time we regard the consistent use of the mainstreaming principle as vital, i.e. the analysis of what effect the programme has on children of Roma background.

The definition of the target group and consistent thinking through of the basic principle of social indicators make it necessary to extend the category of "multiply disadvantaged": in our view it is unjustified that those children of skilled labourers and parents with a technical school qualification who belong to the same social category as the children of parents who have only completed eight elementary classes are left out of the programme.

In our view the integration programme needs to be extended to nurseries and secondary schools giving a school leaving qualification: the foundation for the success of the programme would be laid by a nursery stage, and the continuation at the secondary school level is a necessary consequence of the programme working, and essential in order to keep the children concerned in the education system.

In our view it is important that schools beginning use of the IPR should receive direct help in the introductory period concerning numerous questions of attitudes, methodology and organisation, and for this the material and staff conditions have to be ensured for the operation of the appropriate advisory background. The status of the OOIH needs to be strengthened, creating the independent stable legal status of the network independently of application funding.

The integration programme cannot be successful without winning over teachers and their active participation. We regard it as essential that it be compulsory for teachers participating in the programme to attend both attitude-forming and methodological trainings. We also think it is justified to develop the whole teacher training in this direction. Until effective integrated teaching and methods designed to open up the skills of the individual are made a compulsory part of higher education teacher training, we think it is important that those schools which are models of integration should become practice schools for teacher training, and the base school system should run again which assists the spread of innovative methods.

In order to be able to assess the results and effectiveness of the integration measures, the conditions need to be put in place allowing results to be assessed on an individual level in a standardised way across the country.

The reorganisation of the education financing system creates a suitable opportunity for rethinking the support given to integrated teaching. We regard it as important that the new system be suited to reinforce the results already achieved, and not to hinder efforts made in the interests of integration. At the same time when determining the level of the new form of support, entitlement and checks, attention needs to be paid to ensuring that the financing system does not trigger effects counter to integration.

Decisions made need to be reviewed and where necessary amended in order to develop a rational and financable public education system in such a way that the integration and desegregation education policy is not put at risk.

Within the National Development Plan II, when planning the allocation of application-based support, it is necessary to create the professional and financial guarantees of the horizontal aspect of equal opportunities, otherwise the application system itself will further increase the differences between deprived and prosperous areas, and indirectly can play a part in increasing geographical segregation.

Initiatives

In order to enforce the total ban on discrimination as expressed in section 70/A of the Constitution and to prevent related abuses, based on section 21 (1) of the Public Education act we turned with the initiative

1. to the Education and Culture Minister to take the necessary measures based on our proposals addressed to him in the report.

2. to the minister leading the Prime Minister’s Office to take the necessary measures based on our proposals addressed to the government in the report.

3. Follow up to one initiative

In our 2005 annual report we spoke in detail about one initiative of ours without precedent in the history of the Hungarian parliamentary commissioner institution: the amicus curiae letter. To briefly recap: the letter is a professional document which we prepared with the aim of clarifying certain concepts and provisions of the anti-discrimination legislation that can be difficult to interpret based on Hungarian legal traditions, relying on international and European Union expert documents, court rulings and recommendations. (We published the full text of the document in appendix 2. of the 2005 annual report).

We were motivated to prepare the material after becoming aware of a case in the media dealing with the question of whether Roma pupils had been segregated and discriminated against in the course of their elementary school education. The Chance for Children Foundation filed a case against the Miskolc municipality on the grounds that it had violated the principle of equal treatment. We were informed that – since the court of the first instance rejected the case of the claimant - the claimant filed an appeal against the ruling of the first instance to the Debrecen Court of Appeal. Based on the press reports the case appeared complicated and visibly required the complex interpretation of rules of law and legal definitions concerning discrimination – which are relatively new in Hungarian law.

We sent the material together with an accompanying letter to the chairman of the Debrecen Court of Appeal, drawing his attention to the fact that our aim was none other than to offer professional assistance so that an unbiased and uninfluenced ruling be brought that is in line with European Union law in cases concerning equal treatment.

The Debrecen Court of Appeal heard the case on 9 June, 2006. Our colleague was also present at the hearing in the public gallery. At the hearing both the judge concerned and the claimant referred to the contents of the amicus curiae letter, and – partially reversing the ruling of the first instance – its legal interpretation could be discerned in certain parts of the final ruling.[67]

We were very pleased that as an outsider we could play an impartial, but useful part in a case which for the first time in Hungary gave rise to the interpretation of numerous definitions and provisions on the principle of equal treatment.

III.

Minorities in the media

1. Introduction

In general it can be said that in Hungary the media does not devote particular attention to national and ethnic minorities; in the electronic media (television and radio) the broadcasting system of the individual national minority programmes has been unchanged for years, although on the grounds of the need to cut costs, occasionally the budget of public service institutions is trimmed.

In 2006 there was a greater need to warn of “negative sensationalism” in the media. This phenomenon primarily needs to be mentioned in connection with the Roma minority, the largest and most disadvantaged minority in Hungary.

What does this mean? None other than that certain media representatives – of both the printed and electronic press – treat those stories which paint a negative picture of the Roma, and which reinforce stereotypes of this minority, as an opportunity for sensationalism, as a kind of “tabloid splash”.

The one-sided reporting in the media and excessive reporting of cases inclining towards sensationalism even raises the spectre of a new form of hate speech.

In 2006 we heard of numerous cases of such reporting and unfortunately we have to say that the Hungarian press has no unified rights representation and ethical body which would be in the position to credibly establish where the boundary is.

We could not rely on any information prepared by a journalists’ association, alliance or other professional organisation or reports written by the media authority on this topic, so below using the results of sociological, statistical and historical research we shall attempt to present the trends of media reporting which can currently be experienced in relation to Hungary’s Roma population.

The following chapter therefore – although this does not emerge directly from its title – is concerned with the media representation of Roma in Hungary, since we have to acknowledge that the way this minority group is viewed differs fundamentally from all other minorities, and so its representation in the media requires a special analysis.

2. “Negative sensationalism” – questions of the media’s bias

We cannot ignore the fact that the vast majority of society has a decidedly hostile opinion of the Roma.

We cannot ignore this because clearly and openly negative reactions to Roma citizens are not simply a question of human rights, which can provide a topic of debate for educated and tolerant layers, sociologists and other academics, but also a severe socio-political question, on which we think there needs to be the widest possible problem-solving socio-psychological dialogue. The phenomenon that Roma are also widely afflicted by the undisguised prejudices of persons in official roles which can lead to mutual distrust is more than worrying. And since this will soon result in the majority society and the Roma population each viewing the other as a threat, the chance of social peace is reduced with every conflict that may be small but which attracts publicity.

We wish to mention here some revealing statistics: according to the 1997 report of the Hungarian Gallup Institute, every second Hungarian adult openly declared that they are averse to Gypsies According to a 2005 TÁRKI analysis, which can be regarded as fresh, four-fifths, 80% of the Hungarian adult population thinks that the problems of the Roma would be solved if they would finally start working, and 62% agrees with the statement that the criminal tendency is in the blood of Roma. (This proportion was 55% in 2000, and 53% in 2002)

It is worth noting, and is stressed by each of these two research projects, that respondents evaded directly taking a position with the answers “I don’t know” or “I don’t have an opinion”, which indicates that, and which in itself is alarming, that in Hungary anti-Roma prejudices do not count as unfit for polite society.

We consider that the responsibility of the media (in addition to that of public figures) in this question is immeasurable, since it does not simply mirror reality, because public opinion is influenced by what is represented in the press, in what way and with what weight.

One typical example: one news agency published a story titled Suspicious convoy prowling around Kecskemét, which several internet portals used without changes, and which was one of the lead stories for several hours and read by several thousand people, whilst the persons whom the police asked to provide proof of their identity, quoting the article “had not committed any breach of the law, nor was there among them any person who was sought by the police”.

So what made this piece if news interesting to readers and what made the journalist think it was “sellable”? The fact that those affected by the police measures – as also confirmed by the police spokesman – were of Roma background. This meant that the journalist could rely on the common and false prejudice in Hungary that the Roma and crime are two concepts that go together, and that a Roma gathering is – at least – suspicious!

(We requested that the competent county police chief emphatically draw the attention of those members of the county police force authorised to speak to the press that if it is irrelevant from the point of view of crime prevention, criminal investigation, public administration and law enforcement activities that the person involved belongs to a national or ethnic minority, then the information given to the press should not even imply this.)

And what picture does the Hungarian media give of the Hungarian Roma? Research shows that it typically mirrors and thereby reinforces and deepens the stereotypes of majority society: Hungarian Roma, if they do appear, are poor but undeserving of help, do not work, expect state and local government support and demand benefits (see: the problems of the Roma would be solved if they would finally start working); confront the official power and commit crimes (see: the criminal tendency is in the blood of Roma). The media only exceptionally shows positive Roma models that are acceptable to society, and if it does so, usually these are Roma artists, and the presentation of Roma culture (within this mainly music and dance) is presented as a “colourful curiosity”. (We wish to note that the majority media only portrays peripherally the life and culture of the national minorities.)

The cut-throat competition which characterises the media industry and the desire to increase sales means that sensationalism, tabloid reporting (even the news programmes are shows aimed at entertaining and built on the fears of viewers!), superficiality and pandering to the prejudices of the audience or readership come into their own.

The most typical example of this was the media reporting of the brutal murder which took place in Olaszliszka.

Several hundred news items and opinion pieces were published in connection with the case, in which particular stress was placed on the offenders being Roma, and that one of the suspects was a member of the local Roma minority self-government, thereby suggesting to a wide audience that Gypsies and crime are words that go together. Some journalists perhaps did so from personal conviction, others perhaps through lack of preparation and still others for pragmatic reasons (the lure of cheap success)

There were even daily papers which in the same edition published three or four articles about the same event.

We also read one piece in which the writer mentioned six times in the first paragraph alone that Roma individuals were involved in the case.

We also came across a popular morning news show, where they openly and crudely insulted the Roma, whilst others did so more “discretely”.

Several newspaper articles, referring to experts, and thereby giving the impression of erudition, carried analyses of the hot-tempered Gypsy mindset and how it can be linked to crime, and the Roma culture which allows certain forms of deviant behaviour.

All this was reinforced by the media serving up similar cases to the Olaszliszka incident and artificially given as parallels. Blogs and various internet forums were filled with vehement comments demanding revenge, and inciting people to commit crimes against the Roma and to act in self-defence (on the grounds that majority society should not have to tolerate the bias of the state towards the Roma majority, the impotence of the crime detection state bodies, i.e. that the state does not guarantee the security of the majority.)

3. Prejudice spread via the internet

One political party launched an independent website to prove that “Gypsy crime” exists: the organisation believes that there are typical Gypsy methods, tools and types of crimes, i.e. that the general supposition can be confirmed by many individual examples.

We should not sweep these “arguments” under the carpet. Instead we should address them, because many people take this view and very few read criminal sociology.

It is true that among those found guilty of a crime Roma are present in greater numbers than their proportion in society. This, however, reflects the crude falsity of a superficial approach, and not only because prejudiced people, including certain members of the crime detection and juridical bodies regard reality selectively, but also because committing a crime is not necessarily followed by punishment, i.e. the proportion within the whole Hungarian society a is not a valid point of reference.

Individual types of crimes do not represent an equal weight within the statistics. The effectiveness of detection also varies for different types of crimes. Today the crime statistics are dominated (with a proportion of 80-85%) by 20 to 22 crime types. In 2005 for example, crimes against property made up 62% of all reported crimes. Thefts belonging to this category on average make up 25-35% of all crimes, and if we add to this violent crimes against persons which also represent a considerable proportion, and we know that these types of crime are regarded as being linked to Gypsies and the detection rates for these are the highest, one reason for our rejection of the superficial approach becomes evident.

The vast majority of perpetrators of crimes, as numerous excellent researchers [68] have demonstrated come from the edge of society and not from the middle class. Three quarters of the Roma population belongs to this group [69], living on the periphery of society. If we compare the crime figures of the Roma population to those of people from a similar social group it becomes clear that it is not higher.

Returning to the media portrayal of the Olaszliszka case, although there were reports that approached the topic in a multi-faceted way, these appeared to be in the minority (for example it only featured in a few articles that within the family of the three suspects, nobody had a criminal record and the young sister of one of the suspects had been previously run over, for which the offender received just a three-year sentence.)

Roma politicians found themselves in a trap: they could not remain silent, yet by responding to the questions of journalists as prominent Gypsies, despite saying the opposite, they inevitably suggested that the Roma origin of the offenders was relevant and needed to be interpreted.

We received numerous complaints, including from the National Roma Self-Government that the Hungarian Roma community’s dignity had been violated by the false picture conveyed by the media of Roma and which was also capable of inciting hatred.

In such cases we now proceed as a matter of “routine”. We inform the complainant that criminal law restriction on hate speech injuring the whole of any community is only possible in the most extreme cases: if there is a clear and direct threat of violence; that in the lack of an individual who is affected there is no right to file a claim, i.e. civil law does not offer appropriate protection in such cases; that the Media Act has a rule prohibiting incitement to hatred, but that this refers only to television and radio and not to the written press or the internet, that the Press Act does not recognise the concept of the dignity of the community; that the process for notification and removal of internet content has not been appropriately and consistently regulated; that nobody has yet applied the sections of the Equal Treatment Act relating to bringing public-interest actions to hate speech. We inform the complainant that in the absence of appropriate legal tools there is only a chance of eliminating spreading comments prone to incite hatred if society as a whole stresses tolerance and condemns such content.

In addition to providing this information we attempted to launch a professional dialogue along two lines.

Referring to the Common Ethic Principles of the journalist organisations, we requested that the organisations’ Cooperation Board in a general declaration condemn irresponsible superficiality, anti-Gypsy speech which is suited to incite discrimination and selective reporting implying collective guilt resting on genetic factors, since these crop up again and again in the press in connection with concrete cases.

We requested that since the press is also responsible for the increasing tension between Roma and non-Roma, that the Cooperation Board emphatically draw the attention of journalists to the fact that that in times of tension, as now, even without direct incitement, a few implied snatches of sentences or the artificial connection of facts can be sufficient to “inflame” hatred, stir up hysteria, to shake confidence in the authorities, and thereby to provoke the false self-defence reflex.

On the grounds that the choice of topics, their means of reporting, number of reports, duration and length, i.e. selecting the way a topic is portrayed, is a real form of power, we also requested that the Cooperation Board call on the profession to exercise self-restraint and responsibility, not to allow tabloid superficiality to predominate and to avoid serious social questions being put second to the lure of a scoop.

It is indicative of the situation that we received a reply only after several months, which said that the press organisations had not drafted a common statement: four organisations had agreed with the draft response drawn up by the president of the Cooperation Board, two had given evasive replies and four press organisations did not react at all to the ombudsman request as relayed by the president of the Cooperation Board.

The need arose, however, for a personal exchange of ideas on the questions of Roma, the media and the law. The organisation of this is in progress.

We contacted the programming director of TV2 with the idea of broadcasting a professional dialogue, who replied, also with several months delay, but expressing openness to the proposal. We hope that a joint regulation containing ethic minimums for television can be conceived.

(Our letter to the programming director was prompted by the complaints and other indications we received concerning the forum, blog and other interfaces designed for comments on the TV2 website, where countless comments violating the dignity of the Roma minority in Hungary could be found.)

The internet, which expands daily by more than a million (!) pages, is an endless mine of information transfer and acquisition, the modern way of accessing knowledge, the most modern form of trade, and at the same time the freest interface for anonymous expression of and the hardest to monitor. It is therefore also a constant topic in those complaints which the minority ombudsman receives.

We found, for example, racist and anti-Roma texts in the forum rubric of a portal popular among students containing information about edcuation, careers and higher education admissions. When contacted by our office the operator of the website, whilst denying the existence of the rubric, deleted the entire comments interface and all the remarks.

In another case, the topic of the forum rubric was the funeral of a teacher who died under tragic circumstances, in connection with which there were numerous comments about the “crimes” of the whole Hungarian Roma population and about revenge.

The interesting point about the issue is that not only the forum users are nameless and faceless, but generally also the operators of the website to one-time internet users. We were only informed by the server hosting company that the operators of the interfaces appearing on their server, and in general the names, addresses and telephone numbers of all domain users can be accessed at www.domain.hu by means of a search or detailed search.

We also encountered cases even more critical than those already described. On the http://mitglied.lycos.de/romahalal/ homepage not only were there comments expressing aversion to the Roma, but also songs and other hate-inciting content encouraging and demanding the extermination of the Roma from a band named Divízió88.

We brought a change against unknown individuals on the grounds of reasonable suspicion of the crime of inciting against a community as regulated by section 269 (b) of the Criminal Code.

It is almost impossible to establish this crime based on the several resolutions of the Constitutional Court and juridical practice on this question: the law enforcers following from this visibly take the view that the “clear and direct threat of violence" cannot be established, and if the violence has actually occurred then the person who committed the “verbal crime” will charged with instigation to violent action.

We think it is important for several reasons to mention the scandal concerning the forum of the Holdudvar “internal use” police homepage. As was reported in the media – when we became aware of the case, we consulted the national police chief. Some of those writing on the forum had shared crudely racist, anti-Roma views with the others.

The prosecution office launched an investigation into the case which was reported on in the media last October, which however did not establish the suspicion of a criminal act. Nor were those concerned subject to police disciplinary proceedings. “They abused the freedom of speech, but a concrete violation of the law did not take place” – said the police chief. Of a total of 7,896 comments registered on the internal forum, 68 were racist, and the investigation launched into the case identified 30 police officers who had made anti-Roma comments, representing less than a thousandth of the force of several tens of thousands.

The police examined whether the identified police officers (4 sub-officers, 9 ensign officers and 17 commissioned officers, of whom 27 were subordinates, and three held and still hold lower level leadership positions) had displayed racist conduct in the course of their service, but since there was no evidence of such, their professional suitability was not questioned, and in all they had to participate in a training aimed at combating prejudices.[70]

No crime or disciplinary offence was established, and we accepted the measures of the police leadership, so why do we regard the case as particularly important?

Not because it is evident that within the police not only 30 police officers are racist (probably the “acceptance” of racist views and prejudice is present within the police force in line with the social average), but because racism occurring within the police force is significantly more dangerous than in the case of other social groups. We can rightly expect that that authority whose task it is to uphold democratic law and order, and which is also obliged to deal tackle racism-motivated crimes, and which is endowed with the state power of measures of force will oppose all forms of violation of equal treatment, and mercilessly crack down on racial discriminative ideology within the institution itself.

There is certainly room for improvement in this area. Admittedly, prejudices cannot be combated on command and by repression, but it is also true that deep-rooted prejudiced thinking cannot be changed through a few psychology lessons (however clever they may be), only methods of disguising it. Naturally, this is better than nothing, since in the majority of cases the objective and correct procedure is sufficient guarantee of the principle of equal treatment being upheld. In this respect the personal examples set by the leaders of the hierarchical police structure are of particular importance: it would be correct, if when a major scandal breaks attracting the attention of the country, if the comment would not merely be “the investigation is underway", but if the Justice Minister, the Local Government Minister and the national police chief would promptly condemn the action.

(Naturally the expectation is that the leaders of bodies of executive power should distance themselves clearly, promptly and publicly from racism, and it is reasonable to expect this from every public figure since the state is manifested and expresses its set of values through them.)

Two further circumstances also deserve to be mentioned in connection with the concrete case: firstly that the racist texts could be read for a long period of time and nobody thought to take any action, which makes it likely that this is not just a case about 30 people. We draw attention to the fact that this was a case of educated individuals, moreover educated police offers who presumably expressed their extremely prejudicial and degrading opinions about Roma in the awareness that – despite their nicknames – they could be easily identified.

In our view the general lesson to be drawn from the case is that the institutions responsible for police training in future need to place greater emphasis on selecting applicants and assessing more thoroughly their suitability.

4. The “voice” of minorities in the media – some positive developments

As you may be aware, in 2003 we surveyed the public service media in the framework of a comprehensive investigation – including primarily the national minority reporting tasks of the television and radio organs (the report became known after its approval by parliament in 2004, and can be accessed among the documents of Parliament, as well as the documents available on the website of the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioners).

Each year we devote time to inquiring in the form of an investigation – or what could be described as a follow up investigation – whether national and ethnic minorities have the possibility to appear in the public service media within separate programmes and whether they can access native language information about the life of the minority community.

In terms of public service television we did not become aware of major changes, i.e. the national minority programmes of public television could be accessed according to the same system.

However, in terms of public service radio, as early as 2003 both the management of Magyar Rádió Zrt. And the National Radio and Television Board indicated that for reasons of frequency management and modernisation, we should expect changes also influencing national minority programmes.

These changes were made at the end of 2006 and beginning of 2007 when the new Magyar Rádió channel titled MR4 was established. To be precise, the broadcasting of Magyar Rádió’s programmes on 66 MHz and the eastern FM band ceased (officially) on 31 January 2007, and at the same time MR4 took over the broadcasting. The MR4 Broadcasts can be heard in west and east Hungary on 1188 kHz and in south Hungary on 874 kHz. In addition – as a new service – the national minority programmes can also be accessed via the Hot Bird3 satellite and the Magyar Rádió website.[71]

With the launch of MR4, Magyar Rádió Zrt. is actually continuing an old radio tradition: following World War II, Magyar Rádió broadcast its first national minority programmes – in Serbian and Croatian - on 12 January, 1953 from the Pécs Regional Studio. Until 1966 Magyar Rádió produced Croatian, German, Serbian, Romanian, Slovakian and Slovenian language programmes in its Szeged, Pécs and Győr studios. These programmes were broadcast for one or two hours a day, partly with national and partly with regional coverage. In January 1998, Magyar Rádió broadcast Ruthenian, Bulgarian, Greek, Ukrainian, Armenian, Poland and Hungarian language Roma programmes, and the Hungarian language national minority magazine, aimed at majority society, was launched. Magyar Rádió gives its readers a taster of the literature of national minorities living in Hungary twice a week.

(Relatively little time has passed since the change to the broadcasting system, and during this period we have not received any related complaints.)

IV.

Social problems and poverty – through the eyes of the Minority Ombudsman

1. General look at breaches of the constitutional fundamental right to social security

In 2006, as in previous years, our office received large numbers of complaints relating to social difficulties, primarily in connection with housing and livelihood. The majority of the complainants were affiliated to the Roma minority. The social background of the complainants in general was similar - mainly poor people living in social exclusion requested our assistance in solving their problems.

Our experiences while examining the complaints tie in with research results indicating that in the past decade and a half the proportion of poor has grown slightly, the social divide has further deepened, and the risk of poverty is increasingly significant among the unemployed, those performing occasional work, the untrained, Roma, and those living in the countryside, particularly in north and east Hungary. The structure of poverty reveals a kind of constancy: those afflicted were mainly parents with children aged under 14, in particular aged under three, and those with a large number of children, particularly if raising them alone.[72] Our complainants were generally affected by a combination of the risk factors listed above, and so were among the multiply disadvantaged and marginalised members of Hungarian society

The situation of the Roma population living in poverty – based on reports of complainants and letters outlining their living conditions - has worsened in the past years. This is supported by the fact that in 2006 we received letters from complainants concerning social and housing problems, who had earlier consulted our office due to similar issues. Presumably the reason for these latest appeals for help was not just that based on earlier experiences they trust in the effective intervention of the ombudsman. These repeated requests also indicate that the social environment and life situation of the complaints has barely improved at all in the past years, and has in fact tended to worsen.

The complainants turned to our office, the Minority Ombudsman, with their social, housing and/or livelihood problems because they supposed that the procedure or neglect of the body or institution in question was a result of their Roma origin. During our investigations we generally were unable to prove the breach of the principle of equal treatment, direct or indirect discrimination, and violation of minority rights. For the most part we established violations of children’s rights, and the constitutional rights to social security and legal security. There were cases, when we did not establish a violation, but as a result of our cooperation and intervention, the given authority or public body treated the problem of the client with a more open and flexible attitude, and in a more professional manner.

2. Bureaucratic procedures and neglect of the obligation to inform

From the complaints sent to our office it emerged that several in 2006 had also suffered the humiliations and disadvantages of excessively bureaucratic handling of their affairs. Complainants living in social exclusion, and often uneducated, are often not even aware of their fundamental rights, and in such cases the helpful attitude of the authority or body concerned is extremely important.

In several cases the mayor or notary explained that a given social service, to which the citizen would have otherwise been entitled according to the legislation, had not been awarded it because they had not submitted a request for it.

In these cases the mayor’s office or institution (Family Help Centre, Child Welfare Service etc.) of the local government was aware that the family submitting the complaint lived in difficult circumstances and/or had accumulated significant public dues. We do not find it likely that a disadvantaged family, if properly informed, would no submit a request for grant support to which they are entitled.

We usually recommend to our complainants that they submit their request in writing where possible. If they have difficulty formulating the request, we encourage them to request assistance from the staff of the Family Help Centre or the Child Welfare Service. If necessary and requested we also consult these bodies and request their participation and cooperation in order to assist the complainants.

According to section 34 of the CXL Act of 2004 on the General Rules of Public Administration Authority Procedures and Services, requests may be made to the authority in writing, but natural persons may also make a spoken request. Spoken requests must be recorded according to the nature of the case: for example, they must be recorded in a record of evidence. In certain cases, however, it is sufficient for these requests to be noted in a file. In the case of claims for social services it makes sense to have the oral request recorded in the record of evidence. If a spoken request is not recorded, then it is commonly summarily rejected, thereby also depriving the client of the possibility of claiming legal redress.

In the case below one complainant who turned to us, who was living under difficult disadvantaged social conditions was put at a financial disadvantage by the bureaucratic and unhelpful way in which his case was treated, which in such a form also violated the constitutional rights of citizens to legal security and social security.

Our client complained that the records office, when issuing a new personal identity card, was unjustifiably slow, discriminating against him. The office informed him inadequately and mistakenly about the possibility of exemption from payment. He therefore had to pay the cost of procedure, which due to his severe social circumstances disadvantaged him. He believed the “dismissive” conduct of the official concerned was connected to his Roma origin.

We investigated whether the obligation to inform, recorded in the Act on the General Rules of Public Administration Authority Procedures and Services had been fulfilled in practice based on the complaint’s case.

According to the act, public administration offices (particularly offices with large client numbers) act correctly if they provide information about frequently-occurring routine procedures by several means. The client may need legal information for the entire duration of the procedure in connection with every important procedural action, even if it just a question of a routine task such as replacing identity card.

The client should – also in this case – have been given detailed information about the rules of exemption from payment. The authority is not obliged only then to inform the client if it means as advantage to the office in terms of its work, but also if as a result of the information the body concerned has extra work.

Based on the information at our disposal, the suspicion of discrimination or violating minority rights could not be proven, but we set out general proposals regarding the future processes of the records office. Firstly we approved of the fact that the head of the records office, as a consequence of the concrete case, took work organisation measures in order to shorten the time taken to deal with such cases.

In order to prevent and bring an end to the problems that arose we also proposed that the records office examine whether it was fulfilling its obligation of providing information, and the practice relating to exemption from payment, and where necessary make changes so that vulnerable, disadvantaged citizens less able to stand up for their own rights, including Roma citizens, be able to manage their affairs more quickly, cheaply and effectively.

3. The practical problems of regular social benefits

In recent years with the amendment of the Social Act, the system of social benefits has been entirely re-regulated. In 2004 the cooperation obligation of those participating in regular social benefits was amended, as well as the sphere of those eligible. In 2005 the main aim of modifying the regular social benefit was so that the family circumstances be taken into account in the conditions of entitlement and the level awarded (introduction of the consumption unit), and in order to promote the activity and willingness to undertake work of those living on benefits.

In connection with the transfer to family-type social benefits, complainants drew our attention to two significant problems in 2006.

In the past year several complainants receiving regular social benefits objected that the local office of the job centre (according to their place of residence) had deleted them from the register of jobseekers. According to the justification given in the resolution, this occurred because they had not fulfilled the contents of the job seeking agreement and had neglected to perform the job search which they had pledged to do. The complainants however claimed that they had not fulfilled their undertaking, because the obligations arising from the agreement were not clear to them.

The current legislation sanctions in different ways the same conduct of not cooperating with the job centre.

Jobseekers – according to the IV Act of 1991 on Employment – have to sign a job seeking agreement with the local office of the job centre geared towards fining employment. If the jobseeker does not fulfil the terms of the job seeking agreement through their own fault then the job seeking allowance will only be awarded after 90 days from it being stopped, even if the jobseeker otherwise meets the other conditions for entitlement.

There is also a cooperation obligation for those receiving regular social benefit.

Before 1 November 2005 the Social Act prescribed as a condition of unemployed persons of working age receiving benefit that they must cooperate with the local government and/or with the designated body (family help service, designated social institution, local job centre office).

The cooperation obligation meant firstly that the person receiving the benefit has to accept appropriate job offers recommended by the local job centre office or the local government. Secondly, according to the decree of the local government, the unemployed person had to participate in a programme geared towards their social situation and mental state and aimed at maintaining and developing their and their family’s ability to support themselves.

If the unemployed person has not cooperated during the time of the benefit being awarded, then the regular social benefit has to be terminated, and cannot be awarded again within the next 36 months.

The 2004 amendment of the Social Act changed the rules for the cooperation obligation of those receiving regular social benefit.

Those receiving the benefit, for example, had to undertake increased cooperation with the job centre, which also involved signing a job seeking agreement.

The job seeking agreement consists of general undertakings since at the time of signing it is not possible to know which employers will indicate their need for labour. The complainants who turned to our office had also undertaken to contact employers in person or by telephone relating to their designated field of work who had not advertised jobs. According to their accounts, they had not received any real help in fulfilling this obligation.

In the initial phase, in our opinion, the job centre local offices should have endeavoured to make jobseekers familiar with the new support system, and not try primarily through the tool of sanctions to direct them towards intensively seeking employment.

According to our experiences, some of the job centre local offices did not place emphasis on providing the necessary information and offering assistance. They did not examine why the jobseeker (person receiving the benefits) was unable to comply with their undertaking, but simply registered this fact and deleted the client from their job seeking register. They informed the local governments of the deletion from their records and on this basis the local governments, on the grounds of breach of the cooperation obligation, terminated the regular social benefit.

According to sociological research, a significant proportion of Roma are unable to find permanent employment. Their main source of income, in addition to occasional public-utility work is the regular social benefit. Although the legislation, now no longer in force, apparently did not violate the principle of equal treatment, in fact a significantly higher proportion of unemployed Roma were disadvantaged than non-Roma jobseekers.

The Parliament wished to eliminate the contradictions of the legislation with the amendment to the Social Act that entered into force on 1 July, 2006

The amendment to the act introduced more favourable rules and a more differentiated system of sanctions for those breaking the cooperation obligation. If the breach of the obligation takes place for the first time and does not count as severe, then it can be recommended that instead of terminating the benefits, a lower level be granted temporarily. In the case of a severe breach of the obligation, or a repeated breach within two years, the regular social benefits must be terminated, and cannot be granted again within 36 months.

The new legislation, therefore, does not allow those participating in regular social benefits, who for some reason have not fulfilled the terms of their job seeking agreement, and who are deleted from the jobseekers’ register to be “automatically” excluded from the benefits system for 36 months

However the unwarranted discrepancy remained in force that those participating in regular social benefits in the case of seriously breaching their cooperation agreement, face a significantly more severe legal consequence (36 month exclusion) that those who receive the job seeking allowance (90 day exclusion).

Naturally it is important that unemployed persons take an active part in job seeking, however we regard this sanction as excessive. In our opinion, increasing willingness to enter into employment should not provide grounds for excluding those in need for 36 months from the benefits system, thereby making entirely impossible their lives and those of their families.

We turned to the Social Affairs and Labour Minister in connection with the contradictions in the legislation on the cooperation agreement for those receiving job seeking support, however the ministry did not react clearly to the problems we raised, and the ministry regarded them as solved by the 2006 amendment to the Social Act.

The second concern which complainants registered in connection to the amendment of the Social Act was that the calculation of the regular social benefit connected to the consumer unit gives rise to misunderstanding.

In one settlement before 1 July, 2006 a husband and wife living together in a joint family received HUF 18, 060 per person in regular social benefits, i.e. HUF 36,120 in total. As a consequence of the amendment to the legislation the benefit could only be established for one member of the family, in the current case the wife. This value was determined as HUF 26, 058, which is around HUF 10, 000 less than the amount that the family received earlier. From the justification to the resolution it is clear that when determining the real total income of the family, they calculated in the value of the regular social benefit earlier awarded to the husband, but which was then discontinued.

In our view the benefits practice in the settlement is not in line with the provisions of the Social Act. As a consequence of the incorrect and unlawful calculation method used by the mayor exercising the powers of social authority, the family received regular social benefits of a lower level than they were entitled to based on the provisions of the Social Act. It can also be suspected that the value of the regular social benefit was not calculated legally in the case of other local residents.

Regular social benefits may be granted if a person of working age is damaged in health or unemployed, providing that their own livelihood and that of their family is not ensured by other means.

In the course of examining the complaint, we requested the opinion of the leader of the regional public administration office's social and guardianship office, who agreed with our initiative, and in whose opinion the report of the parliamentary commissioners precisely sets out the lawful procedure for social benefits cases.

4. Circumstances endangering the exercise of children’s and parents’ rights

We shall again introduce the difficulties concerning the exercise of children’s and parents’ rights based on a concrete case this year. The complaint is closely connected to the educational failings of Roma children, the teaching problems experienced in schools, and to procedures violating the principle of equal treatment. (We deal with complaints concerning education in a separate chapter of the report.)

The complainant requested our assistance because one of her children was to be taken into state care. The complainant of Roma origin said that of her 11 children the child in question had been absent from school a lot. Firstly, the child had been ill several times and secondly did not like attending school because of being excluded by the pupils and teachers.

In order to investigate the case, we contacted the notary, the head of the elementary school, and the director of the Family Help and Child Welfare Service.

It became apparent from the replies and documents we received that the care of the children was good, their development was appropriate to their age and there was no problem with their nutrition or clothing. The family, however, for a long time has struggled with difficulties, particular in the upbringing and school attendance of the children in older years. The Family Help and Child Welfare service had initiated procedures of social protection in four cases, on three occasions because of absence from school. Currently two of the children have been classified as requiring social protection (requiring a family carer to be assigned to the family), one of whom they wish to take out of the family. The number of school absences of the child was so high that it was no longer possible to award a mark at the end of the year. The school sent a warning letter to the parents and on six occasions initiated a procedure with the notary.

In February 2006 the Family Help and Child Welfare Service at the proceedings reviewing the classification of social protection of the child proposed in spoken form the temporary removal from the family, in view of the unchanged high number of school absences. The notary as guardianship authority of the first instance in July 2006 produced a resolution on the temporary removal from the family. According to the justification, the parents had cooperated in the process of the child being subject to social protection, however, they were unable to prevent the school absences.

Using police backup, two attempts were made to enforce the resolution, but the minor was not found at home on either occasion.

The quality of the real relationship between the family help and child welfare service and the family could not be established from the documents. The documentation they sent was also lacking. The documents, for example, do not mention what the relationship between the family carer and the problem child was like, and with what methods they tried to persuade and motivate the child to attend school. We were unable to establish whether any kind of partnership relationship, mutual trust and acceptance had developed between the parties.

In the course of ombudsman investigations also concerning children’s rights we have frequently experienced that the staff of the services behave towards clients as an "authority", often threatening them with taking the children into care. In this case too, for example, at the proceedings for social protection and the revision of these the family carer repeatedly threatened the family with temporarily taking away the child.

Certain failings could also be observed based on the documentation sent by the school. They did not visit the family. (In our opinion a pre-condition of developing a personal, direct relationship is to visit the home of the child, since the parent and child react quite differently to the conflicts raised and problems to be solved if they are in their own environment.) The failure to involve experts can also be regarded as a failing of the school, although the problems as they themselves acknowledged went beyond their capabilities. They did not send the child to a learning advisor although it was clearly suffering from adaptation disorders and learning problems.

The Hungarian child-protection system – in view of the interests of children overriding all else – gives preference to family-based solutions. According to section 6 (1) of the XXXI Act of 1997 on the Protection of Children and Guardianship Administration (hereinafter Child Protection Act), children have the right to grow up in a family environment ensuring physical, intellectual, emotional and moral development, and healthy upbringing. The fundamental right of the child, therefore, is to be brought up within its own family.

In the case of the child of the complainant the only undoubted risk was the extremely high number of absences from school.

Based on our experiences to date, and in view of the stance taken by the county guardianship offices in such cases, school absenteeism and neglect of compulsory school attendance in itself does not qualify as such a severe danger that it justifies removing the child from the family. Particularly in view of the fact that the Family Help and Child Welfare Service has early not initiated other, less severe child-protection measures to improve school attendance.

The county guardianship office accepted our report, monitored the activity of the Family Help and Child Welfare Service, and with the cooperation of external experts is offering professional help for the further care of the family concerned.

5. Thoughts on the right to housing – based on experiences of specific cases

In connection with the constitutional right to social security, we also received most complaints in 2006 about housing problems. Based on concrete cases, our experience is that complainants without employment or income are incapable of creating acceptable housing circumstances of their own accord. In our view, most of the families who turned to us were forced to live in houses or rented accommodation which violate the human dignity of those living there.

Most frequently we were asked to cooperate and help to solve their housing problems. Often they raised the grievance that the staff of the local government were irresponsive to their severe troubles and in many cases had rejected their request or application on the grounds of the lack of local government social housing.

In most cases, however, we were unable to offer reassuring and sufficient assistance to change the inhumane housing conditions. In each case we sought the local government and requested information about the case of the families. The mayors/property-managing bodies generally recognise (except in the case of squatters!) that the family – based on their material situation, income relations, number of children, and current health-damaging housing conditions – would be entitled to social housing, but since the local government does not have a sufficient quantity of social housing and/or vacant properties to rent, in most cases the request of the complainant was not met.

In 2006 we also received complaints from those who rented or themselves owned housing, but due to accumulated utility debts were afraid of eviction or their own home being auctioned. (We deal separately in an independent section with the phenomenon of eviction.) Based on concrete cases, our experience is that the greatest help is in preventing and hindering the accumulation of utility debts. From this point of view it is very important to continually monitor the practical implementation of two relatively new (introduced two years ago) legal set ups (debt management service and housing support grant) so that the provisions regulating these – primarily in view of the disadvantaged citizens concerned – may be modified and supplemented where necessary.

We received several complaints that settlements did not run debt management services.

According to the Social Act, only Budapest district governments, and the local governments of settlements with a population of greater than 40,000 permanent residents are obliged to offer debt management services.

The complaints generally wrote from settlements with a smaller number of residents, where local governments had rejected the development of debt management services due to lack of resources, and the financial possibilities of these local governments only make possible the performance of obligatory tasks, so it is not expected that this service will be made available in the future.

One complainant’s request for a housing support grant was rejected on two occasions.

According to the Social Act, local governments must offer housing maintenance support grant to those entitled by conditions defined by law. The aim of this housing maintenance support grant was precisely to make access to and the level of support reliable to citizens. In addition, the aim was to ensure legal equality, since all settlements have to provide the support according to the same rules.

The complainant was entitled to support, and complied with the conditions prescribed by law, so the notary in both cases drew up the resolution and gave it to the mayor to sign. The mayor however declined to sign the resolution, on the grounds that “the local government does not have money for such things”. Later due to a change of sphere of authority, the representative board also discussed the case. The board, despite all the legal arguments of the notary who on several occasions drew the attention of the board and the mayor to the fact that their decision was unlawful, rejected the request. We recommended to the client that they turn to the court and request that the resolution be reconsidered on the grounds of illegality.

In order to ensure legal representation, we informed the client that they could claim the help of the lawyer competent for that area from the Anti-Discrimination Roma Customer Service Network of the Ministry of Justice and Law Enforcement.

6. Building authority cases

The president of one village Roma minority self-government initiated the procedure of the locally competent county public administration office to review the settlement planning, since in his view the local government by unlawful means was restricting construction in the Roma-populated area. The local Roma leader based his view on the fact that in the area in question there were numerous buildings which are life-threatening for living purposes, and which it would be timely to demolish and construct new buildings in their place, but the local government was blocking this by amending its decree – which ordered a prohibition of building in the area, as well as fencing in the existing buildings and the establishment of new farm-buildings. The mayor explained the reluctance of the local government to allow construction on the grounds that these dwellings could still be renovated.

6.1. The use of settlement planning tools to restrict the rights of those living in slums

In the course of the legality audit launched on the basis of the complaint, the leader of the public administration office established that the local government in the appendix to the decree cited had ordered the ban on construction – unlawfully – not for connected property blocks and zones, but for individual properties. In order to end the violation, the office leader called upon the local government to annul the amendment to the decree.

During the procedure the director of the public administration office, however, also uncovered circumstances which supported the suspicion that the local government when amending the decree had placed certain properties under the construction ban, in a way that discriminated against their owners. As a result, the director initiated an investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for National and Ethnic Minority Rights.

During our investigation, we assessed the location and special arrangement of those streets listed in the appendix of the local government decree based on the settlement planning maps and visited the given streets. Based on the on-site survey the majority of the roads in question – there is no numerical figure for exactly how many properties – were in a slum-type environment. In individual neighbouring streets all those criteria could be found which characterise a slum-like living environment: poverty, run-down, low-comfort houses overcrowding and lack of infrastructure.

Our impressions and information acquired on-site also supported the fact that this area on the edge of the settlement was predominantly inhabited by families of Roma origin, including multiply disadvantaged families. As they said to us in person, their marginalised situation would be helped by construction and improvement of infrastructural conditions carried out using welfare support, however the local government put a stop to such plans. In the absence of permanent savings, in most cases their only chance of more comfortable housing is, using welfare support, the construction of basic, but more healthy housing, for which if they are lucky they already have the housing site – after demolition of their houses which are without value.

Access to public services in the slum was significantly worse that in other parts of the settlement, yet the local government had not planned any developments aimed at reducing the differences between the slum-like environment and the non-slum environment within the settlement.

Based on the experiences of the investigation, it also became clear in connection with the local practice of settlement development that the local government had not considered the possibility of the potential complex rehabilitation of the settlement, and was also silent on the question of providing housing in an integrated form.

The situation experienced on-site violated numerous constitutional rights, in particular the right to life and human dignity and the right to the protection and care of children, so we requested that the competent leader of the special building authority launch an urgent authority procedure. We also drew attention of the authority to the fact that the families concerned were not capable of solving their living situation of their own accord, so if the procedure confirms that the indicated buildings are in fact life-threatening, it should call on the local government to accommodate the families living there. In the proposal we also drew attention to the need for the local government – in view of the rights of children laid down in the Constitution – to do so in such a way that the parents not be separated from their parents.

The authority in a resolution with immediate effect ordered a ban on use of the living area, and via the competent notary requested that the responsible local government attend to the temporary accommodation of those living in the building without delay.

The competent local government notary informed us that, based on section 1 (4) of the Housing Act, they had called on the owners to attend to the accommodation of those living in the houses, to fence off the life-threatening building, to put up warning boards, and to prevent access to the building using a technical lock. The notary in the reply did not refer to where the family with seven children and a newly born child had moved and in what circumstances, nor was there any information that the local government was tracking the fate of the family through, for example, a family carer. The local government regarded the case as closed with the formal procedure.

In some of the cases investigated similar to the one presented above the connection between poor social circumstances, dilapidated, life-threatening dwellings, and the further disadvantages and violations of rights of those living there as a consequence could be clearly demonstrated. This problem was particularly severe in disadvantaged regions, backward settlements, and the segregated living areas of certain settlements.

It is common practice in the case of slum houses that the local government leaders do not take notice of the poor quality and deteriorating buildings and fail to initiate the procedure of the special building authority to call upon the owner to carry out the necessary maintenance work, and to at least take action so that work is performed to prevent the life-threatening state of the property. This phenomenon can be traced back to the lack of money. The possibility of those living with multiple disadvantages to renovate their homes, or possibly to build new homes in the place of the demolished homes is, based on experiences, slim, because generally they do not have savings or property. Those living in the slum-like environments, therefore, have to face the local government’s reluctance citing lack of funding, and do not receive local help. (Another contributing factor is that the local government, often not through its own fault, since the settlement is itself disadvantaged, does not have sufficient resources to be able to offer support in such cases.)

6.2. Acceptable ways of eliminating slums

The case outlined above illustrates well the situation of the multiply disadvantaged, both Roma and non-Roma, who live in a segregated fashion in a slum-like environment – overwhelmingly in deep poverty - at the edge of the settlement in houses which are cheap to maintain and in a poor conditions and in many cases even life-threatening. They are incapable of keeping up and renovating the property (or in many cases only in their usage because of unsettled property rights), due to lack of savings, as we outlined above. Of their own accord they are unable to break out of this deprived environment.

In general this group of society, due to its marginalised relations in society, material and social circumstances and labour market situation, cannot create better circumstances for itself of its own accord, and so requires external assistance.

The problem of living areas inhabited by straggling social layers can be successfully managed through the social rehabilitation of the area. This has a double aim: on the one hand putting a check to the negative physical and social processes typical of the area, and on the other hand, the improvement of the circumstances and quality of life of the inhabitants. The merely physical modernisation of segregated living area is not possible without handling the social problems and social tensions existing there.

In the settlement investigated, in personal conversations those living in Roma-populated streets pointed to the disregard of the local government, particularly in terms of infrastructure development, and they particularly complained of the lack of pavement and drainage of rainwater. Improvement of infrastructure provisions is one element of the rehabilitation of the slum environment.

However, the greater responsibility of the local government concerns social reintegration. Supporting social groups living in a segregated area and the continual catching up of the area itself, and reducing the tensions arising from extremes, is the greatest local welfare task. This, however, cannot be solved merely be eliminating the slum environment.

The Ministry of Youth, Family and Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities launched a complex model programme to improve the quality of life of those living in slums and slum-like environments. This programme, taking into account the experience that eliminating or rehabilitating the slums quickly with drastic measures is not productive, drew up a method, which achieves its aim based on the principle of gradual development in order to integrate into society in a complex way families living in slums or slum-like environments. In addition to improving housing conditions, it also includes joint use of measures to improve access to social and employment services, to educational integration and environment and settlement rehabilitation.

We know of cases where local conflicts developed while carrying out the model programme. These can be attributed to personal differences, but can also be traced back to the lack of professional, unbiased, local information. Another major problem can be the unsettled legal situation of the properties, but local governments carrying out the programme also have to reckon with the not always positive reactions of the majority society too.

The programme aims to achieve housing integration through mobilisation to integrated housing environments, rehabilitating housing environments and other solutions promoting housing integration.

The renovation of buildings in a slum – as one element of the model programme – can take place in the framework of rehabilitating the housing environment. That means renovating the homes of families living in the run-down housing environment of the settlement, which can consist of exterior-interior renovation, increasing comfort level, and increasing floor space, but also improving the infrastructure conditions of the housing environment.

Unfortunately experiences in practice indicate that – and this also caused one of the local conflicts – that the leadership of the local government which had applied for support did not pay special attention to the cases of life-threatening or near life-threatening properties in the slum area. As a result even after the programme in the given settlement was closed, there remained un-renovated houses in a slum-like environment, whilst the other buildings had been finished with coloured plaster – increasing the feeling of comfort. In connection with this it was necessary to launch the procedure of the building authority. (At the time of writing the report the special building authority had prohibited use of the house due to its condition, and the alternative accommodation of the family living there was in progress. The local government has no further resources for their accommodation, and does not own inhabitable buildings.)

In the course of conducting similar programmes in future, we recommend that it be defined as a priority for local governments applying for support to avert life-danger in the case of buildings in slums and slum-like environments. For this it would first be necessary to make it a condition that local governments applying assess which properties require direct measures due to their life-threatening state.

In connection with renovating blocks of flats – based on the experiences of one programme carried out – the call for applications should place particular attention on the quality of the renovation work, because complaints were made about this during our on-site investigation.

7. The phenomenon of eviction

Partly due to the extremely low proportion of rented housing, and in particular of social rented housing in Hungary, and partly because of the low income and utilities arrears and other debts of the poorest layers of society, numerous families, among them a particularly high number of Roma families, are threatened by eviction and becoming homeless. For families – if they do not gain access almost immediately to rented social housing after losing their home – after moving temporarily to stay with relatives or acquaintances there remains no alternative other than to continue using the home without legal title, or to squat in empty homes or premises. However, this step means they get caught up in a devil’s circle: the decrees of local governments frequently exclude those using homes without legal title and squatters from being entitled to claim rented social housing.

The Constitutional Court has not taken a clear standpoint on the constitutionality of this question: in some cases it has annulled such local government or district decrees, but in other cases has not qualified them as unconstitutional. We, however, from a practical point of view find the local government decrees containing such provisions extremely worrying, since through them – as a sanction against property-violating conduct – families who are already living under difficult circumstances and for whom a stable home would be the only escape route get caught in a trap. We regard the practice as concerning, since local governments determine a condition for what is fundamentally a form of social benefit that is not connected to the financial or property situation of the given individual (or family). (In practice in this way local government sanction precisely those persons or families who are in the worst financial situation and who moreover have fallen out of the social net.)

Typically in these families there are also minors, who in the lack of appropriate state assistance are tossed from one temporary form of accommodation to the other, and finally – contrary to the provisions of the Child Protection Act – are often taken away from their parents and siblings purely for financial reasons. This seriously violates their fundamental rights, and also restricts their future life chances and perspectives.

We became aware of a case from the press, which when investigated revealed numerous anomalies arising from the failings of legislation and the inadequacy of practice. In the course of selling off a local government property, several families were evicted, in several cases with small children. The local government did not attend to accommodating the evicted families despite the fact that Section 7 of the Child Protection Act explicitly states that children may not be separated from their families purely because they are at risk due to financial reasons. Our complainant ended up on the street with three children, and despite our intervention the local government did not display supportive, helping conduct, in fact it made the “threat” of temporarily removing the children from the family.

We regard Section 7 of the Child Protection Act as a particularly forward-looking and important rule, which in line with children’s constitutional rights, provides that children may not be separated from their parents and siblings purely because they are at risk for financial reasons. However, in practice, it can represent a problem that the above rule is not consistently carried over into material and procedural rules of law regarding housing. Based on the latter, squatters can be evicted without paying regard to whether subsequently the accommodation of the children together with their family is ensured, i.e. the upholding of children’s rights. That is to say, that the safeguard rule in the Child Protection Act is not matched by a provision or legal consequence ensuring its implementation.

The realisation of the rules of the Child Protection, and its manner and extent, currently depends on whether the local governments, which apply the law, merely take into account the legislation relating to housing and vacating housing, or whether they also take into account the legislation on the rights of children. It can therefore occur based on the failings of the legislation that the constitutional right of children, which is also laid down in international agreements, is sidelined due to ownership rights aspects (This situation, however, does not exclusively affect squatters, but also exists in the case of families that either from their own fault or for reasons outside their control have become homeless.)

The situation is even more serious if the evicted squatters do not have a registered home or place of residence in the given settlement or district. For in such a case, the temporary shelter for families in the given area, according to the rules of the Child Protection Act, is not obliged to receive the homeless family, even if it has free capacity.

In view of the above, we have proposed to the government that, by involving the relevant ministries, it review the rules relating to eviction and the accommodation of evicted persons, and prepare a comprehensive concept for the amendment of the legal material, making sure that the rules of law guarantee the full exercise of the rights of minors also in eviction procedures.

Our participation in international projects

1. Our international cooperation in the framework of EQUINET

The European network of equal treatment organisations, EQUINET continued in 2006 its active work in promoting international cooperation, information exchange and the unified application of European Union anti-discrimination legislation.

This year, in addition to our contribution to the information exchange working group, we also got involved in the work of the “legal interpretation” section and participated in organising the “Practical application of anti-discrimination legislation: obstacles, best practice and case law” conference held in Budapest. Several of our colleagues were also involved in the training held in Burg Schlaining (Austria) on the role and use of codes of conduct.

The key topic of the Budapest meeting was anti-discrimination legislation and its practical implementation: the speakers placed great stress on presenting standards and legal practice in the member states of the European Union. The speciality of the training was a simulation game, in which all members of the training participated actively in conducting a court hearing of a complex, lifelike discrimination case, and in preparing and drawing up the verdict.

The training held in Austria focused on taking action against discrimination without legal tools. Particular emphasis was placed on the codes of conduct which have a tradition in certain member states (for example Great Britain), which through educational, social and individual responsibility and resolving conflicts by peaceful means, contribute to the development of a discrimination-free micro and macro environment which respects individual dignity.

The legal interpretation working group requested the assistance of the EQUINET members several times during the year: we were given the task of analysing hypothetical cases sent based on domestic legislation and legal practice, and to reply concerning whether discrimination would be established, the possible legal consequences, and the competent bodies in the process. The working group compared the case solutions of the different countries and analysed the legal interpretations arising from the differing legal environments. Two publications were also produced: one based on racial discrimination and confirmative measures, and the other on the topic of educational discrimination.

2. The British Commission for Racial Equality – the case of the European Union framework agreement draft on criminal law action against racism

In summer 2006, the question of the criminal law response to racial discrimination in the European Union came into the foreground again. The reason is that from year to year racist crimes are becoming more prevalent throughout Europe. The growing popularity of far right parties also gives cause for serious concern.

In 2001, the European Commission framed a framework agreement draft on the subject of action against racism and xenophobia. The draft was focused on firstly on harmonising the relevant criminal legislation of the member states, and secondly developing cooperation between member states to facilitate the prosecution of racist crimes. However, in the following five years, the member states were unable to agree on the exact content of the legislation, so finally the framework agreement was not accepted.

In June 2006 – following a shocking murder in Antwerp – the European Parliament issued a resolution condemning racist crimes, and called on the Council to consider resuming work on the draft of the framework agreement against racism and xenophobia drawn up in 2001 by their European Commission.

The British Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), in order to add weight to the initiative, initiated the collaboration of bodies and institutions fighting racial discrimination within the member states to support the adoption of the framework. In this framework the representative of the CRE consulted our office.

Looking over the latest draft of the framework agreement, we maintain our previous stance that the adoption of a European legal norm of such content would be of exceptional importance. In this light, we joined to the joint statement of the institutions fighting racial discrimination.

We agree with the fact that the draft allows great freedom to member states to form their legislation in view of their own constitutional traditions, thereby avoiding potential conflicts arising from differences between individual constitutional systems.

Regrettably, however – as far as we are aware – there have still not been significant steps forward toward the adoption of the framework agreement.

3. Giving an opinion on ECRI policy recommendation no. 10

The European Commission against Racism and Tolerance (ECRI) continually monitors measures taken by member states in the fight against racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and intolerance. The organisation works in three main areas.

Firstly, it prepared country reports on the results, failings of actions taken by member states against racism and discrimination, and sets our recommendations with the necessary changes.

Secondly, it strives to strengthen cooperation with civil society, setting out from the conviction that action against racism can only be successful if not only the government takes the necessary measures, but the civil sphere also gets actively involved.

Thirdly, it sets out general political recommendations with the aim that member states take into account these directives when developing their national legislation and politics. Since ECRI was established in 1993, it has approved nine general political recommendations, and in 2006 prepared the draft (hereinafter: draft) of the tenth, the general political recommendation on action against school discrimination and racism. It also sent the draft to the Hungarian minority ombudsman to request our opinion.

The draft approaches the problem in terms of four major questions. The first is equal access to quality education, which extends to monitoring the situation of children affiliated to minority groups, the use of policy measures to prevent the creation of spontaneous school integration, prohibition on organising segregated classes, the use of minority teachers, and providing appropriate information to minority parents.

The title of the second part is action against racism and discrimination within schools, which deals with the issues of systems to monitor discrimination, sanctioning different types of racist or discriminative actions of differing weight, the proposal of an anti-discrimination code of conduct, and the importance of organising awareness campaigns. It also looks at the content of education: the importance of teaching human rights, and monitoring the content and quality of textbooks.

The topic of the third chapter is providing teacher training and further trainings in the interests of teaching human rights, preventing and handling discriminative forms of conduct and familiarisation with inclusive teaching methods.

The final point draws attention to the need for the appropriate financial support and monitoring in order to successfully implement all these measures.

We welcomed the conception of the draft, since education is an area of great strategic importance in combating discrimination. We also fully agreed with the approach of the draft, which in our view deals with the most important problems, so we merely made a number of observations.

The draft used the expression that children affiliated to the minority must not be grouped in separate classes if it does not take place in the best interests of the child. We found this phrasing not sufficiently precise to avoid abuses. In our opinion, the organisation of separate classes is only acceptable in the case of objective and reasonable grounds, and with the informed consent of parents and with provision of education of the same quality.

We pointed out that it would be worth mentioning minority education in a separate paragraph as a legal exception of separated education, providing that it is organised at the request of parents, with the aim of preserving identity and language learning, and adhering to appropriate syllabus requirements.

The draft recommends the development of systems to monitor discrimination in schools. We think it is important to refer to the fact that there is a need for such monitoring not only within schools. The measures of school maintainers (for example the method of determining catchment areas) on an indirect level can result in educational discrimination.

The draft differentiates between incitement to hatred, use of violence and other seriously racist actions and between physical racist or discriminative not causing psychological damage. Following this grouping, different sanctions are recommended. We expressed our doubts about whether there can be any racist or discriminative action which does not cause psychological damage. We also found it unfortunate that instead of the severity of the deed, the subjective feelings of the victim determine the severity of the sanction to be applied.

The draft recommends that anti-discrimination codes of conduct be adopted in schools. In our view, the adoption of such a code of conduct should form a fundamental requirement within the school quality insurance system.

The draft stressed the role of teaching human rights in school curricula. We also judge it important that school curricula should include the history and culture of minority groups present in large numbers in the given country. In a similar way, the filtering of teaching materials and removal of stereotypical, discriminative elements is a fundamental requirement, but not sufficient. It would be important to build a positive approach and new attitudes to minority groups present in large numbers in the given country into textbooks. For example, the illustrations of the textbooks could show cooperation between members of majority society and members of minority groups. It would also be indispensable for the presentation of the history and culture of minorities to be one of the fundamental topics of the training and further training of teachers. We were informed by ECRI that the working group for the political recommendation no. 10 had thoroughly taken into consideration our comments and those from other member countries, and had on this basis reworked the draft; however the text of the new recommendation had not been released at the time of writing this report.

4. The ROMA EDEM programme

The past decade has seen a considerable extension of European and international laws promoting equal treatment, however despite this the effectiveness and implementation of anti-discrimination legislation – based also on Hungarian experiences – leaves something to be desired. Recognising the gap between the letter of the law and practice, we identified with the aim of the ROMA EDEM project, and in 2004 joined the Spanish organisation Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG) coordinating the project, in order to contribute to reducing the discrepancy between anti-discrimination legislation and institutional practice on a national and international level. In the interests of achieving this general aim, the project carried out training and aware-raising activities primarily in the areas of anti-discrimination legislation and local-level education and employment policies, and preparing Roma and traveller organisations in each of the participating partner countries (Spain, Hungary, Portugal, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland and Romania). The project, through the trans-national alliance of five national bodies working for the promotion of equal treatment, and two non-governmental bodies with experience in the fight against discrimination amalgamated the local practice of individual countries and European measures.

In the second year of the project’s two-year implementation stage we organised a seminar titled “Educational Integration in Hungary”, we also participated in the compilation and distribution of the “Good Practice Handbook”.

The aim of compiling the booklet on good practice was to offer successful and transferable models as a useful supporting took in the area of promoting equal treatment, and to study those elements which are common in these practices.

Of the six practices selected three from Spain, Portugal and Hungary deal primarily with promoting Roma employment, and three from Romania, the Czech Republic and Northern Ireland with the access of Roma to education at various levels and how educational institutes handle cultural diversity.

It is possible to summarise the common key elements of the selected correct practices which make it possible for them to be implemented and successful in other situations too: they use integrated measures; they involve Roma communities and organisations in directing the projects and develop their abilities of asserting their own interests; they operate intercultural working groups; they offer targeted, but not segregated services; they develop a strong partnership relationship between participants in the programme; they create the opportunity for the necessary numbers and data to be charted via direct data collection needed to formulate anti-discrimination measures.

The “Good Practice Handbook” was published in the English, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, Romanian, Czech and Romany languages.

We also prepared a booklet written in very comprehensible language on discrimination, with the aim of promoting familiarity with and analysis of cases of discrimination and providing information about the possibilities of legal remedy.

In the framework of the ROMA EDEM project, and with its financial support we sent our publication to Hungarian Roma organisations and social groups dealing with equal opportunities, and to government bodies. We also made the information booklet available to our clients.

Evaluating our partnership in the various anti-discrimination projects arising from our European Union membership, we must conclude that they have offered us an excellent opportunity to come into contact with the minority legal protection organisations in other countries, and we have been able to assist Hungarian Roma organisations in developing international relations. No less important, however, is the fact that these projects have provided us with the financial backing to organise national professional forums on the questions of education and employment which until then had been lacking.

March 2007

[1] In the 2001 census 314, 060 persons declared their national minority affiliation. Taking into account these figures, the greatest proportion of members of the Roma, Croatian, German, Romanian, Serbian, Slovenian, and Ukrainian communities refrained from inclusion in the register. By contrast, the number of persons declaring themselves Bulgarian (55.3%), Ruthenian (148.5%) and Armenian (280%) rose.

[2] We stress the quality, because parents of minority origin, understandably, will only chose in favour of a minority educational institute, if it is competitive and offers their child the necessary skills for continuing education.

[3] The Croatian from 2000 in Hercegszántó; the German in Pécs and Pilisvörösvár; the Slovakian self-government has maintained its own institutes in Szarvas from 2004, in Békéscsaba from 2005 (and in Sátoraljaújhely from 2007); the Greek, Bulgarian and Polish national-level self-governments have participated in supplementary minority training as maintainers since 2005.

[4] According to the figures available on the homepage of the Public Education Information Office (www.kir.hu), there are ten such institutions, however they are predominantly maintained by “municipal minority self-governments” (which were discontinued after the amendment to the Minority Act) so the actual current situation is unknown.

[5] In more than a dozen higher education institutes Romology is taught and special Roma courses, and programmes are set up, yet as far as we know these do not give a special Roma teaching qualification.

[6] According to section 8/E of the Call for Textbook Applications, textbooks given to schools in the framework of the distribution of national minority specialist textbooks with a low print run should have been placed in school libraries and lent to pupils from the 2004-2005 academic year.

[7] The Hungarian State Treasury referred to point 24 ca) of appendix no. 3 of the Budget Act, and to point 2. a) of subheading C) of Part I on language teaching in minority education , and subheading A) and C) of part II. of appendix no.2 of the 32/1997. (XI. 5.) MKM decree.

[8] The legal interpretation is complicated by the fact that the 130/1995. (X. 26.) government decree on publication of the national basic syllabus uses the concept of the school class under the subheading of minority education principles: “In every form of minority teaching, the minority native tongue and literature as well as the teaching of minority takes place according to the Directive on national and ethnic minority school teaching. According to this the native language and literature are independent subjects, and ethnography can be taught as an independent subjected or in an integrated way. The pedagogical programme of the schools may contain the teaching of other modern foreign languages beyond the minority native language.”

[9] The National Syllabus published as a government decree uses the concept of the lowest schools class, the first class, i.e. firstly the definition usage of the National Syllabus is unlawful, and secondly the National Syllabus and the directive are not in line with one another.

[10] Education experts Eszter Berényi–Balázs Berkovits–Gábor Erőss, Zoltán Hermann, Péter Radó, Mária Monika Váradi–Tünde Virág prepared analyses of the integration measures, and our report relies to a great extent on their findings.

[11] Due to limits of capacity, we were not able to carry out representative research based on questionnaires in a strict sociological sense. However, when selecting the schools to visit on-site we endeavoured to choose schools in settlements from different regions, of different size and with different problems (including settlements with one independently-maintained school, settlements with one school jointly maintained with neighbouring settlements and settlements with several schools), and schools differing in terms of the proportion of disadvantaged pupils, time of joining the integration programme, and whether their role was active or passive. In other words we wished to be able to identify the differing types of problems. In selecting the institutions we cooperated closely with the staff of the National Education Integration Network and Development Centre (OOIH), whom we would also like to thank for their help here. We conducted structured interviews with the heads of the schools and with local government and minority self-government leaders.

[12] The response of the Prime Minister’s Office to our query within the integration investigation.

[13] The specific goals of the TÁMOP: improving harmonisation between labour market supply and demand; reducing regional differences in labour activities; assisting adaptation to the changes; promoting life-long learning; improving health conditions and work performance abilities; reinforcing social cohesion; supporting equal opportunities.

[14] Act CVII of 2004 on the multi-purpose sub-region partnerships of municipal governments.

[15] A codification error occurred at the time of adopting the decree on the establishment of the Roma Integration Council, since at the same time the 1021/ 2004 (III.18.) government decree on the government programme promoting the social integration of Roma and the related measures was not amended, so the Gypsy-Affairs Inter-Ministerial Committee continues to oversee the coordination tasks.

[16] An ombudsman investigation is currently in progress to uncover potential abuses in the case of one local government implementing the desegregation model programme.

[17] Ilona Liskó: The educational chances of disadvantaged pupils, Educatio 2006/1.

[18] Ilona Liskó: The educational chances of disadvantaged pupils, Educatio 2006/1.

[19] The “For the road” programme offers support to elementary school pupils in classes 7 and 8 by using teacher mentors.

[20] See: LXXI Act of 2006.

[21] Section 66 (2) of the Public Education Act

[22] We speak of cold integration when children from different socio-cultural backgrounds are physically placed together, without the conditions being created for their studying and progressing together, by using the appropriate teaching methods and developing an accepting atmosphere. In reality cold integration is the same as children being segregated within a class or group.

[23] See in more detail under point 5.4.

[24] The Education and Culture Ministry response to our query within the integration investigation.

[25] Section 121. (1), point 14 of the Public Education Act.

[26] Published in the 6 August edition of the 2003 Education Gazette (Oktatási Közlöny).

[27] In the first year the skills development grant was HUF 17,000 per head , HUF 20,000 per head in the 2004 and 2005 annual budgets and a HUF 20,500 per head in the 2006 budget. As a function of this the integration grant rose from HUF 51,000 per head to HUF 60,000 and then HUF 61,500.

[28] Section 66 (2) of the Public Education Act

[29] The sub-region coordinators are young Roma with secondary leaving qualifications, who help the schools in achieving integration.

[30] See point 5.8.

[31] As precursors of pedagogical innovation it is worth mentioning e.g. trainings organised by the Soros Foundation in the ’90s the introduction of the Internal Care System, and affiliation to the Self-Developing Schools Association (the KOMP). The teaching staff of such schools had earlier taken active part in further trainings.

[32] The framework conditions of the Education and Culture Ministry’s integration and desegregation policy include one, the right to free choice of school, which, however effective the legislation is, significantly restricts the enforcement of the policy. The results achieved so far have to be evaluated in light of these framework conditions.

[33] Naturally we do not want to say here that we do not greatly value those institutions maintained by churches and foundations which expressly undertake the education of poor and disadvantaged children.

[34] http://www.okm.gov.hu/main.php?folderID=125&articleID=142&ctag=articlelist&iid=1

[35] See the 1999 Annual Report of the Minority Ombudsman

[36] “The grant support for re-transferred children is 70% of the special leaning needs (conductive pedagogy) support, which the school accepting the re-transferred pupil can claim if the teaching takes place in the academic year of the re-transfer according to the pedagogical system issued by the Education Minister. The re-transfer means that the professional opinion of the expert board has established that the pupil is no longer regarded as having special learning needs, i.e. that the child is to be taught according to the same conditions as for the other children without special learning needs of the same ability.
The higher level of support, which can be claimed for two years, allows the maintainer to offer the pupil concerned the necessary extra pedagogical services. The maintainer and the receiving school, based on these resources, under their own powers and responsibility, and based on professional decision-making can support the pupil and the teacher dealing with the pupil.” (Citation from the reply from the Education and Culture Ministry when consulted by the Ombudsman.)

[37] Eszter Berényi– Balázs Berkovits– Gábor Erőss

[38] Disadvantaged child or pupil: whom the notary has declared in need of social protection due to family or social circumstances, or whose entitlement to regular child-protection benefits the notary has established. Within this category that child or pupil is multiply disadvantaged whose parent or parents legally in charge of the child – according to the data prepared on the basis of the Act on the Protection of Children and Guardianship Administration in connection with establishing the admissions area of the school and the statement of the parent for establishing the service to which the child or pupil is entitled – has/have completed at most eight school years, and further that child who has been taken into permanent care.

[39] The PISA report, which examined the Hungarian education system in international comparison indicated that the school performance of Hungarian pupils is highly influenced by the social situation of their parents.

[40] See in detail in point 5.8.

[41] In our current investigation we restricted our activity to clarifying by letter the legal means of organising and implementing Roma minority education where the suspicion of a violation arose, however, we did not carry out a more in-depth investigation in this respect.

[42] In our view the use of this same category - based on the comments made - also needs to be reconsidered in terms of the possibility of preferential access to higher education.

[43] In order to ensure that the proportions could be met, some local government attempted to promote getting the parents to attend school. There were also cases of manipulating the data, by requesting only the necessary number of parental statements for the appropriate proportion.

[44] Dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia denote learning problems related to reading, writing and numeracy.

[45] Sections 39/D and 39/ E of the 11/1994. (VI. 8.) MKM decree contain provisions on the two types of preparation.

[46] At the same time the spread of innovative pedagogical methods is also a general public education task, so as we write in point 5.7, we regard its inclusion in the basic training as indispensable.

[47] In the initial period even those segregating schools (and local governments) also well known from ombudsman reports were able to claim the integration grant due to the inexact phrasing of the rule of law (it is not insignificant whether it is a question of the numbers of pupils included in the integration or the number of multiply disadvantaged pupils).

[48] We were informed by the OOIH that currently it is also possible to apply for the further training within a simplified application system, to which they specifically drew the attention of those schools which have not been successful in the calls for applications so far.

[49] The HEFOP calls for applications for local decision-makers, representatives of maintainers and non-teacher experts expressly include prejudice-awareness and prejudice-managing elements.

[50] In southern Transdanubia, particularly in Baranya county, where the largest number of base schools can be found, i.e. those integrating schools displaying “good practice” a form of cooperation network has already been established. However, elsewhere, particularly in the counties of the Alföld (Great Plain) school heads frequently complained that they were surrounded by schools which segregated or showed no interest in the skills development and integration preparation, and that frequently even bringing together the partners for joint funding applications caused difficulties.

[51] On the basis of the call for applications of the National Employment Fund, in 2003 schools had the opportunity to employ Roma teaching assistants. The National Employment Fund supported the employment of unemployed Roma persons, whilst the school undertook to continue to employ the teaching assistant for at least two years after the end of the programme. The teaching assistant helps in keeping contact between the school and parents, and continues to study alongside their work (completes the school leaving certificate and gains a professional qualification), for which the local government and the school also offer support.

[52] Zoltán Hermann

[53] Section 12/H of the 20/1997. (II. 13.) government decree on implementation of the LXXIX Act of 1993 on Public Education as amended by the 70/2006. (III. 28.) government decree, which is effective from 01.06.2006 and has to be applied from 01.01.2007.

[54] See in detail in point 5.10.

[55] The most important expected indicators are: a reduction in pupils repeating the year, and dropping-out, an increase in the number of pupils going on to study in schools giving a secondary school leaving certificate, and performance improvement exceeding the average measured in performance assessments.

[56] See section 39/D of the 11/1994. (VI. 8.) MKM decree

[57] Only one school head reported that they had signed a written agreement with the local secondary schools, according to which these schools would send feedback on the performance and progress of the pupils accepted. In general however, the experience is that secondary schools, since it is not a compulsory task, do not even react to such requests.

[58] We compiled this paragraph based on the letter received from the Education Ministry prior to the 2006 change of government, so it reflects the earlier government structure.

[59] In the case of the schools we investigated this always means those schools with previous experience (which had experimented with reform teaching methods before 2003).

[60] The OKI research from 2004 established that integration between schools grew country-wide, so the integration preparation and IPR grant system were unable to influence education-organisation between schools.

[61] Zoltán Hermann

[62] According to the OOIH, at the end of 2006 roughly 800 schools claimed one or both grants.

[63] http://www.sulinova.hu/rovat.php?sess=&alsite=23&rovat=7

[64] “Elementary schools – including the designated schools – are obliged to accept those pupils of school age whose home, or in the absence of this place of residence is in the given catchment area. If there are several elementary schools in the given settlement, the catchment areas for each have to be drawn up so that the proportion of multiply disadvantaged pupils in any one given catchment area compared to the total number of pupils of school age in that catchment area may not differ by more than 20% from the proportion in the other catchment areas. If the elementary school, after accepting those pupils which it is obliged to, still has free places, then it is obliged to give the preference to those pupils whose home, or place of residence is in the same settlement as the school. In this round the school may only reject multiply disadvantaged pupils if there are not sufficient places. If the elementary school, after fulfilling its compulsory admissions obligation, can accept some further admissions applications but not all, the elementary schools decide by lots. Multiply disadvantaged pupils or those with learning difficulties or whose individual situation justifies it can be accepted without drawing lots. The local government establishes the individual situation by decree”.

[65] Quotation from one of the local governments from the minutes prepared in the course of our investigation.

[66] The schools often only collected the necessary number of declarations to launch the programme; there was even a case of one school adapting their figures for the number of disadvantaged pupils in accordance with the call for applications (if it was a question of creating the conditions for high-quality education of segregated institutions, the school indicated the segregation, and if it was a question of the integration grant, then the segregation was below the prescribed proportions.) Incidentally such examples also draw attention to the fallings of checks on projects organised using EU funding.

[67] For the history of the case and the related documents see the website of the Chance for Children Foundation (www.cfcf.hu)

[68] See István Vavró: Theoretical and methodological question of the investigation of Gypsy crime. Belügyi Szemle: 1984, no. 2.
István Tauber: Disadvantaged social situation and its connections with crime, with particular regard to minority groups, Tankönyvkiadó: Budapest, 1986.
Szilveszter Póczik: Gypsies and strangers. Felsőmagyarország Kiadó: Miskolc, 1999.

[69] http://www.tarki.hu/adatbank-h/kutjel/pdf/a819.pdf, page 9: In 1991-1992 the income of 31.9% of those living together with a household head of Gypsy background was below the half of the median income, whereas last year this figure was 61.5%. Taking half of the average income, these proportions were 61.6% in 1991-1992 and 75.1% last year, and taking the quintile limit these proportions were 61.6% and 75.1% respectively. We can see that in this social group poverty was very high even in the years following the change of regime, and has increased in the past 10-12 years. The figures also show that among the members of Gypsy households primarily the proportion of the very poorest increased. The proportion of those earning below half of the median income today is twice than in 1991-1992, whilst the rise in those earning below the quintile limit was “only” 25%.

[70] It become commonly known from the press that those police officers who had commented on racist topics and expressed their prejudices were obliged to take part in a special course designed to bring about a positive change in their thinking. (Naturally– since this is a groundbreaking initiative – we are curious about the results and would like to ascertain whether it is really possible to combat racism and other negative phenomena effectively with such methods.)

[71] See: www.radio.hu

[72] Chance, Society and Welfare Policy (Esély, Társadalom- és Szociálpolitika) journal, number 4/2006. Péter Mózer: The income and labour market situation of our society.