"8 out of 10 children in the Roma community do not finish high school," said Ricardo Hernandez, coordinator in Federation of Roma Associations of Navarra Gaz Kaló . The University of Navarra hosted the II workshop on inclusion and the gypsy community under the degree scroll "The educational system: a place to be, learn and participate".

The meeting brought together researchers from the School of Education and Psychology of the academic center, members of Gaz Kaló, as well as teachers, counselors, mediators, and social workers, among others, with the goal to reflect and learn about the reality of integration in the school environment of the Roma community and generate spaces to work for and for an inclusive school model .

Ricardo Hernández pointed out that, according to data of the CIS (Sociological Research Center), among the children of the gypsy community schooled at the age of 12, only 60% are in the grade that corresponds to their age. "The fees of school failure are much higher than the rest of the population. There is a higher withdrawal among girls at the end of primary school Education , and among boys at the beginning of the first years of secondary school," he stressed.

In his opinion, there is a need for both the educational system and gypsy families to adapt to the "growing complexity and plurality that society has been acquiring". In this sense, he highlighted the project that has been implemented at the high school Alfonso X El Sabio de San Adrián (Navarra), where the figure of the "school promoter" has been included, to mediate inside and outside the school, between student body, families, teachers and environment. "In three years, absenteeism has been reduced and the relationship between families and high schoolhas improved," he said.

An inclusive model of Education

For her part, Araceli Arellano, professor of the School of Education and Psychology and organizer of the workshop, commented that this year, unlike last year the workshop has been open to the general public. "It has been very well received by professionals, which shows that there is a positive disposition to improve the status of the student body gitano," said Arellano.

The goalAccording to this expert, is to make current and future professionals aware of the need to work for and for an inclusive school model : "Progress is being made but there are still many challenges to solve and many barriers to break down: the lack of partnership between families and schools, the history of discrimination against the Romany population, the lack of knowledge of Romany culture, mutual mistrust, etc.". 

In this sense, the School of Education and Psychology has a project of research and includes in the training of its teachers and pedagogues topics related to the gypsy community.