Underachievement of Roma Children in Greece

Abstract

This chapter aims at focusing on the current pedagogical issues which constitute pressing factors for the availability of primary education for Roma travelling children in Greece. Even though the failure of Roma students to meet the educational criteria and standards set by the official policy-making has frequently been the subject of various speculations and formulations, it has mostly been discussed on the basis of their low performance. The first part of the chapter will describe the actual educational approaches and policy-making which have been adopted by the Greek state. The second part of the chapter places emphasis on possible interpretations of frequent school failure of Roma children and the necessary and constant role-taking of language teachers as reflective practitioners in order to adapt to their students’ continuous educational needs.