Roma students’ academic self-assessment and educational aspirations in Hungarian primary schools

Abstract

Using a unique database from Hungarian primary schools, this study investigates whether academic self-assessment and educational aspirations differ between Roma minority and non-Roma majority students with similar cognitive skills and abilities. I find that Roma students have lower self-assessment, on average, than their non-Roma classmates with similar competences. In addition, although there are no ethnic differences in educational aspirations two years before secondary school application, Roma students are less likely to actually apply to a secondary school track that provides the possibility to enter tertiary education. Roma students’ lower socioeconomic status can partly explain these differences. The analysis also shows that students’ self-assessment is more strongly related to teacher-given grades than to blind standardised test scores. The study highlights important mechanisms that can contribute to educational inequalities between minority and majority students.