Without Persistent Measures to Address Educational and Labor Market Outcomes, Roma Students Lag behind their Mainstream Peers

What chances do Roma youth have to equal or better their mainstream peers in Hungary? To answer this question, the Roma Education Fund commissioned TARKI Social Research Institute to conduct a policy study on perceived ethnic and achievement gaps that follow Roma students from the classroom to the labor market in Hungary in order to shed light on the depth and scope of the problem.

What chances do Roma youth have to equal or better their mainstream peers in Hungary? To answer this question, the Roma Education Fund commissioned TARKI Social Research Institute to conduct a policy study on perceived ethnic and achievement gaps that follow Roma students from the classroom to the labor market in Hungary in order to shed light on the depth and scope of the problem. The full report is available here. A summary of its findings follows below.

How Can Young Roma Achieve Success in Hungary? contains analysis of the gap in educational and labor market outcomes between Roma and non-Roma at age 22-23 in Hungary. The goal of the analysis is to measure the ethnic gaps and to shed light on the potential causes of the achievement gaps. Among its findings: (1) the ethnic gap in secondary school dropout rates is very large: the dropout rate is 32 percent for Roma secondary school students compared to five percent for non-Roma secondary school students; (2) Less than one-third of the Roma graduate from secondary school with Matura exam, compared to more than three-fourths of the non-Roma (32 percent vs. 78 percent); (3) Roma men of age 22 to 23 are 13 percentage points less likely to be permanently employed and 8 percentage points more likely to be employed in public works programs than non-Roma; (4) The raw log wage gap between employed Roma and non-Roma is −0.23 and −0.18 for men and women, implying an approximate 23 and 18 percent disadvantage, respectively.

How Can Young Roma Achieve Success in Hungary? unearths two important conclusions from its analysis: (1) A large part of the ethnic gap in educational success can be explained by skills and abilities at age 14-15 and poverty and home environment during the secondary school years. Secondary schools and geographical location seem to play little role. Differences in test scores, family background and schools explain a large part of the ethnic gap in secondary school dropout; however, the residual ethnic gap is substantial (13 percentage points). (2) This residual gap in dropout rate is related to the prevalence of high-status peer contacts. Roma adolescents with such contacts are significantly less likely to drop out of school than Roma adolescents with the same test scores and family background but without such contacts. Our results mean that ethnic differences at age 22-23 are related to factors that affect children in primary schools and in the early childhood.

Among its policy recommendations, this report urges policymakers and strategic decision-makers to adopt policies that improve the long-run life chances of children in extreme poverty, for example, providing children with an environment that facilitates their cognitive development; promoting parenting methods; equal access to high-quality learning environments; providing appropriate training and incentives for teachers that work in problematic educational environments.