Education takes on the status of fundamental social rights and freedoms. Accordingly, everyone has the right to receive education (Karaman Kepenekçi, 2008, 48). Although every child has the right to receive education, not all children are equally entitled to this right. Some children may be vulnerable in terms of health, socio-economic status, geography or ethnicity. According to UNICEF (2018a), vulnerable groups in Turkey are defined as people with disabilities, living in a rural and poor urban neighbourhood, being in a conflict environment, speaking Turkish as not mother tongue, immigrants and Roma children. Children belonging to one or more of these vulnerable groups may experience greater difficulties in participating in education than their peers.
Roma citizens are thought to be the largest ethnic minority in Europe (Rutigliano, 2020). In EU countries there are some challenges for education of vulnerable groups like Roma children, though current education policy frameworks are visible at national, transnational, and local levels (Alexiadou, 2019). Although Roma children’s participation in education and literacy have improved over time, there is still a big gap in terms of achieving learning outcomes in compulsory education between Roma and non-Roma students (Rutigliano, 2020). Similarly, Roma citizens in Turkey are usually living under unfavourable conditions in the city. In addition, they are ostracized in the society due to lack of knowledge-skills and education, poverty and social integration (UNICEF, 2018b). The studies (Çeviker et all., 2018; Diktaş, Deniz & Balcıoğlu, 2016) have pointed out that the most important problem of individuals in the vulnerable group is adaptation and integration to the society. For instance, Roma children sometimes are not included in plays at school.
Born to be a Roma citizen can affect adversely children’s whole life including education background. Accordingly, it is possible to say that Roma children have faced various barriers to participate in education. These barriers can be listed as difficult living-conditions, poverty, child labour and lack of positive role model in the family or environment (UNICEF, 2018a). Moreover, Roma citizens do not care about their children's education. Instead of continuing education, their parents would prefer Roma boys to work and girls to marry at an early age. For these reasons, it can be said that Roma children have had lower school registration and attendance rates and higher dropout rates. Similarly, according to UNICEF (2012), Roma children have been in the status of out-of-school. In the same report, it is stated that Roma citizens in Turkey have been defined as the group who has the lowest level of education and school attendance and the lowest rate of literacy. In this respect, it is crucial for Roma children to be educated and continue their education in order to know, use and protect their fundamental rights and freedoms.
As a result, there are Roma citizens within vulnerable groups in Turkey. It is stated that Roma population is densely populated in İstanbul, İzmir, Bursa, Ankara and Edirne in particular (UNICEF, 2018a). For this reason, it is important to identify the barriers to participation of Roma children from Edirne in education and offer solutions. In addition, in UNICEF’s (2012) report, it is emphasized that there are limited qualitative studies on not starting or finishing schools, late enrolment, absenteeism, drop-out within the scope of the education of Roma children In this context this study aims to identify the barriers encountered in the participation of Roma children in education process and to offer solutions in order to overcome these barriers according to the school administrators’ and teachers’ views.