Roma Youth Between Traditional Education and Current Occupations

Traditionally, in the Roma family, the woman is responsible for educating the children, from birth to marriage. Thus, she has an educational role of prime importance that helps to ensure the group’s survival, along with its characteristics and traditions. The father teaches his sons the traditional craft.

The main purpose of this article is to present aspects of the traditional education provided by the Roma family and to explain the Roma attitude towards school, but also to explain the relationship between traditional education and current occupation of Roma young people. The data collection method used was the semi-structured interviews on 42 people, both from rural and urban areas.

It was found that the traditional Roma family provides continuing education based on mutual respect between children and adults without a division between theoretical education and the apprenticeship of roles in the family. The family also provides the economic discipleship, as the child learns ways to support his family. It was noted that for Roma living in urban and rural areas, schooling is not particularly important. However it was also noted that they have changed their way of thinking to some extent, because they realize that it is very important to know how to read and write. Regarding the current occupations it can be argued that, in general, Roma young people develop economic activities that imply some degree of independence. We observe an attitude of rejection towards income-generating activities that involve compliance with a fixed schedule, inclusion in a group of colleagues and strict conditions in the workplace.