Roma Egalitarianism And School Integrati(1) [618442]

1 ROMA, EGALITARIANISM AND SCHOOL
INTEGRATION: THE CASE OF FLAMPOURO

Dimitris Zachos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (A.U.Th.), Gr eece

Introduction

The global economic and political restructuring of the last two decades (fall of the
"real socialism regime", worldwide dominance of a n eo-liberal version of capitalism,
attempt to impose the model of western democracy) h as led to a change in the
philosophy and the objectives of the welfare state. The worldwide ideological
prevalence of neo-liberalism brought a shift in the priorities of the most countries
national social policies, which ceased to pose at t he top of their pursuits the
elimination of the economic inequalities and focuse d on the (more practical) aim of
"recognizing" the different (national, ethnic, cult ural) social groups. A corresponding
shift occurred in the field of social sciences, whe re social identities replaced social
classes as the dominant "paradigm" (Zachos, Hatzis, 2005). This new situation
fostered the "acknowledgement" of all sort of "coll ectivities", whereas the request for
granting to cultural and ethnic groups the status o f minority ceased to be a taboo issue
for the modern nation-states.
Within this framework, various international organi zations (United Nations,
European Union) recognized the existence of a "Roma nation". That is, they
acknowledged that people known as Gypsies, Roma etc . constitute a people that is
dispersed and its particularity lies in the fact th at, this people does not have and does
not claim a national "hearth" (a mother country). A lthough the historical and scientific
grounds of the concept of a Roma people is heavily disputed (Willems, Lucassen,
2000), this notion forms the basis of an approach a ccording to which, the accession to
the Roma people is no longer based on phenotypical and genetic grounds but on the
(supposed) homogenized way of life and the (suppose d) common cultural elements of
those who are defined as Rom (Zachos, 2006a).
This approach is also the axis around which institu tional bodies of the
international community (United Nations, Unicef, Eu ropean Union), as well as
international or national Non Governmental Organiza tions design and develop their

2 actions and policies. Furthermore, it seems that th is same approach about the Roma
and their way of life has been adopted by the major ity of the academics and
researchers of the scientific domain of the Romani Studies, and as a result, it has
universally prevailed in public speech. 1 From all the characteristics attributed –within
this approach- to the Roma, particularly interestin g for the present project are the
following:
1. Roma are “by nature” a nomadic people
2. Education is not compatible with the Romani culture
3. Roma get involved in politics only to serve their p etty interests and for this
reason, they always vote for the leading parties
The thesis of the present project’s writer is that according to the existing historical
and cultural differences, the people who belong to the Roma do not constitute a
nation. 2 For this reason, it would be more appropriate to r efer to “Romani / Roma
groups”, that is, to communities which share certai n common cultural (language of the
ancestors, traditions, manners and customs), histor ical (relocations, persecutions) and
social elements (profession, socioeconomic status), as well as common experiences
regarding their relationship to the “hosting societ ies” (discriminations, racist
behaviors) (Zachos, 2006a & b).
Flampouro is a village in the southern part of the Serres prefecture.
Administratively, it belongs to the municipality of Nigrita and it is situated
approximately ten kilometers east from the homonymo us capital. According to the
existing sources, in the area where Flampouro is to day, in the last quarter of the 19th
century there were four small settlements which wer e tantalized by the frequent floods
of the Strymon River. These settlements’ residents, the majority of whom were of
Roma origin, suffered from malaria caused by the st agnant waters of the marshland
(Anagnostopoulos, 1936). Under Turkish rule, most o f the area’s residents worked as
share-croppers in the two big local agrarian lands (tsiflikia). The main occupation of
the people of the Bairachtar Machala (Flampouro pre vious name) was fishing in the
Achinos Lake and collecting the products of the mar shland.
After the area’s integration into the Greek state, some of these Roma origin
residents moved to Flampouro, whereas, the neighbor ing settlements were abandoned.
The majority of the these people aimed at, fought f or and finally succeeded in gaining
a small piece of land, which enlarged later, when t he lake was dried and its fertile land
was allotted to the people of the neighbouring vill ages. However, rural property was

3 small and for the most time the production was not enough to cover the needs of the
numerous Roma families. An additional problem was t he morphology of the ground
which was often covered by the waters of the Strymo n River and therefore, it was not
suitable for farming that could provide a considera ble income. The rural lot was
divided among the second generation beneficiaries, something that forced several
smallholders to sell their land. As a result, these people entered the cheap working
hands category, the members of which were farmers w ho cultivated the land; they kept
50% of the production and gave the rest to the owne rs, they were occupied as seasonal
labor in agriculture and used to undertake the most menial farming, industrial etc.
jobs. 3 The bad financial situation of the people of Flamp ouro, the lack of career
perspectives and their desire to improve their livi ng standards made them seek a better
lack elsewhere. Only a small number of them migrate d abroad (mainly to Germany),
since the authorities would not give them the neces sary “certificate of social
convictions”, because of their left political leani ng. Most of the immigrants from
Flampouro headed to Athens, where they formed a thr iving community the members
of which exceed today 2,500 people. By contrast, th e village’s population from 1961
onwards constantly decreases: According to the offi cial census, in 1951, 1363 people
lived in Flampouro, in 1961 1734; in 1971 the numbe r of its residents fell to 1550
people, in 1981 to 1382 and in 1991 to 1024 people.
Flampouro was the “Mecca of the Gypsies” (Yeager, 1 979:362), a place where
Romani “dominance” 4 offered a secure environment free from intense eth nic conflicts
and annoying, offensive behavior and where Roma ori gin people of the Serres
prefecture used to gather for their social relation s. The feasts, festive ceremonies and
customs (Ampampas, Carnavalos, Lazarines, Tziamala) of Flampouro functioned as
an attraction for the rest of the people of Serres, many of whom used to visit it at least
once a year. Indicative of the village’s glamour is the fact that Bart McDowel of the
National Geographic Society visited Flampouro, as o ne of his two “stops” in Greece,
when at the end of the 1960’s, he made a journey in quest of the “Roma heritage”
(McDowel, 1970: 125-126).

4 The research

The goal of this paper is to contribute towards exp loring the role played by
economic and non-economic factors in the exclusion and integration processes of
certain “special” social groups (ethnic groups, eth nic minorities, immigrants, refugees,
etc.), as well as the ways and strategies through w hich these groups can intervene in
these processes. The data of the research, which ma inly focused on the educational
condition of the citizens of the Romani village of Flambouro in the Prefecture of
Serres, emerged from the author’s field research– w hich began in early 2000 and was
completed in late 2001 – and from secondary sources , from archive material of
educational organisations, ministries and local gov ernment agencies, from the archives
of public utility agencies, from official meeting m inutes, from reports by international
organisations, cooperative associations and researc h institutes, from Male registers and
municipal registers, contracts, memoranda, wills, m aps, diagrams and voting lists. In
order to utilize the collected material, secondary sources related to the issue were
painstakingly examined (books, magazine and newspap er articles, memoirs,
biographies and published recollections, unpublishe d material, such as lectures at
conferences, dissertations and final papers, etc.) A third category of data came from
the researcher’s direct observation of the social l ife of members of the Roma
community in Flambouro; over the course of approxim ately eight months, the
researcher closely observed and participated in col lective activities (ceremonies,
celebrations, political and social events) that too k place in the community’s public fora
(cafés, squares, community offices and the primary school, etc). Furthermore, the
researcher held a series of interviews with people selected on the basis of the role they
played or are playing in the public life of the Fla mbouro community.

Politics

For the largest part of the 20 th century, the Greek state kept an indifferent attit ude
towards its Roma citizens. This becomes evident by the fact that only in 1953 did the
Ministry of the Interior attempt to record the numb er of the “Gypsies” and to explore
possibilities for their permanent settlement. Howev er, about until thirty years ago, the
majority of these people remained without citizensh ip, since the recording process was

5 completed only towards the end of the 1970’s (Zegin is, 1994: 20). This legal status
was one of the factors that lead the Roma to the ma rgin of Greek society, since their
inability to make use of their urban, social and po litical rights deprived these people
not only of the potential of social mobility but al so of the basic, decent living
conditions.
Contrary to this status that characterized the majo rity of the Greek Roma, most of
the Roma origin residents of Flampouro were admitte d to the Greek citizenship
through the 1913 naturalization (Thilykos, 1985: 13 6). This event signaled the
residents’ equal –compared to the rest social and e thnic groups- treatment by the
political and administrative bodies of the Greek st ate, as well as their participation in
the political and social activities of the local so ciety and of the wider “community” of
the Greek citizens. From the first years of the vil lage’s integration into the Greek state,
the Roma origin people of Flampouro started taking political action -hesitantly, at
first-, since they were impelled to found a landles s farmers association, in order to
claim the area’s rural land. From 1933 onwards, whe n the community of Flampouro
was founded, they occupy posts of the local governm ent. Their involvement in politics
became more intense after 1944, when they were acti vely involved in trade unions and
associations as well as in party institutions.

Ideology of equity

In Serres prefecture where Flampouro belongs, a ver y well organized and
conscious labour movement was established in the In terwar period. Its members
exerted influence on the other professional groups, something that was also recorded
in the elections of this period (Mavrogordatos, Ham oundopoulos, 1931: 79-81).
Nevertheless, it seems that the Roma origin voters of Flampouro were not influenced
by this trend since their political orientation, as it was manifested both in the 1935 and
the 1936 elections, brought them to the right end o f the political scale and more
specifically, to the right-winged royalist parties (see Table 1). During Greece’s
military occupation by German, Italian and Bulgaria n forces, an event played a major
part not only in changing their political preferenc es, but also in the way they perceived
and lead their life: Flampouro was integrated in th e German occupation zone of the
municipality of Serres, whereas the villages on the opposite bank of the Strymona
river were integrated in the Bulgarian zone. Living at the Bulgarian zone was very

6 difficult because the conquerors treated the local populations cruelly and in some cases
brutally. This forced many Greeks to take refuge to the southwest part of the
municipality, the part that was under German occupa tion. This period, a group of
communists from two of the villages of the opposite bank, took to Flampouro. Its
members had joined the largest resistance organizat ion in Greece, the left-oriented
National Liberation Front (EAM). Living together an d socializing with these refugees
revealed to the people of Flampouro a different con cept of the world; their attitude
towards them, which was consistent with the declara tions of the Communist Party of
Greece (KKE) and of EAM about equality and about es tablishing a society without
discriminations and segregations, made them change their worldview and their
political behaviour. 5 It should be noted at this point, that neither KKE nor the
“government” of EAM made specific references to the Roma in their manifests and
plans of action. However, some of their declaration s regarding the nationally and
ethnically “different” citizens of Greece referred to the burning questions of parity and
free expression of cultural idiosyncrasy, while som e other points in their agenda dealt
with the Roma origin community of Flampouro, the tw o most important issues of
whom were:
a) Granting all the people and nations, regardless of their origin, language,
nationality etc. full political and mental parity ( KKE, 1981: 93 & 104).
b) The proposal made by the KKE Secretariat about incl uding the National
Liberation Front in the People’s Republic Programme , according to which, “all
agrarian land, all state rural property, every piec e of uncultivated land, the monastery
land, every piece of land that does not belong to f armers or workers, will be
confiscated and distributed to the farmers” (K.K.E. , 1987: 25).
The influence of these two declarations must have b een crucial for the change of
the political conscience and political behaviour of the Roma origin residents of
Flampouro, since it touched upon two vital issues: First, the distribution of the farming
land of the area, something that the people demande d from the day the region
belonging today to the municipality of Serres was i ntegrated into the Greek State, and
second, the issue of their treatment by the other s ocial groups.
As a result, during these years, several residents of Flampouro joined the EAM, a
fact that together with the resistance activity of the refugees, created dangerous
circumstances for the village: On two occasions the conquerors and their local
associates threatened to destroy the village and ex ecute all its residents. However, the

7 fear of destruction was not enough to prevent the p olitical activity, since during this
period, for the first time in Greece, the masses di rectly interfered in the political and
social sector and were asked to get actively involv ed in the establishment of many
institutions (Tsoukalas, 1999: 30), the most import ant of which was local government
(Tyrovouzis, 1991). Within this framework, most Rom a of Flampouro took part in
EAM activities; they joined the popular committees, the popular tribunals and they
participated in various cultural activities (drama society, dancing parties) organized in
the wider Nigrita district. It is worth mentioning that women participated equally in
these activities as well, and some of them evolved to resistance cadres. So, during
EAM’s dominance over the region of Flampouro, the c ontempted and oppressed Rom
managed to escape the inferiority complexes caused by the rest of the area’s
population and by the nationalistic ideology promot ed by the school, the army and the
official representatives of the Greek state and the y lived in an environment in which
their “otherness” as well as their human dignity we re respected.
According to Gramsci (1973: 32-33), the conscience of participating in a defined
hegemonic power (political conscience) is the first step to a higher and more
progressive self-conscience, where theory and pract ice eventually become one. In
Flampouro, the political activity of the members of the Romani community, under the
German occupation, lead to the formation of the har d core of the local organization of
KKE, the members of which played for decades a cent ral part in the political events of
the village.
Towards the end of 1942, Flampouro came under the z one of the Pan-Hellenic
Liberation Organization (PLO), a nationalistic and antagonistic to EAM resistance
organization, a few members of which cooperated lat er with the occupation forces.
The people of PLO took advantage of the power of th eir firearms and treated the Roma
residents of Flampouro very badly; they contempted, suppressed and exploited them,
something that prompted the villagers to join E.A.M . and KKE (Dussas, 1997: 57). It
should be noted that even those who were not active ly involved in EAM, were
favourably disposed towards EAM and KKE and this be came evident: First from the
almost overall participation of the adult people of the village to a big anti-royalist rally
that took place in Nigrita immediately after the li beration from the German occupation
and, second, from the way the majority of the voter s of the Romani community of
Flampouro reacted in the first elections that were held after the liberation of Greece
(1946), when following the KKE directive to its mem bers and friends, they abstained

8 from them. More specifically, only 79 people voted, including the Sarakatsans that had
already settled permanently in the village, whereas , in the 1935 elections, 223 men 6
had voted and only few of them did not belong to th e Romani community. This
abstention “stigmatized” Flampouro’s Romani communi ty in the eyes of the
nationalist state and parastate bodies, since its c ause could not be interpreted
otherwise.
In the Greek civil war some members of the Communis t Party from Flampouro
“went on the mountains” and took part in the milita ry operations. From these people,
others were killed and others resorted to the count ries of the former Eastern Block.
The rest of the Roma communists and “sympathizers” who remained in the village
during the clashes, underwent the pressures and per secutions that the national army,
the police and the members of paramilitary and para state organizations laid in store for
the defeated of the civil war. Nevertheless, despit e the hard chase, the exiles, the
frequent summons to the police station, the recomme ndations made by the authorities,
the paramilitaries’ vexation, the -necessary for su rvival- recantation and the distortion
of the election results, the winners of the war did not succeed in annihilating the
“communist” influence in Flampouro. As a result, in those elections that were held
without pressure and distortions of the free will o f the Greek electorate, the Roma
origin residents of Flampouro 7 voted against the parties of the Right. These part ies
represented the cruel post-civil war state of the w inners, they supported the social
system of human exploitation, the social injustice, the acute inequalities and the
discrimination against the weak social groups of th e population. The Roma origin
residents of Flampouro voted for the parties that d eclared the healing of the wounds of
the war and the cessation of the persecutions and d iscriminations against the defeated
and promised equality, democracy and power to the p eople. So, when the regime
allowed the elections to be held in a relatively li beral atmosphere (1958), where the
party of the United Democratic Left (UDL) came seco nd with 24,42% at National
level, the power of the Left in Flampouro was recor ded in the official election results 8
based on which UDL came first gathering one third o f the votes (33,91%) (Table 1)..
The influence and power of the Left in Flampouro is also confirmed by the results of
the municipal elections from which it becomes evide nt that amidst intimidations,
blackmails and physical violence exerted by the pol ice and its parastate associates, the
communists managed not only to control the local co uncils almost throughout the pre-
dictatorship period, but also to elect three presid ents in the community (Zachos, 2005).

9 In the post-dictatorship period a wide re-distribut ion of the voters of the Left in
Greece, which favoured the newly established Panhel lenic Socialist Movement
(PASOK) occurred. PASOK, is a party that espoused p art of the declarations, the
rhetoric and EAM and UDL’s slogans and exploited th e powerful reflexes of the
leftists (Sakellaropoulos, 2001). When this party c ame to power in 1981, a large
section of the Greek people, members and friends of PASOK, gained access to
administration and to the distribution of power fro m which they were totally excluded
until then. Among these people a feeling of relaxat ion and vindication of their
struggles prevailed. In contrast with PASOK’s persu asive public speech, the parties of
the left failed to make their proposal widely accep ted and to convince that they were
able to play a decisive role in the political devel opments. As a result, during the first
decade of the country’s governance by PASOK, the Le ft lost a significant part of its
audience and instead of government initiatives, pol icies and objectives, it confined
itself to defensive moves.
In this framework, one should place PASOK’s rise as the first political power in
Flampouro, a position it maintained steadily from 1 977 until the 2000 elections – with
the exception of the 1989 elections where the Left came first-. Regarding the electoral
power of the Left, it remained high until 1990. Dur ing this period, KKE, with the
exception of the 1974 and 1977 elections, as well a s those of 1989 in which the
political combination that participated came first, took the second place with
percentages fluctuating around 30% (Table 1). After 1990 and the fall of the “social
realism” regimes, and except for the 1996 elections , the Left “fell” beneath 20%. It
should be noted, though, that the decrease of the p ercentage of the Left is in step with
the big increase of the abstention rates, which in the last elections of 2004 exceeded
50% (55.66% & 69.35% in the national and in the eur o-elections).
It seems that a large section of the left voters of Flampouro who lived in Athens,
disappointed from the international developments an d from the fact that capitalism had
been left without an “opponent awe”, did not find a reason, that is, they did not have
any significant motive to undergo the trouble and t he expenses of travelling back to
their village which is 600 kilometres away from Ath ens, in order to vote. As far as the
voters who remained in Flampouro are concerned, mos t of them followed the general
trends of conservatization of the Greek society and especially of its rural areas
(Louloudis, Maravegias, 1999) that was sealed with the rise of New Democracy’s
conservative wing as the greatest political power i n the village.

10

Education

α. Historical data

From the last quarter of the 19 th century until the beginning of the second decade
of the 20 th century, when the boarders of the new countries of the Balkan peninsula
took their final form, Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia engaged in a fierce ideological,
political and military conflict in order to annex a s much territory of the collapsing
Ottoman empire as possible. Schools and churches pl ayed a central role in this dispute
since the existence and operation of Greek school o r schools, for example, and of
Christian, patriarchal churches in a town, village or settlement was a proof of the
greekness of their population. At the same time, th ese institutions were cores of
ideological propaganda that aimed at the native peo ple of Macedonia who still
remained “nationally” neutral. That means, they had not decided yet about the nation
they would like to integrate into (Scheim-Dimen, 19 75, Karakasidou, 1977).
The Greek state organized a dense educational netwo rk all over Macedonia, which
was controlled by the local consular authorities. I n the Serres prefecture, this network
spread even to the remotest settlements (Vakalopoul os, 1986), regardless of the
national or ethnic origin of the majority of their residents. So, in 1910 a Greek school
was founded in the rural land (tsifliki) of Georgou las (near Flampouro), where many
people of Roma origin lived and worked, and in the following year a school was also
founded in Flampouro, which was then called Bairach tar Machala (Konstantinou,
2000). It is worth mentioning that according to Fla mpouro’s primary school records,
immediately after Macedonia’s integration into Gree ce, and more specifically, in the
school year 1913-14, a kindergarten and two classes of the primary school were
operating. The existence of a kindergarten grade sh ows the concern that those in
charge for the official Greek education, as well as most of the European nation-states
displayed for the linguistic and cultural assimilat ion of the people who spoke a
different language (Kangas, 2000). This concern bec omes evident from the fact that
primary education was compulsory since school had t o contribute to the eradication of
the use of the mother tongue of the various groups in the Greek territory that spoke a
different language (Vlachs, Slav-speaking, Turkish- speaking, Arvanites, Roma etc.)

11 (Zachos, 2006c) and teach the new generation the na tional language, the greatness of
the ancestors and of the nation, and the values of the “Greek Christian culture”.
In the period, starting from 1913 and ending in the 1940’s, except for four years
during the ‘40’s when schools stopped because of th e German occupation and the civil
war, the participation of the Romani community’s me mbers in the official education of
the Greek state was rather typical. More specifical ly, the number of the Roma children
who enrolled to the primary school was satisfactory , compared to the total amount of
the residents, since it reached and exceeded the co rresponding national average (14%
of the residents). The percentage, however, of thos e who attended regularly, without
being often absent, was small and those who managed to finish their grade were only
few (See Table 2).
The changes that occurred during the 1940’s in the worldview of most of the
Flampouro’s Roma origin residents seem to have cont ributed to the reconsidering their
attitude towards education and its goods, and to th e acknowledgement of its role in the
personal, social and professional life. So, from th e beginning of the 1950’s, these
people’s desire to “educate” their children became evident: During this decade, Roma
children who were born in Flampouro enrolled to the primary school and a number of
them -which increased with time- managed to success fully complete the school year
(Table 2). Nevertheless, this period, the Greek peo ple was coming out of a decade of
disastrous war conflicts (occupation-resistance-civ il war) and consequently, its largest
part, regardless of intentions and values, had to t ry hard in order to improve its abject
living standards. Therefore, for the people of the destroyed Greece hard work was their
priority and as much as they valued education, it w as of secondary importance to
them.

b. Factors that hindered educational integration

At this point, it should be stressed that the educa tional problems faced by people
that belong to ethnic groups different than the “pr evailing” one are part of the
discourse that concerns the education of all people who belong to “lower” classes and
lower social strata. The historical relationship be tween people belonging to these
groups and education begins with the annulment of t heir universal exclusion, which,
however, did not offset democratization of educatio nal systems, but the provision of
basic educational services instead, i.e. knowledge and skills that, for the masses of the

12 population of national states, were limited to the three R’s (reading, writing and
arithmetic) (Logue, 1996: 79). Later, this minimum was expanded and mandatory
enrollment in school was raised from 2-3 years to 8 -10 years, which remains the
current status. Although it currently seems that th e issue of democratization of
educational systems has become extinct in most coun tries of the world, the offspring
of people belonging to lower social classes are, ne vertheless, called upon to
participate in an educational system that is constr ucted according to the requirements
and needs of the middle classes. Thus, a serious ob stacle interfered with the
educational integration of the Roma residents of Fl ampouro had to do with the school
curriculum and the educational practices which were based (as today are) on the
culture and needs of the middle and upper classes ( Cornell, 1993, Freire, 1972). Until
about twenty years ago, the ethnic “different” stud ents of the primary school were
asked to adapt to its environment without having an y kind of support, that is, without
being asked to participate in some compensatory edu cation programmes, to enter
adaptational reception classes, literacy programmes , or to receive some kind of help
from organizations and volunteers for language lear ning etc.
Another very important obstacle in the effort of Fl ampouro’s residents to integrate in
the Greek educational system was their mother tongu e, which was different from the
official (Greek) language of the school. Until the early 1960’s, this language
(Romanes) was used exclusively at homes, in the str eets, in the villagers’ everyday
activities (Stamos, 1956, Makris, 1960). The differ ent mother tongue is the cultural
element of those belonging to groups “different” fr om the “majority” that
substantially affects the lives and activities of t heir members, as it renders them
identifiable and discernible. Bilingual people expe rience poverty and social exclusion
to a greater extent than those who speak exclusivel y the official state language
(Kongidou, Tressou-Mylona, Tsiakalos, 1997: 145). U ntil the early ‘60s, the
prevailing concept was that failure at schools by m embers of groups that spoke a
different language was due to insufficient knowledg e of the school language; in fact,
bilingualism was considered a disadvantage and had been correlated to various
pathological situations (schizophrenia, learning di sorders, psychological disorders).
Additionally, it was generally accepted that people have limited language learning
abilities and that learning a second language creat es problems for the satisfactory
development of the first / main language. As a resu lt, the teaching of the mother
tongue of students who spoke a foreign language was prohibited in all educational

13 systems, as it would have had adverse effects both on the development of the official
state and school language and on the school perform ance and vocational career of
those being educated (Markou, 1996: 9). The prevale nce of this theory, combined
with the desire of national states to achieve homog enization of their citizens, led most
of these national states to implement “lingual geno cide” policies against minority
languages; these policies were implemented in two w ays: Firstly, through directly
prohibiting the use of different languages and, sec ondly, and more indirectly, through
ideological and structural measures (Skutnabb – Kan gas, 1998: 13), such as their total
exclusion from the area of education, the field of administration, the “public” sphere,
etc. This way, bilingual students were and still ar e forced towards monolingualism,
i.e. the exclusive use of the officially recognized language. This situation gradually
began changing in the early ‘60s, when the first bi lingual classes were held in the
United States of America and in Canada within the f ramework of compensatory
education policies.
Today, many support the view that different linguis tic elements not only do not
comprise a cause for school failure, but, on the co ntrary, a deficit in the development
of the mother tongue is detrimental to learning a s econd language; this view is
supported by research undertaken throughout the wor ld (Cummins 1999: 159-162).
Every time people learn a foreign language, they us e what they already know in
regard to the structure and functions of the lingua l system. The “fact that bilinguals
have two words for the same idea or object and two ways to express the same thought
can make them “objectify” or better comprehend ling ual functions” (Cummins
1999:154). Consequently, proper development of the mother tongue is expected to
substantially contribute towards the culture and de velopment of one or more
languages.
Studies on bilingualism have shown that even learni ng a new lingual system
does not compete with or hinder the lingual system already known; in fact, it adds to it
(additive bilingualism). Learning foreign languages , i.e. learning another, second
language, is much like learning a first one, as lon g as the culture that the language
conveys holds a high position in the hierarchical s cale of languages. According to
Cummins (1999), children of lingual minorities succ eed in school when their mother
tongue prevails in the place where they live or whe n it is recognized as equal or even
superior to the prevailing language of this place ( e.g. English). Lack of a unified
stance in regard to the languages of “different” gr oups (Kouzelis, 1997) and their

14 classification clearly produces better treatment of the speakers of “superior”
languages. Thus, for example, great parts of the Gr eek population will treat a speaker
of English or German differently than they would tr eat a speaker of Albanian. 9
Experience from the operation of bilingual classes has shown that competence in
both languages does not guarantee school success of children coming from national
and ethnic groups different to the “prevailing” one . Because of their “particularity”,
these individuals experience a series of restrictio ns in all their activities. Thus, the
exclusion of their language, culture and experience s by educational mechanisms leads
those being educated in this category to develop a negative disposition vis-à-vis
school, which is expressed as silence and lack of p articipation in school activities
(Cummins, 1999: 45). Cummins (1999: 46) supports th at in order to overcome these
difficulties, the identity of the members of biling ual groups must be accepted, but not
indiscriminately, as many “cultural practices and s ocial structures violate the US
Declaration of Human Rights and other regulations o f the United Nations».
Consequently, language variation, when combined wit h low economic and cultural
position of its speakers, comprises an important fa ctor in school failure of bilingual
individuals, as the families of children of differe nt ethnic groups who belong to the
middle classes have the financial means to educate their offspring in both languages,
hire the best teachers, enroll their children in th e most expensive private schools and,
finally, watch their children become truly successf ul graduates of the educational
system.
The language problem of the residents of Flambouro was intensified by the
village’s geographical alienation, as well as by th e nature of the occupation of the
largest part of the residents (farming), because of which these people did not have
frequent contacts with speakers of the Greek langua ge and consequently, they were not
encouraged to improve and develop its use. Greek wa s not the second language of
Flampouro’s Roma residents and most of them could n ot be characterized as bilingual,
according to the meaning the term has today. Childr en came into real contact with the
Greek language in kindergarten, where, despite the teachers’ generous efforts, the
difficulties were many.
A third negative factor concerning the smooth and s uccessful school integration of
the offspring of Flampouro’s Romani families was th e low financial level of the
overwhelming majority of their families, which forc ed the children to break up their
schooling for a period of time or even permanently, in order to work and help with the

15 family budget. Finally, the fact that almost all re sidents of Flampouro were illiterate
impeded the Roma’s successful school course.

c. Educational level of Roma residents of Flambouro10

The difficulties described above, limited the parti cipation of the Roma origin
students of Flampouro in the official primary educa tion until the end of the 1960’s.
Some of those who did not complete their studies in the “regular” school were given
later a second chance, when the “evening primary sc hool” was founded. It should be
noted that, this school which operated in Flampouro from 1961 to 1972, contributed to
the upward social mobility of its graduates, since the primary school certificate was a
necessary qualification for their leaving farming ( employment in the public sector, in
banks, public services) as well as for the improvem ent of their working conditions
(issue of driving license, farming lift). So, since the motives were strong and the desire
of the Roma origin residents for educational integr ation was already given, from the
beginning of the 1970’s, illiteracy among the young er generations in Flampouro was
eliminated (Rizos, 1973). To better assess this dev elopment, it should be stressed that
the same period, the percentage of the illiterate i n the country population reached
36,8% (1971 census), whereas ten years earlier, hal f of the people in Greece (50%) did
not know reading and writing (Heliou, 1984: 70).
In the same period, apart from the negative paramet ers affecting primary
schooling, a series of important factors impeded th e participation of the children of
Flampouro’s Roma origin residents (that had graduat ed from primary school), in
secondary education: The first has to do with the l ack of regular itineraries. Until
1958, when just a dirt road was made, there was no other way for traveling from
Flampouro to the nearest High School (Nigrita). The second factor, relevant to the
first, had to do with the expenses that a family ha d to cover, if their child decided to go
to high school, and which included the expenses for living in Nigrita (housing, food).
Moreover, to this financial burden of the continuat ion of the studies, one should add
the tuition fees demanded for attending high school , which in 1957 were 65 drachmas
annually (Nigrita High School Records, 1957), a con siderable amount of money for
most of Flampouro’s Romani families. A third deterr ent was depriving a family from
working hands. Those years, children from 12 years old and above participated
“equally” in the farming work. A fourth reason rega rding mainly those who attempted

16 attending high school, is social racism. The young Roma who went to high school
were confronted with offensive and humiliating beha viour.
As a result, until the mid 1970’s, the participatio n of the members of Flampouro’s
Romani community in secondary education was rudimen tary. It was only after the mid
1970’s that the percentage of primary school gradua tes who enrolled to High School
exceeded the percentage of those who broke up their studies. This change occurred
when the road connecting Nigrita with Flampouro was paved with asphalt and the
means of public transport started regular itinerari es adapted to the school schedule.
From the beginning of the 1980’s the percentage of the Roma origin primary school
graduates who enrolled and graduated from the Nigri ta High School was constantly
increasing. In the last decade they were attuned to the percentages of the other rural
areas in Greece, whereas from the mid-1980’s onward s, the percentage of the Roma
origin residents of Flampouro who entered Higher ed ucation have risen above the
corresponding national average (Zachos, 2005: 238-2 44). So, there are no illiterate
among the young Roma of Flampouro; among the people who in 2001 were from 20
to 39 years old. The majority of them (55.2%) gradu ated from primary school and a
considerable percentage (11%) has graduated from a higher education institution
(Table 3). In addition, as seen in Table 411 – despite their continuous dwindling
numbers, which hinders the extraction of safe concl usions – people born in Flambouro
since the late ‘70s have shown a “stable” education al course, i.e. their percentage of
participation in the three educational tiers tends to match that of population groups in
the same geographical (rural area residents) and so cial position and are no pronounced
deviations from national averages. 12
The educational course of the members of the Roma c ommunity of Flambouro is
contrary to the majority of studies concerning the relationship between the Roma and
education, both in Europe and in Greece (see below) . At this point, it should be
stressed that in most European countries there are no statistical data for members of
the Roma, as most of these individuals are citizens of the states in which they reside
and are not included in minority people censuses (w herever they exist). Thus, each
researcher, depending on his/her theoretical approa ch, can “construct” his/her own
Roma and measure their educational performance. Con sequently, it is widely
maintained 13 that the relationship between the members of all R oma groups and
education presents significant problems. Most Roma seem to have been or to be

17 excluded from school, while those enrolled in the e ducational system seem to end
their course early on, at the primary tier. 14

d. Educational level of Roma of Greece

In regard to Greece, specifically, until the mid-‘8 0s nothing had been done for
the educational integration of Roma offspring. As c an be seen from the low
percentage of their enrollment in school, education al policies neither took their needs
into account nor did they draft any compensational programmes (Karadinos,
Kavounidou, Ioannou, 1992: 24). This situation bega n to change after Greece acceded
to the (then) European Community, when – at the ord er of its Directives – the Greek
state had to address the particular problems of thi s specific population group. Thus, in
1983 15 the first literacy programme for the Roma was draf ted, 16 followed by other
initiatives concerning their education. These actio ns, as well as research and studies
undertaken by independent researchers and academics , created a database on the life
and activities of Rom groups in Greece. Specificall y, the most significant studies that
focused on the relationship between the Roma and Gr eek education are the following:
First, the study by Kokkinaki (1983), which reveale d that in Ano Liosia, Attica, of
the 1,067 Roma over the age of 6, only 194 (18.2%) had attended primary school,
while only one man had graduated from Junior Second ary School and another three
had merely attended it. In fact: of the parents, 22 .3% of the men and 5.9% of the
women had attended primary school, while the corres ponding percentages for children
were 24.2% for boys and 16.7% for girls (Kokkinaki, 1983: 116-117).
Second, E. Marselos and M. Pavli-Korre, editors of the Greek part of the Council
of Europe’s report entitled “Report on Schooling fo r Gypsies’ and Travellers’
Children”, estimated that during the 1984-85 period , when their research was
undertaken, 65% of the total Rom population of Gree ce were illiterate (Liegois, 1998:
73). In further detail, 85% of semi-nomadic and alm ost 100% of the men over the age
of forty and women over the age of twenty-five were illiterate, while the total
percentage of those not included in the illiterate category was limited to approximately
40% (Liegois, 1998: 73). In regard to children of s chool age who should, according to
the Law, attend public or private educational insti tutes for at least nine years, only
about 17% of girls and 24% of boys attended classes (Liegois, 1998: 92-93).

18 Third, the study by Pavlis and Sideris (1990: 51) o n the educational condition of
the Roma residing in Agia Varvara, Attica and Kato Achagia, Achaia, which showed
that 33.33% of the men and 37.90% of the women of A gia Varvara had never attended
a school class, while the corresponding percentages for Kato Achagia were 36.86% for
the men and 53.13% for the women. The same study sh owed that not a single woman
in Kato Achagia had completed primary education, wh ile 6.52% of the men did
complete primary education. The corresponding perce ntages for Agia Varvara show
that more women (22.07%) than men (20%) had complet ed primary education (Pavlis
and Sideris, 1990: 52). In regard to secondary educ ation, research data showed that in
Agia Varvara 13.34% of the men attended up to the t hird grade and 4.83% of the
women had attended classes up to the second grade, while in Kato Achagia, not a
single man or woman attended Junior Secondary Schoo l (Pavlis and Sideris, 1990:
53).
Fourth, the study by Dikaiou (1990) showed that of 332 children of Rom origin in
Dendropotamos, Thessaloniki, only a third (31.02%) finished primary school. The rest
either never attended (18.8%) or dropped out (28.9% ) after three or four years of
enrollment (Dikaiou, 1990: 49-50).
Fifth, in the same region, i.e. Dendropotamos, Thes saloniki, research took place
within the framework of the EU Programme “Poverty 3 ”. According to its results, out
of a population of 1,441 individuals of Roma origin , 48.7% were illiterate and 15.1%
had only elementary reading and writing skills (Tsi akalos, Kongidou, 1992: 29-30).
Additionally, 67.8% of children of school age were enrolled in primary school, while
only 50% regularly attended classes (Tsiakalos, Kon gidou, 1992: 30).
Fifth, Sparangis (1993) completed the first dissert ation 17 on the education of Rom
groups in Greek territory. Its results, although su pported by a very small sample (12
families) provided, according to the author of the dissertation, a hopeful message, as
most young Roma between the ages of 19 and 35 had c ompleted primary school
(Sparangis 1993: 89 & 103). In regard to individual s between the ages of 30 and 50,
research showed that they sporadically participated in primary school activities, while,
finally, men and women above the age of 51 had not participated at all in conventional
education (Sparangis 1993: 89).
Seventh, Tsiakalos (1995: 26), making reference to various local studies,
estimated that percentages of participation of stud ents of Rom origin in Greek schools
did not exceed 40% and that adult illiteracy reache d 80%.

19 Eighth, Doussas (1997: 123), on the basis of variou s studies 18 , supported that the
total percentage of illiterate Roma in Greece is ap proximately 90%. Specifically, the
author claimed that the percentage of illiterate in dividuals was inversely proportionate
to the degree of integration or assimilation of mem bers of Romani communities in
Greek society, as there was nearly 100% illiteracy among members of nomad groups,
90% among semi-nomads and a high percentage – in Do ussas’ estimation – among
recently permanently settled individuals.
Ninth, the Department of State of the United States of America noted that for the
years 1996, 1997 and 1998, 80% of Greek Rom groups remained illiterate (U.S.
Department of State, 1998).
Tenth, according to a general assessment of the rel ationship between all Greek
Roma and education, which was based on the data of the “Education of Gypsy
Children” Programme, in the year 2000, 69.7% of tho se between the ages of 18 and 47
were functionally illiterate or had never attended school, while only 10% had
completed primary school, 2.1% Junior High and 0.9% High School (Sotirchou,
2000:7). According to the data of the same study, m erely 30% of the children of
primary school age attended primary school regularl y, while the percentage of
attendance in Junior Secondary School was 14.4% and nobody from the study
population had attended High School (Sotirchou, 200 0:7).

Conclusions

From the end of the civil war until today, the part icipation and successful course
of Flampouro’s Roma origin residents in all three l evels of the official educational
system of Greece has been increased. As a result, i lliteracy has been eliminated, the
overwhelming majority of the residents have a prima ry school certificate and quite a
few of them have continued their education in the c ountry’s higher education
institutions. It is also worth noting, that during the last years, the participation of these
people in the official Greek education does not dif fer from the corresponding one of
the total amount of the people of the country and e specially of the rural classes and
that the educational course of the women of Flampou ro’s Romani community is
similar to that of men (Table 5).

20 The relationship of the Roma origin residents of Fl ampouro with the official
Greek education refutes one of the dominant myths a bout the life and culture of this
specific social category, according to which, the R oma “have no learning curve” or
that the Roma culture is incompatible with that of the school and therefore, most of
them are illiterate (Vasiliadou, M., Pavli-Korre, M . 1996, Liezois, 1998). However,
the successful integration in the Greek educational system is a parameter that
differentiates Flampouro’s Romani community from al l those people labeled as Roma
(Liezois, 1998), as well as from the rest “related” Romani groups of the Serres
prefecture (Athens Academy, 1971, Kostoglou, 1988, Paraskevas, 1995, Nakou,
1998). This last finding is especially important to the interpretation of the educational
course of the members of Flampouro’s Romani communi ty, since the Roma origin
groups of Serres prefecture share plenty of common historical and cultural elements
(longstanding permanent settlement in the places wh ere they live today, longstanding
ownership of the Greek citizenship, involvement in the political situation, ownership
of the land they cultivate, occupation with farming etc.) (Zachos, 2006b). So it seems
that the element which differentiates the members o f the Romani community of
Flampouro from the members of the other Romani comm unities of the Serres district,
which is their political behaviour, has influenced the way these people viewed
education. It seems that the contact of the Roma or igin residents of Flampouro with
the people and the ideas of the Left has brought si gnificant changes in their lives,
which ultimately also affected their educational co urse. More specifically, the
recognition of their human existence and their dign ity by the cadres and members of
EAM and of the KKE who lived in the village, whose policies and actions were
consistent with the declarations about equality amo ng all people regardless of colour,
nation and “tribe”, affected Roma’s perception of t he world. This change seems to
have been further encouraged by their equal treatme nt by the people of the Left during
the Liberation Fight and the civil war (1941-1949), whereas the work of the party’s
“propagandists” helped them realize their economic and social position. The
experiences of the above period enhanced the self-e steem of the members of
Flampouro’s Romani community, while the acceptance of the ideology of equity, the
demand for progress and economic growth, the benefi ts of which would be fairly
distributed, together with the hope of changing the world -which remained alive for as
long as the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics existed-, created a climate of
optimism. Finally, the constant involvement in cruc ial disputes (agrarian question,

21 liberation movement, civil war) seems to have incre ased the militancy of Flampouro’s
Roma, who learned to step forward to the active vin dication of their constitutional,
political and social rights and to the dynamic dema nd for the improvement of their
living standards.
Consequently, the course of most members of Flampou ro’s Romani community
confirms Gramsci’s (1973: 190) viewpoint, according to which, political action brings
people out of passiveness, since it seems that the new worldview and the new supplies
with which these people confronted life and society after their contact with the people
and the ideas of the Left, altered their criteria a nd forced them to reconsider their
values, attitudes and behaviors. These people were armed with an optimistic view of
life that increased their combative spirit as well as their resolution to work in order to
improve their living standards. So, several of them tried to exploit all the “tools” the
residents of the rural areas of the Greek territory had at their disposal: additional
personal work and use of bank loans with which they attempted to modernize and
intensify their agricultural produce, whereas other s were forced to immigrate. In the
end, most members of Flampouro’s Romani community m anaged to escape the role of
the “agrarian proletariat” (seasonal labor in agric ulture) which they played for decades
and succeeded in integrating in the official educat ional system. They claimed and took
up better posts and they improved in a spectacular way the appearance and
infrastructure of their village, as well as their h ouses and living standards in general.

22
Notes

1. For more details concerning this issue, see (Zach os, 2006a).
2 According to “cultural” nationalism, which was con nected with the “Romance”
movement in Germany, a nation is as a historical co llective entity, whose members
are distinguished by common origin, language and re ligion. On the contrary,
“political” nationalism, which is connected with th e French revolution, advocates that
a nation constitutes a collective reality of people who participate voluntary in it.
People labelled as Roma do not fulfil any of these criteria.
3 Roma origin residents of Flampouro were not occupi ed in parasitic, so called
“traditional” Romani jobs, like these of the pedlar and vendor, but in “normal”
professions, in sectors were the majority of the re st of the population of Greece is
occupied, a fact that refutes one of the fables con cerning Roma’s life (See Zachos,
2005: 291-296).
4 Until the end of the 1940’s, when a few Sarakatsan families settled in, the village
was almost exclusively inhabited by people of Roma origin. Sarakatsans were pastoral
nomads, who were divided into (large) families and formed an economic livestock
unit called Tselingato. Their number never exceeded the 10% of the total population
of Flampouro, something that played a defining role in the relationship of the two
communities, as well as in the Romani identity of t he village. For more details
concerning Sarakatsans, see (Campell, 1976).
5 The exploitative nature of capitalism, the extract ing of the surplus-value from the
employee to the benefit of the capital, the conflic t between capital and labour, the
covered-up class nature of the state and of its typ ically egalitarian mechanisms, the
subversion of the capitalist political power as a p rerequisite for socialism etc., are
deductions of the Marxist theory, that in several h istoric conjunctures formed the basis
(the slogans) of Marxism as an ideology of the mass es (Milios, 1996: 26).
6 In Greece, women voted for the first time in natio nal elections in 1952. In the
municipal elections, they voted from 1930 but only those who were literate and above
thirty years old, that is, a very small percentage of their total number.
7 It should be stressed at this point, that all the voters who came from the other social
group of the village, the Sarakatsans, the members of which never exceeded the 10%
of Flampouro’s population, voted –according to esti mates made by themselves and by
local politicians– always for the party of the Righ t.
8 From the end of the civil war (1949) until when th e colonel dictatorship came to
power, the opposition parties had many times denoun ced the election results as
products of “violence and fraud”, something that se ems to be confirmed in the case of
Flampouro, from the extreme fluctuation of the vote s of the Left (Table 1, election
results of 1958 and 1961).
9 However, “language is culture. Lingual diversity i s cultural wealth. The extinction of
a language constitutes a threat against European cu lture, the particularity of which is
consistent with its lingual diversity. Therefore, m ultilingualism must be safeguarded”
(Christopoulos, 1998: 74).
10 The elements mentioned here are concern in the cou rse of six hundred sixty three
(663) individuals of Roma origin in the formal Gree k education, three hundred forty
seven (347) boys and three hundred ten six (316) gi rls that were given birth in
Flampouro the years 1945, 1951, 1957 and during the period which begin from the
2/4/1963 and finish 1/4/1981.

23
11 This table focuses only on people who completed th eir attendance in local
educational institutes and not those who were trans ferred to a school in a different
district.
12 For a detailed account on this issue, see (Zachos, 2005: 211-249).
13 See, for example, the report by the Organisation f or Security and Cooperation in
Europe ( ΟSCE, 2000: 67) where the following data are stated: in Spain, most Gitanos
children have attended primary education, while onl y about 1% attend University. In
Italy, only 193 of the 1,814 children of Roma origi ns enrolled in primary education
continued into the first year of secondary educatio n. In Hungary, more than 70% of
Roma children attend primary education, only 33% at tend (mostly vocational) schools
of the secondary tier, while less than 1% have a hi gher education degree. In FYR of
Macedonia, approximately 10% of Rom children are no t enrolled in primary
education schools, half of the others fail by the t ime they have reached the fifth grade
and only 35-40% complete the eighth grade; on avera ge, only one child of Roma
origins completes tertiary education. Finally, acco rding to a 1996 report by the
European Commission, no other population group has such a negative performance in
education as Roma and Traveller groups.
14 The educational situation of Roma children is usua lly characterized by: “Lack of
preschool education; Low school enrollment percenta ges; Inability to participate in
the learning process; Premature cessation of compul sory education; Scornful stance
by classmates, parents and teachers” (Markou, 1997: 60).
15 See: General Secretariat for Popular Education (19 89). The reform of the legal
framework of Popular Education (see: Government Gazette , No. 21, No. 2136 / 26-4-
1982 and Government Gazette , No. 435 β / 27-6-1982 and Laws 1320/1983, 2218/94
and 5067/1985) took place, according to Vassiliadou (1996: 52), in order to approach
“the models of European countries”. Thus, in 1984, Popular Education organized the
first experimental programme for the Roma of Agia V arvara and Kato Achagia and in
1986 drafted and implemented a literacy programme f or the Roma, within the context
of which a special educational “package” was create d for teachers, along with special
audiovisual material for classes. Additionally, the re were studies by Pavlis-Korre
(1986), Vassiliadou et al. (1988), Vassiliadou et a l. (1992), Vassiliadou, Pavlis-Korre
(1996) and Vassiliadou (1997) that focused on the e ducational situation of Greek
Roma.
16 Apart from the authors whose studies are listed be low, others that have addressed
the issue of Romani group education include Chatzis savidis (1987, 1996, 1999),
Tressou-Mylona (1992, 1998, 1999), Zionou-Sideri (1 995), Vergidis (1995, 1998),
Papakonstantinou et al. (1998), Vitsilaki – Soronia ti (1999) and Katsikas, Politou
(1999). The education of Roma groups has also been the topic of conferences: see:
(Vassiliadou, 1997), (Tressou, Mytakidou, 2002: 475 -498) and (Tressou, Mytakidou,
2003: 621-668).
17 Later, there were two more dissertations on topics related to the education of
members of Romani groups in the Greek territory: th ose by Lydaki (1997) and
Karagounis (1998).
18 See also: (Doussas, 1991 & 1993).

24
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31

Table 1
Election results in Flampouro

α) in referendums
For or against the King
YES NO
date votes % votes %
1/9/1946 102 43,97 130 56,03
8/12/1974 323 36,33 566 62,96

β) in national elections
RIGHT-WING CENTRE / PASOK LEFT-WING ELECTION DATE
votes % votes % votes %
9/6/1935 189 85,15 – – 9 4,05
26/1/1936 115 56,10 13 6,34 1 0,49
31/3/1946 35 44,30 4 5,06 -* -*
5/3/1950 42 18,42 106 46,49 0 0
9/9/1951 25 8,28 217 71,85 0 0
16/11/1952 138 45,85 128 42,52 35 11,63
10/2/1956 147 27,17 390 72,09 -** -**
11/5/1958 185 29,32 91 14,42 214 33,91
29/10/1961 634 78,37 173 21,38 2 0,25
3/11/1963 234 26,26 575 64,60 59 6,62
16/2/1964 183 20,38 631 70,27 84 9,35
17/11/1974 531 56,07 140 14,84 35 3,69
20/11/1977 236 23,89 464 46,96 158 15,99
18/10/1981 268 24,28 546 49,46 276 25,00
Ε 18/10/1981 242 21,57 495 44,12 337 30,03
Ε 17/6/1984 203 20,53 459 46,41 276 27,91
2/6/1985 274 21,99 528 42,38 429 34,43
18/6/1989 299 23,62 452 35,70 509 40,21
Ε 18/6/1989 276 21,45 451 35,04 507 39,39
5/11/1989 345 27,60 524 41,92 375 30,00
8/4/1990 372 29,90 485 38,99 385 30,95
10/10/1993 250 18,98 759 57,63 210 15,96
Ε 12/6/1994 152 21,23 324 45,25 89 12,43
22/9/1996 278 23,62 392 33,31 355 30,16
Ε 13/6/1999 235 31,17 246 32,63 121 16,05
9/4/2000 453 39,46 443 38,59 228 19,86
7/3/2004 519 46,76 459 41,35 99 8,92
13/6/2004 301 39,71 248 32,72 112 14,78
* Left-wing parties abstained from the 1946 electio ns.
** Left-wing parties allied with the parties of the centre
E Elections for the European parliament

32

Table 2

Pupils enrolled and completed the grade in Flampour o’s primary school
enrollments completed the grade
school year
population of
Flampouro
No % of the
population
No % of the
enrolled
1921-22 615 132 21,46 N E *
1922-23 615 66 10,73 N E *
1923-24 » 96 15,61 N E *
1924-25 » 89 14,47 N E *
1925-26 » 60 9,76 N E *
1926-27 » 66 10,73 N E *
1927-28 » 50 8,13 N E *
1928-29 745 55 7,38 N E *
1929-30 » 78 10,47 N E *
1930-31 » 85 11,41 N E *
1931-32 » 106 14,23 38 35,85
1932-33 » 72 9,66 36 50,00
1933-34 » 53 7,11 28 52,83
1934-35 » 49 6,58 28 57,14
1935-36 » 50 6,71 40 80,00
1936-37 » 82 11,01 N E *
1937-38 » 166 22,28 N E *
1938-39 » 183 24,56 116 63,39
1939-40 » 164 22,01 99 60,36
1940-41 1197 151 12,61 52 34,44
1941-42 » 53 4,43 N E *
1942-43 » 81 6,77 3 3,70
1943-44 » 41 3,43 N E *
1944-45 N E * N E *
1945-46 » 80 6,68 54 67,50
1946-47 » 147 12,28 65 44,22
1947-48 N E * N E *
1948-49 N E * N E *
1949-50 » 109 9,11 46 42,20
1950-51 » 114 9,52 51 44,73
1951-52 1363 102 7,48 77 75,49
1952-53 » 151 11,07 123 82,46
1953-54 » 158 11,59 110 69,62
1954-55 » 165 12,11 147 89,09
1955-56 » 184 13,50 159 86,41
1956-57 » 209 15,33 175 83,73
1957-58 » 234 17,17 162 69,23
1958-59 » 253 18,56 200 79,05
1959-60 » 286 20,98 235 82,17
1960-61 1734 301 17,36 236 78,40
1961-62 » 329 18,97 259 78,72
* N E no evidence found in Flampouro’ s primary sch ool archive

33

Table 3

Educational level of Roma residents of Flambouro wh o were from 20 to 39 years old
in 2001
educational level
they didn’t
graduate from
primary school
primary school High school
(Gymnasium)
Lyceum Universities –
Technical
colleges
Total
popu
latio
n
No % No % No % No % No %
308 40 13,0 170 55,2 28 9,1 36 11,7 34 11,0

Table 4

Educational level of Roma residents of Flambouro bo rn between April 2, 1963 and
April 1, 1981

educational level
έτος Total
popula
tion
they didn’t
graduate
from primary
school
primary
school
High school
(Gymnasium)
Lyceum Universities
– Technical
colleges
No No % No % No % No % No %
1963 10 4 40,0 4 40,0 2 20,0 – – – –
1964 22 9 40,9 11 50,0 1 4,5 1 4,5 – –
1965 22 8 36,4 12 54,5 2 9,1 – – – –
1966 18 3 16,7 12 66,7 – – 2 11,1 1 5,6
1967 19 4 21,1 12 63,2 1 5,3 2 10,5 –
1968 23 3 13,0 15 65,0 3 13,0 – – 2 8,7
1969 18 6 33,3 9 50,0 1 5,6 – – 2 11,1
1970 21 1 4,8 17 81,0 – – 3 14,3 – –
1971 18 1 5,6 14 77,8 1 5,6 1 5,6 1 5,6
1972 25 – – 12 48,0 2 8,0 6 24,0 5 20,0
1973 16 – – 11 68,8 2 12,5 – – 3 18,8
1974 22 – – 10 45,5 2 9,1 4 18,2 6 27,3
1975 16 – – 8 50,0 3 18,8 3 18,8 2 12,5
1976 19 1 5,3 12 63,2 1 5,3 2 10,5 3 15,8
1977 14 – – 4 28,6 1 7,1 5 35,7 4 28,6
1978 8 – – 4 50,0 – – 3 37,5 1 11,1
1979 6 – – 1 16,7 1 16,7 2 33,3 2 33,3
1980 9 – – 2 22,2 5 55,6 1 11,1 1 11,1
1981 2 – – – – – – 1 50,0 1 50,0
total 308 40 13,0 170 55,2 28 9,1 36 11,7 34 11,0

34

Table 5
Educational level of Roma residents of Flambouro pe r sex
educational level
total they didn’t
graduate
from primary
school primary
school High school
(Gymnasium)
Lyceum Universities –
Technical
colleges

sex
No No % No % No % No % No %
men 157 22 14,0 84 53,5 17 10,8 19 12,1 15 9,6
wom 151 18 11,9 86 57,0 11 7,3 17 11,3 19 12,6
total 308 40 13,0 170 55,2 28 9,1 36 11,7 34 11,0

Contact Details:
Dimitris Zachos,
Ph.D. at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (A.U. Th.)
St. Grigoriou 38 (54352) Thessaloniki – Greece
Tel. 0030-2310936383

Email: zaxos@eled.auth.gr

Biographical Details: Dr. Zachos has been working as a school teacher fo r 18 years.
This year he also teaches the course "Structure of Scientific Research" in the post
training school for teachers “Dimitrios Glinos” in the Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki.