EUROPE'S worst social problem is the plight of the 10m-odd Roma (Gypsies, Romanies, etc are terms that are also sometimes used). Experts and activists quibble and quarrel about details and definitions, but one of the most glaring facts in this group's poverty, especially in the eastern half of the continent, is poor schooling. Many Roma children don't go to school, or drop out early. Those that do attend are often segregated into "special" schools, either because they are (supposedly) suffering from mental handicaps, or simply because other parents don't like their children being educated alongside poor, smelly, backward children.

A good response to this prevalent prejudice is to say that Roma children actually do well in school when they emigrate. The problem lies not with their brains, but with the schools that won't or can't provide a decent, fair chance. Now a new pilot study of Roma children in the UK gives some statistical beef to the contention that the problem is the schools, not the children. The children interviewed did only slightly below average (not surprising given that they arrived in the UK speaking no English and from families with limited cultural resources). Most importantly:

All the parents interviewed during this study valued the overall atmosphere at school, their children's feeling of being welcome there and their experience of equal treatment, equal opportunities, and the absence of anti-Roma sentiments and racism expressed by their children's non-Roma peers and teachers, which they all said their children had experienced in various forms in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. They all said the prospect of their children's education and employment was one of the most powerful driving forces behind their decision to move to the UK. Many of them thought it would take generations to change these practices and attitudes in Slovakia and the Czech Republic and some doubted whether they would ever change. All of them believed their children's chances to succeed later on in life were much better in Britain than in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Grrrr. It's easy to bash state education in Britain (and two of my own children are at state schools so I have plenty of experience of bureaucracy, low expectations, poor teaching,and the effect of peer group pressure from non-academic children). But it's humbling that even a bog standard British school can be a life-changer for someone from countries that in other respects have rather good schools (Czech and Slovak kids on average easily beat their UK counterparts in subjects such as maths).