Roma youth in secondary school. Report on the waves of the TÁRKI Life Course Survey between 2006 and 2012

This study is the first in the literature to report on the secondary school careers and university opportunities of Roma students in Hungary based on a nationally representative sample representing an entire secondary school cohort. We focus on the critical issue of obtaining a secondary school diploma. Just as one of the most significant achievements of Hungarian society after the change of regime was the widespread expansion of secondary schools offering the school-leaving certificate, and with it the widespread democratization of pathways to university, so too are the disadvantages of disadvantaged groups most acutely evident in terms of secondary school dropout rates. This is the fault line where today's Hungarian society is divided into young people who have access to knowledge and the opportunity to live a dignified life, and those who are deprived of the opportunity to acquire knowledge and are therefore condemned to permanent poverty and social exclusion. Young people in Hungary today who are unable to obtain some form of secondary school qualification must prepare themselves for long-term unemployment or irregular employment.1 One in two Roma young people aged 20 today find themselves in this situation. With such prospects, it is very difficult to develop a lifestyle that allows them to integrate into society. The other major issue is obtaining a high school diploma and continuing on to university. While in the years following the change of regime, 20-year-old Roma youth had virtually no chance of obtaining a high school diploma, today one in five has a high school diploma.