Text from Reading Primers International (RPI):
Primers for Polish Roma (Polska Roma) and Carpatian Roma (Bergitka Roma)
Karol Parno Gierliński: Miri szkoła – Romano elementaro. Podręcznik pomocniczy dla dzieci z grupy Polska Roma. Kostrzyn nad Odrą: Urząd Miasta w Kostrzynie nad Odrą. Wydanie II, 2008, 100 p.
Karol Parno Gierliński: Miri szkoła – Romano elementaris. Podręcznik pomocniczy dla dzieci z grupy Romów Górskich – Bergitka Roma. Kostrzyn nad Odrą: Urząd Miasta w Kostrzynie nad Odrą. Wydanie I, 2008, 100 p.
(eaj) There are not too many Roms in Poland today, around 20 thousand according to the maximum estimates. Their population dwindled after the collapse of the communist regime in 1989 as a result of their emigration to Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, Sweden, USA and Canada. Ac-cording to the population census data, in 2002 - 12 855 people declared themselves as Romani and 15 788 used Romani language at home.
Despite this demographic development, the number of books addressed to the Romani children in Poland has been growing since 2007. Apparently, the Roms have become aware that overcoming education deficits is the best way to grant them appropriate social status.
Karol Parno Gierliński, a Romani poet and sculptor, and at the same time author of two Romani reading primers, is the most outstanding Romani children's writer in Poland. So far, Gierliński has developed versions for Polish Roma (Polska Roma) and for Carpathian Roma (Bergitka Roma) groups. They were designed not only as reading tools, but also as carriers of language and tradition that are determinants of Romani ethnic con-sciousness. The contents of the primers should also help their readers live within the Polish social environment. In order to make the primers more attractive, the author tried to make read-ing instruction fun, and therefore large parts of the primers are put into the game format. The reading primers were printed in the book form, and were also included in the multimedia textbook published on DVD, entitled “Miri szkoła”. There are Romani vocabulary and basic math skills texts on the disc, alongside with material for older readers pertaining to Romani culture, traditional professions, women's social status, elements of law, etc.
There are two other books for the youngest Romani children. They are bi-lingual publications, written in Polish and Romani. The first one is “Ilustrowana encyklopedia małego Roma” (Illustrated encyclopedia of the little Rom”) by Anna Kopycińska. Anna Szymańska, an expert in edu-cational problems of Romani children, of Romani origin herself, authored an exercise-book “Piszę, czytam, rysuję” (I write, I read, I draw). Romani fairy tales, Romane paramisia, written in Polish and in Romani dialect Carpatian Roma by Jan Mirga, are also worth mentioning. A comic book, “Romowie – Roma – Romanies”, with pictures of their ancestors' past, can also be of interest to the young Romanis.
On the course of the development of the reading primers edition a decision regarding spelling rules had to be made. After lengthy discussions it was agreed that the so-called Warsaw alphabet, developed by Professor Marcel Courthiade as a transcription tool for all the Romani dialects, is of little use for the young Romanis living in Poland. The Warsaw alphabet consists of 46 characters, including Latin and Greek letters. A new alphabet was elaborated using letters of the Polish alphabet; this alphabet can represent sounds of both west Slavonic languages and local Romani dialects.
Most publications discussed in this article, including the primers, are available online at a Romani culture and education portal at www.elementaro.org .
Elżbieta Alina Jakimik
About RPI: Reading Primers International (RPI) is published by the Reading Primers Special Interest Group (RP-SIG) of the International Society for Historical and Systematic Research on Schoolbooks. Editors: Vitaly Bezrogov (Moscow) and Wendelin Sroka (Bonn). Editorial office: Wendelin Sroka, Suebenstr. 3, 53175 Bonn/Germany. E-Mail:
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