New IQ tests with pictures, which were developed to be culturally unbiased, will still result in Roma children being unfairly placed in special schools for children with light mental disabilities, according to a study by the NGO People in Need.
The tests are administered to children to determine if their intellectual ability is sufficient to attend mainstream elementary schools. Past criticism of the tests centered around the fact that the tests weighted language ability too highly, which put Roma children without a good command of the Czech language at a disadvantage.
According to the Czech News Agency, the People in Need study focused on boys from socially excluded communities between the ages of 6 and 7 and found that they often couldn’t perform tasks with pictures either. But far from being an indicator of low intelligence, the study finds this to be the result of their home environment. Many Roma children’s parents did not go very far in school and are not equipped to provide kind of stimulating home environment with toys and games that other Czech children have.
The NGO says the children should be approached holistically as individuals and criteria other than IQ tests should be used to evaluate their chances of success in mainstream schools.
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