ABSTRACT
Education is empowerment. Improvements have been made in the provision of education for Roma and other travellers, particularly since the European Community Resolution On school Provision for Gypsy and Traveller Children in 1989. It can be seen that much of this improvement derives from a greater recognition of the different needs of minority groups in the education process. Discrimination is commonly evidenced at all levels of the education process. Education should enable opportunity and the realisation of potential, but as Rainer Baubock and Kristin Henrard note, it is also important to the development of self-esteem and identity. The Spanish Roma evidently faces a number of obstacles in accessing education and this is now being addressed by the Ministry of Education and Culture's 'Gitano Development Plan'. Government reports and academic commentary on the education of minorities continued to highlight the travelling community as experiencing severe educational disadvantage.
