The Lunik IX Nursery School Wall Mural
Mark Payne
At the head of the Education Matters blog is a colourful picture of a row of brightly clothed children standing against a backdrop of green trees, blue sky and sunshine. It’s a decorative header but I wonder, though, how many contributors to and readers of this blog have actually paused to consider what the picture actually depicts and where it comes from.
The title of my blog piece gives the game away a little; this artwork is painted on the wall of the nursery school in Lunik IX, a socialist-style tower block settlement on the outskirts of Košice in Eastern Slovakia. Through misguided housing policies, increased marginalisation and re-settlement Lunik IX is now a ghetto occupied solely by some 4000 Slovak Roma (the mix of legal and illegal residents makes it impossible to state the population of Lunik IX with any certainty). Most of the families here live in damp and decrepit apartments where heating is by wood burning stove and water available for just 45 minutes per day in some tower blocks, in others there is no water apart from one (illegal) tap in the cellar. It is a bleak, rubbish-strewn, featureless and neglected bit of what is otherwise a beautiful eastern European city.
As with many such areas I expect, the school is often a place of sanctuary for the children, and the nursery in Lunik IX is no exception. It contains everything that the children need to thrive — well-qualified staff, an abundance of toys and resources, and a warm meal daily and a soft bed for each child for that afternoon nap. It is also a very secure environment with bars on all doors and windows.
Look closely at the wall mural again. It is painted by the children with the help of the adults, with each child having responsibility for one aspect, such as all the eyes or all the lips. It is interesting to note that the children portrayed are gypsy Roma children, characterised in particular by the girls’ colourful long skirts, black curly hair and gold earrings and all with yellow faces.
That said, one rarely sees Roma girls dressed in this way unless part of a dancing group or a member of the Vlachyk/Olašskí Roma, a minority group comprising some 3% of the Slovak Roma population. Indeed, the last time I saw a Roma girl dressed like this was in Sheffield! Furthermore, it is the Vlachyk Roma who tend to have blond hair, blue eyes and white skin whereas the Roma of Lunik IX are overwhelmingly Rumungri Roma, characterised by black hair and darker skin tones; the Rumungri Roma migrated out of what is now Southern India beginning about 800 years ago. So why are the Rumungri Roma children depicting themselves in this way? Because these are the types of images children will see of the idealised ‘good’ Roma girls and other princesses in stories and fairy tales and, almost without exception, the children of Lunik IX draw and paint themselves in this manner, with yellow or pink faces.
On my last visit to Lunik IX I was pleased to be able to hand over personally a kind gift from the School of Education of stationery, paints and other items and these were gratefully received by the Headteacher, Anna Klepáčová (thank you Lucy Thorp and Helen Barber!).
Having visited Lunik IX a number of times now and experienced life in the nursery, I’m pleased that the mural on the classroom wall of a school in a Roma ghetto in Slovakia graces the Education Matters blog as a welcome to the incredible variety of research that is showcased within. It serves as a reminder that whatever our educational research activity, we engage in it for children and communities such as these.
Dr Mark Payne is the Course director of the BA Education, Culture and Childhood at The School of Education.
