Tag Archives: Education

Bulgarien News Osteuropa

Bulgaria, Roma, and Schools

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The Bulgarian government approved funding for 50% of the costs of the 1’000 school mediators. The rest is funded by a project called “Success for you”. These mediators are working with Roma children to try to avoid them dropping out of school too soon.

Bosnien News Osteuropa

Bosnia, Religion, and Education

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The journalist and activist Dalibor Tanić wrote an open letter to Minister Naida Hota-Muminović on the topic of a lesson on religious holidays found in the textbook “My environment” for the third grade of elementary school, authored by Zinaida Livnjak. The lesson cites Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish religious holidays but also adds “Roma” Holidays!

Tanić says rightly that Đurđevdan and Aliđun/Ilindan are not religious holidays, but traditional ones. Roma religion does not exist. Roma, not only in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but throughout Europe are also Muslims, Catholics, and Orthodox.

Another case of ignorance on the part of the author and the authorities …

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa

Czech Republic – Segregation

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Well, no surprise: Roma children are segregated and discriminated against in the Czech school system.

News Osteuropa Serbien

Serbia and Racism

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An article about a young Romni who is graduating from high school and who could not find anyone willing to go with her to the prom. It turns out she was the victim of constant abuse in her class, with people referring to her origins and making disparaging comments such as being given a piece of copper with the words, “Your people are definitely collecting copper, so let’s contribute”.

Several famous people have proposed going with her to the prom ball.

News Osteuropa Serbien

Serbia: Mentors

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The Roma organisation called “Romani asvin” from Kruševac launched a peer mentoring program. Until the end of August, a program called “Mentors on a click” is available to all Roma students at universities. Since the beginning of May, about twenty people interested in getting mentors have contacted us electronically – says Alma Kajtazi from the Association, explaining the advantages of the website www.romaniasvin.org on the Edu info-roma platform.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia and Inclusion

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Peter Pollák, a Slovak EU MP stated that when it comes to Roma children, there was not a single minister of education who would give them a chance for the future. The government should come with a clear commitment to drastically revise the current plans in the area of school desegregation.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia and Roma Education

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Juraj Čokyna left his job at a newspaper five years ago and went to teach children from settlements in eastern Slovakia for two years. He wrote a book about it, called “Where are the edges?”

Three years later, he is interviewed and states that: “The best are those who went abroad. For Slovak Roma, especially when they live in excluded communities, this is the only chance to experience an environment where they have dignity and the necessary support, for example in schools. Abroad is the only chance for them not to immediately hit the glass ceiling, which they will bang their heads against here in Slovakia very soon.”

Sad.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia and School Segregation

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The new Roma mayor of Žehne, near Prešov, Slovakia, wants to radically solve the discrimination of children in kindergarten.

There are purely Roma children in one class, and their non-Roma classmates attend the other class. Other children from the Roma settlement only go to the community centre in the morning.  “So that the children are mixed up. When we have 14 children here, there will be seven and seven there. Also Roma and non-Roma,” explained the mayor.

Bulgarien News Osteuropa

I am a Romni

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Dessi, 23, is one of the first Roma teachers in Bulgaria. The teaser of the Deutche Welle interview states that “only about 3 percent Roma in the country have higher education, only 23 percent have secondary education. Added to this is the fact that Roma girls tend to marry off the record very early – a common practice that is illegal but usually tolerated by the state.”

Well, all stereotypes, and total lack of the most basic math skills: They do not know how many Roma there are in the country. So how can they state exact percentages?

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovenia and Roma

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The President of the Slovene Republic, Nataša Pirc Musar, recently held a consultation with representatives of the Roma community, which was also attended by the State Secretary from the Prime Minister’s Office, Dr. Anton Grizold. The latter is the head of the working group for dealing with the Roma “issue”, which met for the first time almost half a year ago. At the meeting, Grizold said that the task force will tackle the challenges in a two-pronged manner – with an action plan for the most pressing problems and with systemic solutions.

The area of particular concern is the region of Novo Mesto where the police intervene hundreds of times a year in the Roma settlement Žabjak.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovak Segregation

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A podcast on the issue of segregation of Roam children in the Slovak school system for which the country is sued by the European commission.

In Slovakia, 65% of Roma pupils between the ages of 6 and 15 attend schools where all or most of the pupils are Roma, which represents an increase of 5 percentage points compared to 2016. Slovakia is thus the EU member state with the highest rate of segregation of Roma in education, reports the European Commission.

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa

Czech President and Roma

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On April 13, President Petr Pavel and his wife Eva received a group of Roma students at Prague Castle. The meeting took place as part of this year’s International Roma Day, which fell on April 8.

“What I consider to be one of the biggest dangers of our time – and it is far from only affecting Roma people – is prejudice. They often stem from a lack of information, from stereotypes, from a lack of will to listen to each other and understand each other’s arguments… For me, you represent an opportunity to point out good examples not only towards your community, but above all to the majority community. You are an example of the fact that it is possible to get out of the circle of prejudices,” Pavel said at the beginning of the meeting.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia and Roma Segregation

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The temporarily appointed Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger (Democrats) and Peter Pellegrini (Hlas-SD). Answered questions from the Audience. Some questions also touched on the lawsuit that Slovakia is currently facing for the segregation of Roma children. While Heger claimed that it is not a problem that could be solved overnight with money, ex-prime minister Peter Pellegrini has a completely different opinion. Eduard Heger says that the segregation of Roma children must be solved by their integration, but he did not present concrete steps to achieve this. Peter Pellegrini, on the other hand, is against interfering with the composition of classes. i.e. introducing quotas.

In fact, the issue is not that complex: Segregation occurs when schools are located in Roma settlements, and moving the children to other schools would solve the issue. The US knows about it.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

European Commission, Slovakia, and Segregation

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The European Commission is suing Slovakia for not doing enough in ending segregation of Roma in the school system. Although Slovakia has carried out several legislative reforms and is trying to integrate Roma, progress is insufficient, the EC said in a statement. According to Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger, the practical solution to the problem goes beyond one election period.

Bosnien News Osteuropa

Bosnia and Roma

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The head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ambassador Brian Aggeler was in Mostar. He insisted that there is a need to improve education and the status of Roma besides fighting corruption in the country.

News Osteuropa Serbien

Serbia and Higher Education

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Roma high school students visited the Faculty of Law. The Faculty of Law of the University of Niš has signed an agreement on cooperation with the Roma Education Foundation to ensure the greatest degree of inclusivity in education.

Let’s see if this works out …

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa

Czech Republic: Segregation?

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Speaking to the Upper House of the Czech Parliament last week, Senator Jana Zwyrtek Hamplová called mixing Roma and non-Roma students in schools “an unworkable idea.” According to her, separate classes would give Roma children a better chance of succeeding. These remarks have aroused strong criticism in a country where school segregation largely remains and is often criticized by international institutions. Hungary was recently condemned for exactly this reason.

Ungarn News Osteuropa

Hungary: Condemned

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Hungary was condemned by the European Court of Human Rights for the segregation of Roma in the education system and has been asked to provide a plan to remediate this.

It is doubtful whether Orban and his government will comply. Segregated schools are common in Hungary for Roma.

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