Tag Archives: Education

Bulgarien News Osteuropa

Roma Teachers in Bulgaria

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The Trust for Social Alternative Foundation in Bulgaria is funding the “Young Roma Educators” program. According to the program director, Evgenia Volen, Roma children, like all children, have a need from a young age to recognize their potential in a significant adult who serves as a role model. They want to be accepted as they are, and to see examples from their own community that they can become meaningful and economically independent people in the place where they live. She believes that teachers who come from the local community are part of the environment that can engage children in learning.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Interview with a Teacher

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An interview with Stanislava Dotková, a teacher in a school in the infamous Roma housing estate of Lunik IX in Košice.

In the interview, she explains, among other things, whether the fact that she is Roma herself helps her in teaching Roma pupils, why they have a sensory carpet in the classroom and what she lacks in the education of excluded communities.

News Schweiz

Switzerland: New School Book

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A new book on Jenische, Sinti and Roma has just been published in Switzerland. The book is meant to be used in schools. Until recently, Switzerland did not say a word in school about these minorities.

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa

Czech Public Schools and Roma

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A Rom is the only Roma teacher in a housing estate in Litvín. Twenty years ago, Marian Dancso had to leave the job he loved. As a sailor, he sailed on the Elbe and the North Sea for several years on cargo ships. “I served on tankers that transported chemicals, gasoline, diesel. I also spent a lot of time in Hamburg and Antwerp before I was seriously injured in a fire on board,” recalls the forty-one-year-old man, who after primary school in his native Lom u Most graduated from the Secondary Vocational School of Shipping in Děčín.

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa

Czech Republic, Schools, and Roma

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The story of Roma children being taught English but not having any textbook. This in a Roma settlement, which, according to the journalist, resembles wor torn Ukraine.

Bad.

Ungarn News Osteuropa

Hungary, the Church, Roma, and the EU

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The Christian Roma Vocational Colleges Network and the Roma Vocational Colleges Association will participate in a professional trip at the beginning of March to present themselves at an international conference in Brussels.

In Hungary, eleven Roma vocational colleges have been working for more than ten years on the higher education career path and institutional and social integration of young people of Roma origin and/or underprivileged.

The issue with this is the fact that education is segregated. That seems not to be obvious to the promoters of such colleges…

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa

Czech Republic and Roma Integration

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An interview with Magdalena Karvayova, co-founder of the Awen Amenca association which focuses on equal access to quality education for Roma children.

There is a long way to go still

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia School Segregation

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After the supreme court judgement on school segregation, condemning the state and town of Stará Ľubovňa-Podsadek, another case of segregation was judged by the regional court in Prešov. This one concerned three Roma students in the Elementary School with Kindergarten in Hermanovce in the Prešov district. The court judged they were discriminated against. The parents of the three children will receive each 5’000 EUR.

Tschechische Republik News Osteuropa

Czech Teachers and Diversity

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At the end of a five day visit to the Czech Republic, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic did not mince her words and stated that the country needed to do more to stop discrimination against Roma. She also added that schooling is all too often still segregated and that the prejudices of the teachers and staff against Roma need to be addressed.

News Osteuropa Slowenien

Slovenia: Academic Club

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For its 15th anniversary, the Slovene Roma Academic Club launched the RomaSam.eu initiative, as part of which they are preparing a major awareness campaign about the various roles of Roma in Slovenian society and innovative, didactic material for learning, getting to know and informing about the Roma community. The final event and commemoration of the anniversary will take place on June 14 at Brdo pri Kranje.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia: Segregation

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Another article about the recent condemnation of the Slovak state and the town of Stará Ľubovňa-Podsadek for having run a segregated school for Roma. The decision was made by the Supreme Court based on the appeal of the non-governmental organization Counselling for Civil and Human Rights, which confirmed that the state is responsible for segregation even if it arises only because the state neglects its obligations or fails to act. According to the Advisory Board, this judgment is ground-breaking.

“When these children finished primary education, they had very limited options of where to go. One of them wanted to be a car mechanic, but since he attended a special school, he had no chance to get the necessary education,” says Vanda Durbáková, a lawyer from the consulting firm, about the case.

Well done!

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia: Segregation

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The Slovak Supreme Court ruled that at the primary school in Stará Ľubovna, Roma children are segregated.  The Court decisions is based  on the appeal of the non-governmental organization Counseling for Civil and Human Rights. It has been conducting court proceedings in this matter since 2015 after a public lawsuit was filed under the Anti-Discrimination Act.

The defendants are the Slovak Republic, represented by the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sports of the Slovak Republic, and the founder of the school, which is the city of Stará Ľubovňa. According to the judgment, the defendants “violated the principle of equal treatment by not taking sufficient preventive measures to protect against discrimination and measures to eliminate discrimination against Roma children” in primary schools based on their ethnic origin.

News Osteuropa Slowenien

Slovakia: Scathing Assessment

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A really scathing assessment of the Slovak Republic Strategy for Roma education between 2016 and 2020. According to the official audit, 173 Mio Euros were spent, which in comparison to 500’000 Roma in the country is not exactly a lot.

The programs did not meet their own set goals. Worse, the programs did not have clearly specified goals. Thus, according to the article, “it was not possible to monitor the progress and adapt the activities or to inform the public about the development. Later, the indicators were modified, which lost continuity and made everything even more unclear. What did not change over time was the problem of data unavailability. They were missing during the entire period.”

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia, Education, and Roma

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The Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová came to the village of Toporec in the district of Kežmarok to see the impact of education on Roma. In that village, education is very important to Roma and the impact on their lives is visible: They live much better than their less educated brethrens.

The president considers the village of Toporec to be an example for the whole country.

Deutschland News Westeuropa

Germany, Universities, and Roma

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For centuries, Sinti and Roma were excluded and persecuted in Germany. To this day, the fight for recognition is tough. This also includes a student association that wants to give Sinti/Roma and diversity at universities a voice.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia, School, and Roma

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Up to 99 percent of the students of the Hungarian-language Lajos Mocsáry Elementary School in Fiľakovo, headed by Ildikó Kotlárová (55), are Roma. She also is a Romni, from the Olah (Vlach) group. While traditionally, women from this group marry very early, thus interrupting their studies, she chose a different path and today, is a role model for many. In the interview, she says that many of the pupils in school come hungry. It is bad.

News Osteuropa Polen

Poland and a Roma School

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The Parish Polish-Roma Primary School in Suwałki received a grant from the program of social and civic integration of the Roma in Poland. Thanks to this, the school will enrich its offer for Roma students.

They have been teaching Roma for nearly 30 years. Thanks to the small parish school, the Roma community in Suwałki is perceived better and better. As Fr. Jarema Sykulski, pastor of the Parish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Suwałki – Roma in Suwałki are not treated as intruders, as some group that would threaten someone. They are simply part of this climate, the landscape of Suwałki.

Deutschland News Westeuropa

Germany, Roma, and Education

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When Sinti and Roma are mentioned in school lessons, it is mostly as victims of the genocide, according to the sociologist Patočková. She calls for a rethink. The Conference of Ministers of Education decided in December to want to teach the history and current situation of the Sinti and Roma in lessons in the future. She negotiated the recommendations and signed them as a representative of the Alliance for Solidarity with the Sinti and Roma of Europe.

Veronika Patočková hopes are: I hope that the situation in the education system will improve – both for the children and young people from the Sinti and Roma communities and for everyone else. More than half a million Roma and Sinti live in Germany. In education, however, they rarely occur. That needs to change. We hope that the decision is a first step in this direction.

Ungarn News Osteuropa

Hungary: A Success Story

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A former bricklayer helps Roma children get to a better school. László was only three days old when his parents abandoned him and he was placed in a foster home. The Roma boy then learned the most important thing: to stand up for himself, and later for others. His hard work and perseverance eventually took the former mason to amazing heights, working in the European Commission.

Deutschland News Westeuropa

Germany, Education, and Roma

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The German Conference of Ministers of Education, together with the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and the Alliance for Solidarity with the Sinti and Roma of Europe, has passed a joint declaration on teaching the past and present of Sinti and Roma in schools.

With this declaration, the three participants want to work towards schools intensifying their involvement with the past and present of the Sinti and Roma in the classroom and in extracurricular activities. In a special way, as in teacher training, awareness of the topic of antigypsyism should be raised.

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