Well, no surprise: Roma children are segregated and discriminated against in the Czech school system.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The official announcement of the referral to court of Slovakia in school segregation against Roma.
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.
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.
Another article on the recent condemnation of Hungary for segregated education of Roma.
Let’s see what the country makes out of it.
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.
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.
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!
The Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic decided that children who attend a purely Romani elementary school in the Stará Ľubovňa – Podsadek district are segregated in education. The Slovak state and the city of Stará Ľubovňa were condemned by the court for not having taken sufficient measures to prevent and remediate this discrimination.
The author of the article says that the topic of segregation is a complex one in Slovakia, mostly due to the existence of segregated Roma settlements.
A new publication on the housing estate of Luni IX in Košice, Slovakia. This housing estate is one of the most infamous Roma settlement in the country.
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.
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