Another reference to this horrid reportage on segregated schools in the Czech Republic. The school teachers and principal statements are beyond comments.
A dreadful reportage in a segregated school in the Czech Republic. Karel Rajchl, the director of the Vojanova Elementary School in Děčín says that getting children and their families to cooperate is often almost impossible.
“Shh, they’re writing a test,” she warns, upon entering the seventh-grade physics class. The teacher replies “It doesn’t matter, they can’t do anything anyway”. In the last pews, two boys don’t even bother to have an open notebook in which to calculate the task entered on the blackboard, they just giggle. “These boys are one step away from raping our young female teachers,” states principal Rajchl dryly as he leaves the class again.
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A new campaign aimed at supporting Roma students was launched with a round table as part of the Khamoro Festival in Prague.
A documentary on school segregation in the Czech Republic where there are still 130 such schools. Teachers are reported to be totally disinterested.
Bad.
In Romania, women from the impoverished Roma community see witchcraft as a means of taking social revenge. Under construction since 2011, the first witch school in the world aims to preserve their traditions. Between feminist discourse, 2.0 spells and commodified folklore, it is difficult to see clearly in the land of the occult.
On Monday, May 27, as part of the 26th edition of the Khamoro Roma festival, a discussion on the topic of Roma education, entitled Together for the Future of Young Roma, took place in Prague’s Přítomnost cinema. The event was organized by the ROMEA organization.
The Kyiv University of Technology and Design launched a bachelor’s program “Roma Music and Theater Art”, reports the Chirikli Roma Women’s Foundation.
Students will be recruited based on the results of a creative competition in which they have to perform a folk Roma song or dance. They will also take an oral exam on the history and culture of the Roma people.
Well, difficult to comment.
The latest Amnesty international report on Czechia highlights the still prevailing segregation of Roma children in schools in the country.
Bad.
There is an increasing number of Roma children from Transcarpathian Ukraine in need of integration in the education system in Switzerland. Besides the normal language barrier, the main challenge is that many of these children have never been to school in the Ukraine. This poses an even bigger challenge to the towns who have to integrate them.
The story of a Romni who is now a school teacher. That is really positive. What is less, is that they say that a rich wedding and a future as a housewife awaited her and Ildikó, a Roma a Vlach Romni, defied the rules.
According to the article, men have the decisive say and women’s role is to stay at home and take care of the household. Ildikó Kotlárová also grew up in the Vlach (called Olah in Slovakia) Roma community, refused to accept traditions – she did not want to get married without love in an arranged marriage and she did not want to be a woman whose word would not have weight in society. For not accepting the rules of her community, her life’s dream came true.
Again, the traditions of a very small group of Roma are generalised on all.
An interesting article about integration of Roma in Slovak schools. Most non-Roma parents would prefer Roma to be in segregated schools. This is precisely what the recent research of the Centre for Environmental and Ethical Education Živica and the non-profit organization Teach, co-financed by the EU, addressed. He revealed some interesting things, namely that the majority of the public have no problem with their children going to class with a child from socially excluded communities. However, they are convinced that it would be best for Roma children to be educated in separate classes or even schools.
For as long as this attitude prevails, it will be difficult to de-segregate schools.
Fruzsina Benkő founded InDaHouse in the most disadvantaged area of Borsod, one of the poorest Hungarian Counties in 2014, driven by her own resources, her frustration with the child protection system, her personal desire to do something and, as she says in the interview, some naivety.
The aim is to show the Roma children that the majority society can believe in them.
Difficult in Hungary …
A class for Roma children recently opened in Ostrava. Its goal is to make it easier for them to start kindergarten. According to the Ostrava organization Vzájemne sožižití, up to a quarter of Roma children do not go to kindergartens. Therefore, in one of the local community centres, they started operating a product called Brouček, which children can go to before starting kindergarten.
Less than a month ago, the Roma settlement of Dobruška Vas in the municipality of Škocjan was left without a kindergarten. It was set on fire by a stranger, and the fire completely destroyed the structure. Fires are apparently common in the mentioned settlement, but the the municipality nevertheless decided to build a new kindergarten. According to the mayor Jože Kapler, they hope that it will be in ready in May.
Nikolas Petik, a successful Rom, is part of a program that goes into schools to tell the story of successful Roma to motivate younger Roma to study.
The event is intended to motivate children and their parents for personal development and education, and at the same time introduce the general public to inspiring Roma personalities who overcame a number of obstacles on their way to success. Lucie Fuková, the government commissioner for the affairs of the Roma minority and a native of Pardubice, will also be present.
The local school in Předlice in Ústí has been purely Romani for two decades. What is scary is what the headmaster says. He says the greatest achievement are when one on the school pupils graduate from high school. He adds this year there is one, next year there will be another one.
Is that an achievement or the sign of an under-performing school?
Segregated schools still exist in Bulgaria. In Germany, Roma children learn German in 6 months. In Bulgaria, they are forbidden to speak Romanes, and they do not know Bulgarian.
“Do you know how difficult it is to be a Rom in Bulgaria? A Bulgarian child doesn’t want to sit next to you at school. I’m still afraid if someone will want to sit next to me” says Assoc. Prof. Yosif Nunev from the University of Veliko Tarnovo. He remembers the discussions about Roma inclusion 20 years ago – the only difference now is that the “politicians and the political” are different. “In 40 years, they learned 20-30 new terms. However, the attitude of the Bulgarians has not changed at all, it has even become more critical in some places,” says his colleague Hristo Kyuchukov, professor of intercultural education. Both are adamant that until segregated schools are abolished, nothing different will happen in the next 20 years.
The segregation of Roma children in the Czech education continues. It is hard to imagine another area that would be so neglected and so long-term overlooked in Czech politics as this one.
Already in 2007, the European Court of Human Rights condemned the Czech Republic due to unequal access to the education of Romani men and women. But not much has changed over the next fifteen years. Segregated education continues to be a harsh reality for children from the Roma minority.
Two articles dwelling on what happened in the 16 years since the Czech Republic was condemned for school segregation and discrimination against Roma. There are still segregated school, and according to the Deputy Minister of Education Jiří Nantl (ODS), Czech society is thereby producing clients of the welfare state.
These schools should be closed, and desegregations should be enforced.
The project “Empowerment of young Roma women in matters of health, prevention and human rights” implemented as part of the Active citizens fund program sees Roma schoolgirls return to their camps and teach other women a great lesson about human rights, health and domestic violence.
17-year-old student Katerina Mukani from Zefyri was one of the students trained by experts to give a great lesson on human rights, health and domestic violence to the rest of the Roma women back in the camp where she lives. She says: “My daily life in Zefyri is boring and I feel trapped. I think a lot about my life after the Panhellenic Games, while many nights I dream of the moment when I will leave Athens, even far from Greece. Educating other Roma women helped me a lot to understand that my dreams and all of us are possible because we all deserve something better. None of us should be left on the sidelines.”
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