Tag Archives: Education

Hungary News Eastern Europe

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.

Germany News Western Europe

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.

Hungary News Eastern Europe

Project in Hungary

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An article about the InDaHouse association which teaches young children from poor families, mostly Roma. Kinga Tillmann has been working for the InDaHouse association for six years and today coordinates the early education program. She believes her work has the greatest impact at this stage of life: “There are families where there are no developmental toys at home, no books, and no knowledge of how to play with a six-month-old. We want to compensate for this so that there are no backlogs that could lead to school failure.”

“It’s mainly urban, academic volunteers who come to the villages and take care of the children and assure them of their love and trust. These children will still experience racism on a daily basis, but because they get a lot of positive reinforcement from us, we believe that they will be able to function as equal partners, as citizens in society,” explains InDaHouse President Fruzsina Benkő.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

From the Osada to Higher Education

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An impressive interview with Jana Zacharová, a Romni who grew up in an Osada, a Roma settlement. Thanks to her own efforts and small support from her teachers and the non-profit organization Divé maky, she managed to study, later even abroad. Today, she finances her studies of medical pedagogy herself.

She says:

I mainly remember the social side, which was very difficult. In the settlement, there were not many opportunities for development or people I could perceive as a role model. And my parents had problems with alcohol.

So I know what it’s like to have absolutely nothing. What is it like to be hungry because there is no money for food. Or not being able to go to school because there is no money for the trip. These are things I will remember for the rest of my life. The poverty was very crushing.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic: Discrimination in Education

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Marek Tatar (28), a Czech Rom, is currently studying transcultural communication in his third year at the Faculty of Education in Hradec Králové and works as a programmer in IT. Hi path to higher education was not smooth. He faced bullying in elementary school, overheard a conversation between two of his teachers in the school corridor about the fact that they didn’t want a gypsy at school, which prompted him to stop his studies. Fortunately, he was convinced by his family to do at least the minimum, which allowed him later to start studies.

It shows how discrimination and racism early on can disadvantage children from minorities for their entire lives. Fortunately, there are also example like him.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Minority Languages

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The Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sports (MŠVVŠ) of the Slovak Republic has set aside special funds for 2022 to finance development projects aimed at supporting the teaching of the mother tongue of the national minority. 12,000 euros are allocated for this purpose.

The area of ​​focus is activities intended to support the education of children and pupils belonging to national minorities in their mother tongue in accordance with the fulfilment of the Slovak Republic’s obligations towards the European Charter of Regional or Minority Languages. “The project aims to support preparatory activities for the implementation of the teaching of the language of the national minority (Croatian, Polish, Ruthenian, Romany, Ukrainian, German, Czech or Bulgarian language) and for the actual implementation of the teaching of the language of the national minority,” the Ministry of Education stated.

12,000 euros were set aside for the call, the maximum contribution amount for one applicant is 2,000 euros. Eligible applicants are the founders of primary and secondary schools teaching the language of the national minority or the teaching language being Slovak.

Well, the amounts are tiny, but better than nothing …

News Eastern Europe North Macedonia

North Macedonia and Roma Education

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The Ministry of Education and Science informed that it hired 40 Roma educational mediators who will provide additional support for students in elementary schools in municipalities with a larger number of students from the Roma ethnic community.

“Their role is to help improve awareness of the possibilities and access to schools, to have regular meetings with the population and employees of the primary school related to the educational specifics and needs of this vulnerable group, to regularly collaborate with professional associates and teachers to improve the achievements of the students, as well as to take actions to reduce the dropout of the educational process”, said the Ministry of Education and Culture.

This is not much when one thinks of how many Roma there are in Macedonia.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Roma Education

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A project in Dobšina in Domček, in central Slovakia where teachers together with Romnja help children oif a Roma settlement catching up in their education. The project is not funded because some of the women helping out did not finish high school.

The teachers from Dobšina started almost ten years ago with a few young Roma mothers from the settlement. When we talk about young mothers, we do not mean the age of 18 and over, but children who have children while still in elementary school.

One of them are the now 26-year-old twins, Magdaléna and Mariana, both coaches in the project. Magdalena gave birth for the first time in the seventh grade at elementary school and again sometime later. Both have unfinished primary education, but they are clear in their heads. They want their children and the children of the Dobšina Roma to experience success.

Moldova News Eastern Europe

Moldova and Roma Education

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An article in the Slovenian press about a young Romni who finished high school. The article claims she is the first Romni to achieve this is Moldova which is more than doubtful. The article, while well meant, actually serves all stereotypes of an archaic Roma society.

Maria Stoian, a Roma girl from Moldova, was raised by her grandmother. She encouraged her throughout her primary schooling and stood by her side, because in Moldova, the vast majority of Roma girls stop going to school after the age of thirteen. “In our country, girls get married at the age of 15 at the latest. I have 18. I’m already too old,” Maria laughs and continues: “Of course I’m thinking about having a family, about having children, but not before the age of 25.” It was because of her grandmother that she enrolled in high school after finishing elementary school school in the city of Soroca. “I was scared, I cried because I was afraid that they wouldn’t accept me, since I was the only Roma in the class. But those were the best years of my life. I feel free, here at school I can put off the mask that the traditional environment in the Roma community put on me, here I can do what I want, talk about anything and learn.”

News Eastern Europe North Macedonia

North Macedonia and Schools

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Parents in North Macedonia demand change as schools in some districts end up t be totally segregated with 100% of the enrolled children being Roma.

This problem is not only prevalent in that country, as there are many places in Europe with de-facto school segregation. This is the case n many places in Hungary too for example.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Ukraine Refugees in the Czech Republic

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It is not good, as one third of them have experienced discrimination, and children are not enrolled in school.

A shame.

Croatia News Eastern Europe

Croatia and Roma

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In the last five years, the number of Roma students has increased three times. These data come from the Croatian Government Office for Human Rights and National Minorities, according to which more and more Roma children remain in the school system. They graduate from university, become lawyers, but often do not find work due to racism.

Germany News Western Europe

Roma and Germany – A Story

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Radoslav Ganev came to Germany with his mother at the age of 9. They are Roma. But nobody should know it and it stayed that way for a long time. As a native Bulgarian and naturalized German, Radoslav Ganev finishes his high school diploma in Trier, studied political science in Bamberg and now works in the social sector in Munich. At the age of thirty, he decided to no longer hide his ethnic origins.

Hungary News Eastern Europe

Hungary, Roma, and Education

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Hungary, Roma, and Education

The situation of Roma students in Hungarian schools is critical: segregation is not decreasing, and only half a percent of them go to university. The Romaversitas foundation helps them progress from the 9th grade all the way to graduation. But fewer and fewer people apply to them. They try to equip their students with an activist approach and “talk them out” so that an intellectual Roma stratum with a strong ability to assert their interests can be formed.

News Western Europe United Kingdom

UK, Roma, and Education

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UK, Roma, and Education

No surprise, Travellers and Roma face hurdles in higher education.

Bad.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria, Schools, and Roma

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Bulgaria, Schools, and Roma

According to e recent study presented at a conference  on the “State of Roma educational integration: from segregation to education in an ethnically mixed environment”, organized by the “Amalipe” center (link is external) on July 4 and 5 in Sofia, almost 1/2 of the schools in our country have a majority of children from vulnerable groups (so Roma and other minorities).

This amounts more and more to a form of segregation.

News Eastern Europe Poland

Auschwitz Museum

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Auschwitz Museum

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the creation of the Auschwitz Museum, a commemorative album “75 years of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial Site” has been published. It is divided into six chapters: the establishment of the museum, the survivors at the memorial site, preservation of authenticity, education and memory, visits and the caretakers of the memorial site.

Photographs illustrating events in the history of the museum are accompanied by quotations from letters and entries in the commemorative book, mainly by leaders of states and international organizations, which emphasize the role and importance of the place. The album ends with a calendar of the most important events in the history of the museum.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Help to Poor Families

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Slovakia and Help to Poor Families

The package of laws passed by the finance minister Igor Matovič is not good for poor families. The allowance for first-year students will be abolished, the poorest will only receive a small tax bonus, and the state will take half of the allowances for children whose parents do not send them to school – although the parents no longer receive the money, but the municipality. This last measure clearly aimed at Roma.

Bad.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Osada

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Slovakia and Osada

The United Nations (UN) has warned for many years that climate change will hit the most vulnerable population groups with the lowest ability to adapt. In Slovakia, they are mainly residents of Roma settlements who, even in 2022, often live without access to basic infrastructure, education or drinking water. “It’s hard to convince people in a poor area to triage at all when they don’t have access to drinking water or sewage. Many people in Slovakia and Europe live in the conditions of the African continent. It is very difficult to talk to them about climate change,” stated MEP Peter Pollák (OĽaNO/EPP) at the discussion Green change from below, organized by the EURACTIV Slovakia portal.

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