Tag Archives: Schools

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: School Segregation

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Czechia: School Segregation

The segregation of Roma children in education in the Czech Republic continues. There are still more than 130 segregated schools, of which in 78 of them Roma children make up more than half of the pupils, according to a PAQ Research study based on estimates from the Ministry of Education. Segregated schools are located in most regions and the situation has not changed significantly in the last decade.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Roma and Schools

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Slovenia: Roma and Schools

Novo Mesto Mayor Gregor Macedoni hosted Minister of Education Vinko Logaj on a working visit today, with whom they discussed, among other things, the issue of non-attendance at primary school, mostly of Roma, and safety at schools. Logaj stressed the need for joint action by several ministries, “since measures taken by one ministry alone will not be sufficient”.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Multipurpose Roma Centres

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Slovenia: Multipurpose Roma Centres

A new multipurpose centre in the Roma settlement of Dobruška vas (Škocjan municipality) replaced the old one that burned down last March. It includes a kindergarten. The article questions the use of these centres, and whether they are an effective mean to integrate Roma communities.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Special Schools

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Slovakia: Special Schools

Public Defender of Rights (VOP) Róbert Dobrovodský considers the incorrect placement of children from marginalized Roma communities in the special education system to be an extremely serious violation of the right to education. According to him, this has irreversible negative consequences for their future, as well as negative consequences for society as a whole. The Ombudsman pointed this out in connection with the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case of Salay v. the Slovak Republic, in which it found a violation of the right to education and the prohibition of discrimination against a pupil of Roma origin by his placement in a special class for children with mild mental disabilities.

Unfortunately, placing Roma children in special schools happens still too often.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Segregated Schools

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Slovakia and Segregated Schools

An article about the systemic racism against Roma in Slovakia, especially in the school system and on court cases against it, the latest one being from a school in an excluded Roma community in the village of Stráne pod Tatrami.

The article also says that the current prime minister Robert Fico approved Milan Mazurek’s statements about “gypsy anti-social groups” and “zoological gardens”, to which he compared the Roma school, in 2019. He was convicted for his words, but still continues.

Kosovo News Eastern Europe

Kosovo and Schools

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Kosovo and Schools

Thousands of children from the Roma and Ashkali communities are excluded from the education system, despite all strategies aimed at increasing their inclusion. Some of them attend Serbian schools, where they learn with texts that foster ethnic divisions and stereotypes. This situation raises concerns about integration and inter-ethnic coexistence in Kosovo.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: School Segregation

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Czechia: School Segregation

The Czech Republic has been struggling with the problem of segregation of Roma children in education for more than fifteen years. The judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of D. H. and others v. the Czech Republic from 2007 clearly identified the practice at that time as discriminatory. Instead of accepting this challenge as an opportunity for change, we resorted to writing strategies, plans and reports that remained only on paper. Despite tens of millions of crowns invested in various action plans, the reality is still the same.

Children from Roma families often find themselves in segregated schools that offer them a lower quality education. The consequences are devastating – these children remain trapped in a cycle of poverty and social exclusion, while society loses their potential. Moreover, segregation is not just a problem in primary schools. This phenomenon also continues in secondary schools, where the socio-economic background of families and place of residence play a major role.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia, Roma, and Schools

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Slovenia, Roma, and Schools

The Slovene government is working on a package of measures that address key areas such as access to education, housing conditions and security. Among the proposals is the mandatory inclusion of Roma children in kindergarten a year before primary school and the abolition of the higher child allowance for children who are not included in preschool education.

In plain text: if children do not go to Kindergarten, there’s no more money.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria, School, and Roma

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Bulgaria, School, and Roma

An outraged teacher sent an anonymous letter to Nova TV complaining that students are doing belly dances in the assembly hall of the “Vasil Levski” vocational high school in Ihtiman. The young people are drinking beer and dancing instead of being in class and studying. The teacher says he was shocked.

Italy News Western Europe

Italy: School Controversy

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Italy: School Controversy

A controversy started in Reggio Emilia where the Municipality has budgeted for the next three years a figure of one million euros dedicated to the school integration of Roma, Sinti and Caminanti students.

Opposition (mostly the Lega) are criticising this subsidy saying that other students should also benefit and decrying the “waste of money”.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Segregated Schools

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Slovakia and Segregated Schools

The elementary school on Krčméryho Street in Nitra is now attended exclusively by Roma children, but several Ukrainian students have also joined. Years ago, it was a mixed school, but parents of non-Roma children withdrew their children. A view of what this means first hand

News Eastern Europe North Macedonia

North Macedonia: Kindergarten

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North Macedonia: Kindergarten

350 Roma children will be able to attend kindergarten free of charge in Centar and Gazi Baba in the periphery of Skopje. This is part of a project for the inclusion of Roma children in municipal institutions.

Knowing how many Roma there are around Skopje, this is a drop of water on a hot stone. Almost an alibi exercise. And the user of “Roma Nationality” is very much reminiscent of the old socialist notion.

They are North Macedonians …

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: Counting Roma Children

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Czechia: Counting Roma Children

Recent reports in the media about the collection of an estimate of the number of Roma children in primary schools have caused strong reactions and much confusion. This process, which has been running regularly since 2015, aims to monitor how the situation of Roma children in Czech education is developing and whether progress is being made in reducing segregation. The collection of data is a response to the decision of the European Court of Human Rights and the pressure of the European Commission, which drew the Czech Republic’s attention to the discriminatory practice against Roma children. This procedure is not a novelty.

Nevertheless, the criteria for saying who is Rom are dubious …

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: School Segregation

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Czechia: School Segregation

The Czech Republic had ten years to take action against the segregation of Roma children in schools. However, according to the European Commission, the situation has not improved, so it called on Czechia again in October to rectify it.

Although there are fifteen primary schools in Kladno in central Bohemia, students from poor, predominantly Roma families attend only two of them, with exceptions. The elementary school in Pařížská Street in the Kročehlava housing estate, which used to be special, and the one in Školská Street in Starý Kročehlavy. The results of the students there and the level of education they receive here are very different from the other “basics” in Kladno.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia and Segregated Schools

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Czechia and Segregated Schools

The Ministry of Regional Development joined the Memorandum on Cooperation in Ending Ethnic Segregation in Education, which was signed in the spring of this year by representatives of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the National Pedagogical Institute and research organization PAQ Research. This initiative is essential for improving the conditions of Roma pupils in so-called segregated schools so that all children get equal access to education. The memorandum includes a commitment to support school founders and principals in their efforts to improve the quality of education for all children.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia and Roma Schoolchildren

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Czechia and Roma Schoolchildren

School principals in Czechia received detailed instructions from government representative Lucie Fuková on how to proceed when determining the Roma origin of children. Some have been reluctant to count the Roma until now. By getting their numbers, the state aims to prevent segregation. Many of them do not agree with this census because they find it uncomfortable to proceed in this way.

The criteria are scary: These include, for example, appearance. If the child is perceived as Roma, the directors can infer his Roma origin. The same applies if one of the parents or relatives in the direct line is Romani, the child has a typical Romani name or surname, or the pupil or family directly speaks the Romani language or an ethnolect (a language variant associated with a specific ethnic minority).

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: The Roma School

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Slovakia: The Roma School

Two articles in the Slovak press about this new initiative of a school where teaching will be done in Romanes. This is presented a good idea in Slovakia and esopecially so by the government. The result will be a segregated school whose standards will be rock-bottom.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Romani School

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Slovakia: Romani School

According to the articles, many children from the Podtatra  Roma community speak exclusively Romanes at home. When they start school, they may therefore have a problem with understanding the Slovak language. This is already a false premise, Roma are dual language speakers from early on.

The pilot project in the village of Rakúsy aims to improve this situation thanks to the first national school, where teaching will also be in the Romani language. In the village, 74 percent of the over 2,000 inhabitants claim to be Roma. The most used language is Romanes.

Well, this will result in a segegrated school, whose standards will drop, and will contribute to further marginalisation.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovene Violence

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Another article about the incident in a School in Eastern Slovenia where a non-Roma father entered in school and aggressed a young Roma with whom his son had had an argument. The Roma child and a teacher were injusred in the attack.

If it had been the other way around, one would have spoken of the Roma “Problem” and Roma violence …

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

School Bully

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A young Rom who injured a ninth-grader at the Velika Dolina primary school in the municipality of Brežice in Slovenia no longer attends the school, principal Anja Zevnik confirmed for STA. HE has been moved to another  school. This prompts the media to ask if his is a good solution and whether he will be less violent in the new environment.

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