Tag Archives: Segregation

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Roma and Czech Schools

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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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Bosnia and Exclusion

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Around 400 Roma live in Mostar. Excluded from a very young age due to lack of support from the education system and the government, they suffer discrimination and prejudice. A double punishment for these citizens who fight every day for their inclusion.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia and Roma

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According to social worker Jiřina Somsiová, the vast majority of the Roma are socially excluded in the Olomouc Region. Only the lucky few, who came to the Czech Republic immediately after the war, live in their own appartments. Those who immigrated later, typically from Slovakia, have no chance to find or rent normal housing and are therefore dependent on overcrowded hostels. Jiřina Somsiová, a field social worker with thirty years of experience is also the co-founder of the Community of Roma in Moravia.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Schools and Roma

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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.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Amnesty on Czechia

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Amnesty criticised the Czech Republic for the discrimination faced by Ukrainians and for the school segregation for Roma. The latter has not improved over the last 20 years.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Marginalised Roma Communities

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An editorial on the disastrous conditions faced by some segregated Roma settlements in Slovakia. The author cites that it is totally unacceptable that people live in conditions of the 15th (sic!) century. He also states that nothing has been done in the last 20 years, and that segregated education is not acceptable either.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Pre-kindergarten in Ostrava

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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.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

On a Segregated School

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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?

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgaria, Schools, and Roma

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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.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Segregation

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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.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia and School Segregation

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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.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech President on Roma

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Czech President Petr Pavel commented about Roma in his speech Deník na Kladno.  On Wednesday, he visited the Vinařice prison, where the majority of Roma prisoners are. He thought about why that was.

He stated: “We have fifteen primary schools here, two of which are racially segregated, almost all the children are Roma. I think we will not move on until the majority realizes that the integration of Roma is an important long-term task of the Czech Republic. And until we get Roma for the task as well.”

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Fico and Roma

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Slovak Prime Minister Fico’s Government has announced they will provide funds for camera systems. The goal is to increase safety. And how do they determine which localities will get those cameras? Solely on the number of Roma living in settlements there.

This is both populist and racist and stokes discrimination.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Amnesty on Slovakia

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Slovakia has not yet made a commitment to protect the right to housing and end homelessness. In addition, the report states that “a disproportionate number of Roma in Slovakia still live in segregated, environmentally dangerous dwellings with insufficient access to water, sanitation and electricity in 2023.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Politics, and Roma Education

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Every day there are more schools in the east of Slovakia with up to 50 percent of Roma pupils.  Non-Roma Slovak parents take their children out of school and look for other options for them. They are said to be afraid of infectious diseases, bullying and fights. Why do all solutions fail? An interview with education expert Martin Šmilňák (KDH).

Croatia News Eastern Europe

Croatia and Segregation

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After a two-month summer break in the Croatian Parliament, the fall session began today with a “topical morning” during which MPs will ask questions to Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and members of the Government. The session began violently, with the distribution of warnings due to objections by deputies to the order in which questions were asked.

Veljko Kajtazi, deputy from the Roma minority, asked why there is segregation of Roma children in Croatia, who are separated into special classes, and the Minister of Education Radovan Fuhs says that there are “pure Roma classes”, mostly in Međimurje County.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Desegregation in Slovakia

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A new inclusive kindergarten was opened in Spišské Tomášovce in the district of Spišská Nová Ves on Thursday. 70 children are enrolled in it, of which 33 are from the Roma community. TASR was informed about this by Michaela Kotradyová from the Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Slovak Government for Roma Communities.

The representative of the Slovak government for Roma communities, Ján Hero, attended the opening, who pointed out that the first three years of life are the most decisive for how children will do in kindergarten and how they will be able to apply themselves later in life. “That’s when the fastest brain development takes place. Intervention during this period is therefore crucial. I am very happy that this work was successful and I am grateful that it adheres to the principles of destigmatisation, desegregation, deghettoization,” he declared.

  • V Spišských Tomášovciach otvorili novú inkluzívnu materskú školu. In: Tearz. 31.08.2023. https://www.teraz.sk/regiony/v-spisskych-tomasovciach-otvorili-no/737915-clanok.html
Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czech Republic – Segregation

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Well, no surprise: Roma children are segregated and discriminated against in the Czech school system.

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