The Amnesty International Zurich English Group is taking action on behalf of the thousands of Romani children across Slovakia who remain trapped in substandard education as a result of widespread discrimination and a school system that keeps failing them.
What we did
We sent a letter to the Slovak authorities, urging them to take the necessary measures to respect, protect and fulfil the right to education free from discrimination for all children and to end racial segregation in education.
We also signed colourful keys, which we have sent to the Slovak authorities. These keys symbolize the following:
- They remind the government that it holds the key to allow the Roma in Slovakia full participation in Slovak and European society.
- We want them to unlock and open up the doors in situations in which Romani children from kindergarten onwards are sometimes locked into separate classrooms, corridors or buildings, separated even at lunchtimes, to prevent them from mixing with non-Romani children.
Background
Segregation of Romani children takes various forms: in several districts, Romani children attend ethnically segregated mainstream schools and classes that often operate reduced curriculums.
In regions with large Romani populations at least three out of four children in special schools designed for pupils with "mild mental disabilities" are Roma; across the country as a whole, Roma represent 85 per cent of children attending special classes. Yet, Roma comprise less than 10 per cent of Slovakia’s total population.
Slovakia’s mainstream elementary-school system is ill-equipped and education professionals are often unwilling to provide the additional support that pupils from different ethnic and social backgrounds often need.
For many Roma, Slovak is not a first language. Cultural differences and high levels of poverty among Roma mean that they often need additional language, pre-school or classroom assistance. When these needs are not met, many Romani children fall behind and are transferred out of mainstream education – either to special classes in mainstream schools or to dedicated special schools.
Romani children who are placed at special schools or classes have very little chance of being reintegrated in mainstream education. Additionally, when pupils finish elementary school under a special curriculum, they receive lower graded certificates, which restrict them to attending special-secondary school. This involves a programme of two or three years’ vocational training to become, for example, butchers, bricklayers, shoemakers, domestic workers or gardeners.
Discrimination and segregation in Slovak schools exclude Roma from full participation in society and lock them into a cycle of poverty and marginalization.
Slovakia’s 2008 Schools Act bans all forms of discrimination, particularly segregation. But it fails to clearly define segregation, or include robust guidelines and measures to help education authorities identify and monitor segregation and enforce desegregation. Effective measures to implement the ban have yet to be put in place.
The new government’s recently stated commitment to eliminate segregated schooling of Roma, included in the coalition government’s programme adopted in August 2010 is, however, a welcome development.
The Slovak government has much to do to end the segregation that has an impact on a large part of the country’s population. Segregation in education means a life-long stigma for children whose future chances are brutally limited. The choices that the government makes now will affect the lives of thousands of Romani children. The government holds the key to allow the Roma in Slovakia full participation in Slovak and European society.
