ERRC Report: Roma and Czech Schools
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Subject: ERRC Report: Roma and Czech Schools
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ERRC Report: Roma and Czech Schools
Announcement of Publication
June 15, 1999
European Roma Rights Center Country Report
A Special Remedy: Roma and Schools for the Mentally Handicapped in the
Czech Republic
The European Roma Rights Center announces publication of the Country
Report A Special Remedy: Roma and Schools for the Mentally Handicapped
in the Czech Republic. The report is published also in Czech, under
the title Zvlastni naprava: Romove a skoly pro mentalne postizene deti
v Ceske republice. A Special Remedy appears in print simultaneous to a
law suit by Romani children in the Czech city of Ostrava to contest
their placement in remedial special schools for the mentally
handicapped.
Fundamental to the exclusion of Roma in the Czech Republic is an
effectively segregated education system which prevents contact between
Roma and non-Roma from childhood. The nexus of this segregation is the
existence of a network of so-called remedial special schools (zvlastni
skoly) - schools for mentally handicapped children. Romani children
are disproportionately placed in such schools because they
underperform in tasks designed for majority Czechs, and because of the
racist attitudes of schooling authorities. According to reasonable
estimates, Roma are at least fifteen times more likely to be placed in
remedial special schools than non-Roma. A student who has completed
remedial special school has greatly restricted choices in secondary
education compared to a student who has completed mainstream primary
school. Romani children are thereby effectively condemned from an
early age to a lifetime of diminished opportunity and self-respect. In
addition, the segregation of Roma in inferior schools is used as
constant legitimation for discriminatory attitudes and actions by
members of the majority society.
A Special Remedy discusses the following themes: following a brief
introduction to the history of Roma in the Czech lands, the problem of
the overrepresentation of Romani children in remedial special schools
for the mentally handicapped is presented in detail. Next, the report
discusses the inferior quality of remedial special education. The next
sections of the report are divided into three chapters which show: the
numerous abuses which take place in the enrollment of Romani children
in remedial special schools; racist abuse in the regular basic school
system as the source of traumatised Romani children; and the
impossibility of transfer to a normal basic school from a remedial
special school once a pupil has been enrolled there. The report then
goes on to look at other aspects affecting the human rights situation
of Roma in the Czech Republic as it pertains to the education system,
most notably: the effect of the 1992 Act on Citizenship on the
educational rights of Roma; the failure of the government to provide
minority education for Roma; and the link between discrimination and
abuse in the education system and the ability of Roma to claim other
rights in the Czech Republic. The report concludes with a series of
recommendations to the Czech government:
1. Plan and implement reforms aimed at ending ethnically based
segregation in the Czech school system.
2. Strictly sanction instances of abuse and expressions of racial
hatred in the school system, especially among teachers and
administrators.
3. Acknowledge that racial discrimination plays a key role in the high
level of Romani children in remedial special schools. Provide
anti-racism training programs to persons working in all aspects of the
educational system and relevant parts of the health care system.
4. Plan and implement thoroughgoing school reform which provides for
child-friendly learning for all pupils, Romani and non-Romani, and
aims at the integration of Romani children into the normal school
system.
5. Establish a fund to support extra education and training programmes
required to compensate for damage caused to Romani children by the
Czech school system.
6. Develop schooling programmes for Roma and non-Roma in which proper
attention is given to Czech and Romani culture; introduce Romani
language, culture and history to Czech school curriculum; introduce
successful programmes developed abroad whereby members of the Romani
community introduce Romani culture, language and history to school-age
children; implement all such programs nationally and not merely in
schools attended by Romani children.
7. Provide free integrated kindergarten; in such integrated
kindergartens, provide language assistance for Romani pupils.
8. Wherever possible, provide Romani classroom assistants; make
readily available to such classroom assistants the possibility of
teaching qualification.
9. Design, implement and adequately fund programmes aimed at
drastically increasing the number of Romani teachers in the Czech
Republic.
10. Design, implement and adequately fund continuing education
programmes for teachers to improve skills in teaching in a
multi-cultural context.
11. In preparation for the integration of large numbers of Romani
children into an open, mainstream and child-friendly system of
education, identify pupils for support during the transition period
from the present traumatising system and provide such support.
12. End reliance for the purposes of student placement upon all
culturally-biased intelligence evaluation measures which have not been
adapted for Romani children, and which have not been proven to
generate results unaffected by the race or ethnicity of the examiner
or the examinee.
13. Adopt civil legislation specifically sanctioning discrimination in
the field of education and providing detailed remedies for individuals
shown to be the victim of discrimination.
14. Provide accessible public offices where Roma can go to report
instances of discrimination; publicise widely the existence of such
offices.
15. Provide free legal services in areas heavily populated by Roma;
publicise widely the existence of such services.
***
Other reports by the European Roma Rights Center:
- A Pleasant Fiction: The Human Rights Situation of Roma in Macedonia
(July 1998)
- Profession: Prisoner: Roma in Detention in Bulgaria (December 1997)
- No Record of the Case: Roma in Albania (June 1997)
- The Misery of Law: The Rights of Roma in the Transcarpathian Region
of Ukraine (April 1997)
- Time of the Skinheads: Denial and Exclusion of Roma in Slovakia
(January 1997)
- Sudden Rage at Dawn: Violence Against Roma in Romania (September
1996)
- Divide and Deport: Roma and Sinti in Austria (September 1996)
To receive a copy of A Special Remedy: Roma and Schools for the
Mentally Handicapped in the Czech Republic or other reports by the
European Roma Rights Center, the ERRC requests a donation of 8 US
dollars per report to cover printing and shipping costs. Requests for
reports should be directed to:
Nora Kuntz
European Roma Rights Center
H-1525 Budapest 114
PO Box 10/24
Hungary
The full texts of all ERRC reports, including are A Special Remedy:
Roma and Schools for the Mentally Handicapped in the Czech Republic,
are available on the European Roma Rights Center Internet website at:
http://errc.org
***
The European Roma Rights Center is an international public interest
law organisation which monitors the rights of Roma and provides legal
defence in cases of human rights abuse. For more information about the
European Roma Rights Center, visit the ERRC on the web at
http://errc.org.
European Roma Rights Center
H-1525 Budapest 114
PO Box 10/24
Hungary
Telephone: (36 1) 42 82 351
Fax: (36 1) 42 82 356
***
SUPPORT THE ERRC!
The European Roma Rights Center is dependent upon the generosity of
individual donors for its continued existence. If you believe the ERRC
performs a service valuable to the public, please join in enabling its
future with a contribution. Gifts of all sizes are welcome; bank
tranfers are preferred. Please send your contribution to:
European Roma Rights Center
Budapest Bank Rt.
99P00402686
1054 Budapest
Bathory utca 1
Hungary
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