Students highlight segregation in education during Roma Week
This week, a group of university students is organizing a series of events
in Prague focused on the segregation of Roma children in Czech schools and
the media image of the country’s Romani minority. Held in cooperation
with the human rights group AI, the Roma week reiterates concerns about the
continued education inequality that the international community has been
voicing for some time, and which is a growing issue for young Czechs as
well.
The first event was actually held last week when the group, together with
representatives of Amnesty International and the European Roma Rights
Centre, held a public happening in front of the Education Ministry,
building an allegorical pyramid of books locked up with chains and
padlocks. The speakers at the event, which included a Romani mother from
Ostrava and a spokesperson for the education ministry, unlocked the
padlocks, thereby symbolically unshackling the future of Romani children in
the Czech Republic.
The main events of Roma Week are organized by the Amnesty International
student group called iPusa. I asked one of the organizers, Adam Podhola, a
student at the University of Economics, why they decided to hold such an
event for the second year in a row.
“Personally, I’m fed up with the fact that in our society, which is
supposed to be democratic, there is a group that is totally excluded from
civil society. So that was maybe the main reason why we decided to do this.
It is important to give this marginalized group a voice.”
Amnesty International and the European Roma Rights Centre published a
report last week that outlines the main problems of segregation in
education, based on the examples of four schools in Ostrava. Roma Week
purposefully coincides with a campaign the two organizations launched for
this occassion, called ‘Five more years of injustice’, which aims to
work with the education ministry, among others, to put an end to
discriminatory practices.
The campaign follows up on a 2007 verdict by the European Court for Human
Rights which ruled in favor of 18 Romani students from the northern city of
Ostrava, confirming their families’ claim that they were unjustly placed
into so-called special, or practical, schools for disabled children, and
denied access to a regular education. The court also stated that this was a
common practice in the Czech Republic that needed to be stopped. But five
years on, human rights advocates are saying little progress has been made.
The Education Ministry announced that it is preparing a number of
improvements starting next year. According to the ministry’s spokesman
Marek Zeman one of them will be detailed psychological tests for
preschoolers:
“[The tests] will determine with certainty whether a student belongs in
a practical school or not.”
iPusa’s annual Roma Week focuses not only on the education but also on
the role and position of the Roma in Czech society and the media - holding
an exhibit of documentary comics and photographs from different Roma
communities, hosting film screenings as well as discussions with experts on
media and Roma rights.
Most of the events are being held at Charles University’s Faculty of
Education, aiming to expose future teachers to issues of segregation and
inclusive education. I asked Adam Podhola what he and his fellow organizers
of Roma Week want to convey to the future teachers who are currently
studying at the faculty. Here is the advice he had to give:
“Don’t give into the stereotypes that you see in the media. It is
about creating dialogue, it’s about understanding. I think one of the
problems here is that we underestimate the Roma culture. It is just as
important as Czech culture, and [their values] are just as important as the
values that we have. And I think we should try to learn more about Roma
culture, because it will help us deal with the problems in the future.”
For more information about the campaign, go to www.ipusa.cz
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The first event was actually held last week when the group, together with
representatives of Amnesty International and the European Roma Rights
Centre, held a public happening in front of the Education Ministry,
building an allegorical pyramid of books locked up with chains and
padlocks. The speakers at the event, which included a Romani mother from
Ostrava and a spokesperson for the education ministry, unlocked the
padlocks, thereby symbolically unshackling the future of Romani children in
the Czech Republic.
“Don’t give into the stereotypes that you see in the media. It is
about creating dialogue, it’s about understanding. I think one of the
problems here is that we underestimate the Roma culture. It is just as
important as Czech culture, and [their values] are just as important as the
values that we have. And I think we should try to learn more about Roma
culture, because it will help us deal with the problems in the future.”
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