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AI Brands Idea of Boarding Schools for Roma Children as Disriminatory
Tuesday 09 March 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, March 9 (TASR) - Amnesty International (AI) has come out against setting up boarding schools for Roma children and believes endeavours "to separate the children gradually off the way of lives that they lead in settlements" represent a discriminatory practice and an outright attack on the Roma's way of life, head of AI Slovensko Branislav Tichy told TASR on Tuesday.
He was speaking in the wake of a statement made by Prime Minister Robert Fico, who said on Monday that he foresees various negative reactions from the European Union over the introduction of boarding schools for Roma children in Slovakia. "This will require a lot of courage and, undoubtedly, everybody from the sphere of human rights will pounce on us," Fico predicted.
The fact that some Roma families living in settlements, just like some other families in Slovakia, run into problems in the support of education of their children on the back of poverty, language barriers and other factors, only highlights the need for assistance and support in overcoming such barriers is the Government's view.
AI is calling on the Cabinet to address the chief problem - persisting segregation of Roma children in education, which can only be overcome by reforms of the education system in order to ensure genuine inclusive education for all children.
"The Government has to provide appropriate aid to families and pupils who need it in order to be capable of effective participation (in society) and the full development of their potential in common primary schools," said Tichy.
According to Fico, Slovakia only has two options when it comes to its Roma minority. First, it can leave everything as it is, but this would create another group of several thousand in Slovakia with little chance of successful integration; or to educate young Roma at boarding schools.
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