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Most-Hid: We're Against Boarding Schools as Solution to Roma Issues
Thursday 08 April 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, April 8 (TASR) - The Slovak-Hungarian Most-Hid party on International Roma Day on Thursday spoke out against official plans to tackle this minority's education issues by putting their children in segregated boarding schools or, as is already the long-standing practice, in special schools.
The party, which was formed out of the ethnic-Hungarian SMK, proposes that special schools should be abolished because they obliquely promote segregation.
According to Peter Pollak, who is running for Most-Hid in the June 12 general election, the special schools don't even offer the opportunity to acquire a skill and succeed on the labour market. He proposes introducing compulsory pre-school attendance instead or programmes geared to teaching Roma in secondary schools.
Most-Hid executive member Laszlo Nagy said that his party views Roma education as the key to elevating the living standards of the troubled minority. Most-Hid wants to allow Roma children to learn in their native language. "As long as there is interest on the part of Roma parents, we set great store by learning in the mother tongue. There are both school materials and teachers at the ready," said Nagy, adding that the party wants to support gifted Roma children.
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