Amnesty International report says Czech schools discriminate

Czech schools discriminate against Roma children, who are being segregated, which leads to an inferior education, according to a damning report by Amnesty International.

The report, titled Injustice Renamed: Discrimination of Roma Persists in the Czech Republic, says schools "are unwilling to provide adequate support for children of different social and ethnic backgrounds" and the government is not "prepared to implement practical and real solutions." It called for an immediate end to segregation.

The report shows that "apartheid" exists in the education system, a leading Roma rights activist said.

Despite the report's criticisms, the Education Ministry endorsed its findings and said it is not surprised.

"The Amnesty International report is well-prepared and consistent, and its investigations and analysis are in agreement with the analysis of the Education Ministry," Minister Miroslava Kopicová said. "So the results are not surprising to the ministry."

Deputy Education Minister Klára Laurenčíková agreed that Roma children face discrimination.

"Prejudices or certain stereotypes definitely do exist with respect to how socially disadvantaged Roma children are viewed, and those prejudices flow across all of society; they are shared by both the lay public and experts," she said in a radio interview on the day of the report's publication, Jan. 13.

"We encounter enormous prejudices among majority-society children and parents. For example, if a higher percentage of Roma pupils enroll in a school, in the majority of cases the non-Roma parents quickly start moving their children to other schools, because they fear the quality of instruction will decline and their children will not achieve the same standard if they are educated together in the same class with Roma children. Unfortunately, these prejudices exist."

The report says Roma children are often sent to schools for children with mild mental disabilities. In 2007, the European Court of Human Rights said this violated the right of Roma children to a full education.

Amnesty said that, although the Czech government in 2005 changed the name of these special schools to "practical elementary schools," "the system that places children in these schools and teaches a limited curriculum essentially remains the same."

In some places, it says, Roma children make up more than 80 percent of the students of practical elementary schools.

Gwendolyn Albert, a Roma rights activist, said discrimination against Roma children amounts to "apartheid."

"The concept of these special schools has been distorted," Albert said. "Apartheid is not too strong a word to describe the situation."

The Education Ministry is sending a letter to practical elementary schools demanding that under no circumstances they enroll children who do not belong there - that is, children who do not actually have a mental disability.

Even if this policy is fully implemented, obstacles remain. Roma children who do stay in mainstream schools tend to end up in classes with other Roma, as parents of non-Roma parents will often move their children elsewhere, creating a vicious cycle.

There is also an added problem that Roma parents are reluctant to send their children to normal schools as they may face bullying for being one of the few Roma children in the school, Albert said.

The report concludes an "end to segregation must be placed at the heart of the Czech education system."

It is not a problem just for schools, the report says, adding present national education policy has "contributed to ongoing discrimination, prejudice and intolerance in Czech society."

Tom Clifford can be reached at
tclifford@praguepost.com