One in five Roma children in Polish ‘special schools’
PR dla Zagranicy
John Beauchamp
14.07.2011 09:33
Schools in Poland are turning down places for Roma children, as a lack of knowledge of Polish prompts schools to classify the children as disabled.
Roma children, photo:A.Skieterska
According to figures from the Ministry of Internal Affairs for 2010, 2829 Roma children were in regular school attendance, out of which 580 were in special schools.
“This condemns another generation of Roma to a state of non-existence and a lack of education,” head of the Association of Polish Roma, Roman Kwiatkowski told Gazeta Wyborcza.
“This is a practice which has come down from a totalitarian system, and soon we will have a situation like the one seen in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, where 80 percent of Roma children go to special schools,” Kwiatkowski adds.
Last year the European Commission launched an integration strategy for Roma in the EU, which obliges member states to draft socially inclusive legislation for the ethnic group.
The EU-backed plans aim to get all Roma children attending and finishing at least primary education by 2020. (jb)