Czech Republic: Access to education for Roma children (2003-2005)

Special Schools

A number of sources consulted by the Research Directorate indicate that many Roma children in the Czech Republic are sent to special schools (Country Reports 2004 28 Feb. 2005, Sec. 5; ERRC 17 May 2005; The New York Times 27 Apr. 2005; Open Society News Summer – Fall 2005), which cater to students aged three to nineteen with developmental disabilities (Czech Rep. n.d.a). Czech government officials have estimated that up to 75 per cent of Roma children are enrolled in special schools (ERRC 17 Jan. 2005, 11; The New York Times 27 Apr. 2005), while the United States (US) Department of State stated that a 2001 - 2002 survey showed that more than 90 per cent of the student population in special schools was Romani (Country Reports 2004 28 Feb. 2005, Sec. 5). According to some sources, sending Romani children to special schools reinforced the segregation of Roma from mainstream society and contributed to disadvantages among Romani communities (COE 8 June 2004), including high rates of unemployment, crime and poverty (The New York Times 27 Apr. 2005; Open Society News Summer – Fall 2005). James A. Goldston, a senior counsel for the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) in Budapest, commented to The New York Times that the majority of Roma children "'get a second-class education and never get past the eighth grade'" (The New York Times 27 Apr. 2005).

The level of education at special schools has been characterized as substandard (ERRC 17 May 2005; The New York Times 27 Apr. 2005), and as falling short of providing students with the knowledge necessary for them to enter regular schools (COE 8 June 2004; ERRC 17 Jan. 2005; see also Country Reports 2004 28 Feb. 2005, Sec. 5). According to The New York Times, graduates of special schools do not earn the credits needed to pursue higher education or to obtain employment outside of manual labour (27 Apr. 2005). But while critics of the education policy argue that there is a cultural bias at play when Roma children are sent to special schools, the director of the Czech Department of Special Needs Education said Roma parents were not interested in their children's education and were therefore to blame for their poor schooling results (The New York Times 27 Apr. 2005). The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) explained in its third report on the Czech Republic that Roma parents lacked adequate information about the long-term effects of agreeing to send their children to special schools, and that they made such decisions in the belief that their children would face discrimination and other difficulties if they attended regular schools (COE 8 June 2004). According to the ERRC, some parents have been "coerced" into agreeing to send their children to special schools (ERRC 17 Jan. 2005). ECRI also reported that Roma children were refused entry by mainstream schools which were fearful of being labelled "gypsy" schools (COE 8 June 2004). According to Kumar Vishwanathan, a schoolteacher and activist in Ostrava, tests designed to determine the mental abilities of children were done in Czech, a language which Roma children did not speak (The New York Times 27 Apr. 2005). The ERRC has argued that many Roma children are placed in special schools despite showing "no sign of mental disability" (Open Society News Summer – Fall 2005).

Government Efforts

According to Open Society News, the Czech Republic has made "limited" efforts to address the educational needs of Roma children (Summer – Fall 2005). The Czech government outlined in its 2005 update to the national Roma integration policy a number of initiatives aimed at equalizing educational opportunities for Roma (Czech Rep. 4 May 2005, 17-21). Among them was a targeted effort to encourage the use of Roma teacher's assistants in the classroom to facilitate communication between students and teachers, and between parents and teachers (ibid., 18). However, the Czech government acknowledged that the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports had no control over the country's schools, and so the government had to rely on providing information regarding the benefits of hiring teacher's assistants as a means of encouraging schools to increase the number of assistants (ibid., 19). Nevertheless, The New York Times reported that, where they had been hired, Roma teaching assistants had succeeded in "bridging the gap between Roma students and teachers in regular schools" (27 Apr. 2005). The government also wished to encourage Roma parents to send their children to nursery school for three years – the entire length of nursery schooling – and noted that it could cover the cost of the schooling for parents who were unable to afford it (Czech Rep. 4 May 2005, 18). Increasing the enrolment of Roma children in preschool also appears as a measure in the government's national action plan for the Decade of Roma Inclusion, 2005 - 2015 (ibid. n.d.b). The national action plan noted that the final year of nursery school, or kindergarten, would be free of charge and that the cost would be paid by the municipalities (ibid.). Country Reports 2004 noted that several districts with large Roma populations were running kindergarten programs funded by the government and aimed at preparing Roma children for the first year of school (28 Feb. 2005, Sec. 5). But while these programs had been successful in increasing the number of Roma students entering regular schools (Country Reports 2004 28 Feb. 2005, Sec. 5; COE 8 June 2004), ECRI pointed out that some districts had not introduced kindergarten programs due to lack of interest among local school managers (ibid.).

According to the Czech government's Roma integration policy, support programs would be created to provide assistance to Roma students at the high school and university levels who wished to continue their studies but faced financial difficulties (Czech Rep. 4 May 2005, 21). The US Department of State reported that in 2004 the government offered funds to Roma high school students who needed help to cover costs for books and supplies (Country Reports 2004 28 Feb. 2005, Sec. 5). Other initiatives contained in the policy included offering courses to Roma adults who had attended special schools or who had less than a ninth-grade education (Czech Rep. 4 May 2005, 21), providing cultural training to teachers to better equip them to interact with Roma students and their parents (ibid., 20), and creating textbooks and courses on Roma language, literature and history (ibid.). Country Reports 2004 stated that textbooks discussing Roma culture and history were being used in schools (28 Feb. 2005, Sec. 5).

In its 2005 update to the Roma integration policy, the Czech government explained that efforts to equalize educational opportunities for Roma would not include setting up a separate school system for Roma (Czech Rep. 4 May 2005, 20). Increasing the number of schools with a large majority of Roma students would, in the government's view, be seen as fostering segregation (ibid.). Instead, the government would ensure that schools with a large Roma student body would offer children "adequate education and aid their integration into society" (ibid.). To that end, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports has been given the task of setting up non-compulsory after-school programs to be funded through government grants (ibid.).

Special schools offered the option of an additional year of coursework for students interested in applying to regular schools, but The New York Times noted that few students had actually taken advantage of this offer (27 Apr. 2005; see also Open Society News Summer – Fall 2005). Standardized tests for assessing a child's mental ability were introduced by the Czech Ministry of Education (ibid.; COE 8 June 2004; The New York Times 27 Apr. 2005). However, ECRI pointed out, the use of these tests is not mandatory and psychological and counselling centres responsible for deciding where to send children to school have a number of other assessment tools at their disposal (COE 8 June 2004). In reporting the findings of a 2002 - 2003 survey of Roma education in the Czech Republic, the ERRC stated that psychological tests performed on children did not account for linguistic or cultural diversity and that personal discretion was used in the assessment of test results (ERRC 17 Jan. 2005).

A new education act was approved by the Czech parliament in September 2004 (Radio Prague 3 Sept. 2004) and reportedly went into effect in January 2005 (The New York Times 27 Apr. 2005). According to The New York Times, the act requires regular schools to accommodate students with behavioural or learning challenges, a provision which government officials hope will help to increase the number of Roma children in mainstream schools (27 Apr. 2005). However, ECRI stated that there was concern among several of its sources about the new act introducing "a new category of special programmes for the 'socially disadvantaged'" that could further separate Roma children from the mainstream school system (COE 8 June 2004). Section 16 of the Education Act states that "[a] child, pupil or student having special educational needs shall be a disabled person, or a person disadvantaged in terms of health condition or social position" (Czech Rep. 24 Sept. 2004). The act defines social disadvantage as "a family environment with a low social and cultural status, threat of pathological social phenomena [or] institutional education ordered or protective education imposed" (ibid., Sec. 16). Subsection 6 of Section 16 asks that schools offer students with "special educational needs" education programs designed to address these needs (ibid.). Further information on the implementation and effects of the new education act could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

Access to Justice

In 2005, the European Court of Human Rights agreed to hear the case of D.H. and Others v. the Czech Republic (ERRC 17 May 2005), "the first significant legal challenge to systemic discrimination in the education of Romani children in Europe" (Open Society News Summer – Fall 2005). A total of 18 teenaged students from Ostrava have argued that their right to be protected from discrimination under Czech and European law was violated when they were placed in special schools in the late 1990s (New York Times 27 Apr. 2005; see also ERRC 17 May 2005). The Court rejected the argument presented by the Czech government that some of the children represented in the case had been subsequently placed in regular schools and were thus no longer eligible for judicial relief (ibid.). The Court decided to allow the applicants to enter the claim that their right to education as affirmed by the European Convention on Human Rights and its first protocol was violated as a result of racial discrimination (ibid.; Open Society News Summer – Fall 2005). Information on the outcome of the case was pending and could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

Please see CZE100727.E of 26 January 2006 for information on the treatment of Roma and state protection available.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2004. 28 February 2005. "Czech Republic." [Accessed 4 Jan. 2006]

Czech Republic. 4 May 2005. The Roma Integration Policy Concept. [Accessed 5 Jan. 2006]
_____. 24 September 2004. Act No. 561 of 24th September 2004 on Pre-School, Basic, Secondary, Tertiary Professional and Other Education (the Education Act). [Accessed 11 Jan. 2006]
_____. N.d.a. Czech Statistical Office. "Education – Methodology." [Accessed 11 Jan. 2006]
_____. N.d.b "Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005 - 2015: National Action Plan." [Accessed 4 Jan. 2006]

Council of Europe (COE). 8 June 2004. European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI). "Third Report on the Czech Republic." [Accessed 4 Jan. 2006]

European Roma Rights Center (ERRC). 17 May 2005. "Strasbourg Judges Agree to Review European Roma Rights Centre Action to Challenge Racial Exclusion in the Czech School System." [Accessed 17 May 2005]
_____. 17 January 2005. Stigmata: Segregated Schooling of Roma in Central and Eastern Europe, A Survey of Patterns of Segregated Education of Roma in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. [Accessed 13 Jan. 2006]

The New York Times. 27 April 2005. Dinah A. Spritzer. "Often Shunted into Special Schools, Gypsies Fight Back." (Factiva)

Open Society News. Summer – Fall 2005. Soros Foundations Network. "The Decade of Roma Inclusion: Challenging Centuries of Discrimination." [Accessed 4 Jan. 2006]

Radio Prague. 3 September 2004. "Coalition Leaders Reach Agreement on Education Bill." [Accessed 9 Jan. 2006]

Additional Sources Consulted

Internet sites, including: European Court of Human Rights, International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, The Prague Post, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child.