The segregation of Roma children in schools in the Czech Republic - Open Society Institute »

Posted By gamahuche 1 week, 2 days ago in Political News
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In the Czech city of Ostrava, Roma children were 27 times more likely to be placed in "special schools" for the mentally disabled than non-Roma children. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that this pattern of segregation violated nondiscrimination protections in the European Convention on Human Rights. Despite this landmark decision, there has been little change in the Czech Republic: the "special schools" have been renamed but still follow the same substandard curriculum; Roma continue to be assigned to these schools in disproportionate numbers; and there has been little attempt to change the attitudes of teachers and parents. The process of integration has barely begun.

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gamahuche

"I would rather be a square peg than fit in a pigeon hole" -
an essay which won me the "Lamb Essay Prize" at the Religious ...

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    gamahuche1 week, 2 days ago

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    This discrimination is one scandal which remains as an open sore in our society. By discriminating against children today its effects are guaranteed to be perpetuated for at least one more generation.
    This has been going on a very long time - it was, most contradictorily, prevalent all through Communist times. The relations between the Roma and the white majority vary considerably from country to country in different parts of Central and Eastern Europe - and also from one area to another within those countries - but nowhere is devoid of discrimination. In some places there is considerable violence involved, with neo-Nazis as the perpetrators. This particular form of discrimination is particularly egregious because it guarantees the continuation of the segregation. There is one side-piece to the story which should be mentioned and that is that some Roma parents, despite the fact that their children will be condemned to a second-rate education, choose to willingly send their kids to these schools because they went to them themselves and may have felt more comfortable "among their own people". Very few Roma manage to achieve visible and significant societal roles; on the worst level a considerable number live in village communities almost entirely lacking in oversight, with grim physical and social conditions, potentially even including incest. These problems are not easy to solve but worse is that the will and motivation both of the victims and of the wider society to actively work for improvement and change are in short supply and the economic squeeze currently in effect doesn't help either.

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      gamahuche1 week, 2 days ago

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      One area in which the Roma are able to make an impact is in music. There are a number of excellent Gipsy groups of whom some do reach the highest echelon in their sphere.
      Vera Bila is one such celebrity, with her band Kale. Iva Bittova is another, much less typical in that she studied music intensely and crossed over into many other genres than "typical" Roma styles. She currently lives in upstate New York and plays venues like the Knitting Factory in NYC.

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        gamahuche1 week, 2 days ago

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        One area in which the Roma are able to make an impact is in music. There are a number of excellent Gipsy groups of whom some do reach the highest echelon in their sphere.
        Vera Bila is one such celebrity, with her band Kale. Iva Bittova is another, much less typical in that she studied music intensely and crossed over into many other genres than "typical" Roma styles. She currently lives in upstate New York and plays venues like the Knitting Factory in NYC.

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          gamahuche1 week, 2 days ago

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          Here is Vera Bila:
          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th66NlyjBTc=related
          There was a marvellous track of her performing at the National Theatre in Prague, with Vaclav Havel and his second wife in the audience but, alas I couldn't locate it now..

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            gamahuche1 week, 2 days ago

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            And here is Iva Bittova.
            http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=iva+bi...
            a wide choice!
            She used to be in a band here with her ex-husband, a drummer called Pavel Fajt.
            A good friend of mine, Vaclav Cilek, who is a very important geologist travelled all over the Czech lands with PF and recorded him drumming solo in all the Cathedrals built by Santini. I have the CD but unfortunately am not at liberty to publish it anywhere.
            This is the most famous of the Santini churches in the Czech Lands - a UNESCO monument. OOPsS - I'll have to put the link in a different message..

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            gamahuche1 week, 2 days ago

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            http://www.flickr.com/photos/czechr/3446614195/
            Its a pilgrimage church which sits on top of a hill and is more imposing than it looks in this pic.

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