Thousands of Roma children started school this year in segregated classrooms, claims the NGO Amnesty International, putting forward their report on the state of segregation of Roma children in Slovakia. “It's time for the Slovak Government to end discriminatory and segregationist practices in education,” stated Deputy Director of Amnesty International Europe and Central Asia.
In their report, the organisation claims that the continuing inaction of Slovak authorities over the segregation of Roma pupils means maintaining the illegal status quo. Moreover, they claim the Slovak government is not able to integrate the minority, long term. As the UN Development program research from the year 2012 shows, 43 percent of Roma children who are enrolled to classical, mixed classrooms, end up in ethnically segregated ones, which then brings on a series of problems, most importantly getting proper secondary education and subsequently a job, claims the Slovak Obmudswoman Jana Dubovcova in her report to the Parliament. Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák, who is in charge of the so-called Roma reform, reacted to this saying that segregation is most often caused by the behaviour of Roma students and not by the approach to them, for being of a different skin colour. Kaliňák claims they are trying to create rules that will address this problematic behaviour and thus lead to a successful integration, which can only run well if students behave, Kaliňák concluded.
