Czech Senate hearing on segregation in education: "Romani schools" still exist, experts call for legislative change and support measures

Legislative transformation; the need for collaboration between local communities, schools, and the state; and reform of the educational counseling system were raised in the Frýdlant Room of the Senate. “The desegregation of education is a big subject that deserves our full attention, and for that reason a public hearing on this issue is being held in the Senate. Successful desegregation will yield fruit in the form of increased employment, lower crime rates, a positive impact on the economy, and the strengthening of societal cohesion,” said Senator Zdeněk Papoušek, a member of the Senate Committee on Education, Science, Culture, Human Rights and Petitions and the organizer of the hearing.

Fuková: Segregation is ethnic in nature and we must call it that

In her address to the Senate hearing, Czech Government Commissioner for Roma Minority Affairs Lucie Fuková openly stated that the problem of educational segregation in the Czech Republic can be neither downplayed nor ignored. “It is impossible to lie to ourselves that there is no segregation in the Czech Republic, and not just in education, but also in housing. We must call these things by their real names – segregation is primarily ethnic segregation here,” Fuková said, stressing that Romani children who attend what are colloquially called “Romani schools” and who grow up in socially excluded localities end up there exactly because they are Romani.

According to Fuková, Romani people’s access to education and housing is influenced by the deeply-rooted antigypsyism and majority-society prejudices in Czech society. “Access by Roma to a quality education or housing is influenced not just by antigypsyism, prejudices, and stereotypes, but also by Romani parents’ approaches and decisions,” she said, adding that state policy toward disadvantaged children must be comprehensive and reflect “the factor of Romani parents’ distrust of the school environment and institutions generally.”

The public hearing focused on identifying obstacles to desegregation and instruments for finding ways to systemically tackle the segregation of pupils from socially disadvantaged environments.

Dozens of segregated schools and too many dropouts: Experts raise the alarm

According to the director of the Agency for Social Inclusion, Martin Šimáček, segregation is a structural problem of Czech education that has remained constant for decades. “In 129 schools in the Czech Republic more than 33 % of pupils are Romani, while in 35 schools, 75 % of the pupils are Romani. Dropout is also problematic – for instance, in the Karlovy Vary Region, 4.7 % of children leave education before ninth grade, while in the Ústecký Region 7 % of children drop out before ninth grade,” he said.

According to Šimáček, it is necessary to motivate schools to introduce pro-inclusive measures as well as to support school establishers (usually municipalities) in not packing specific schools with Romani pupils. “The child population is 3 % Romani, but special education classes overall are 15 % Romani, and special education classes in the primary schools are even 22 % Romani,” he said.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled against the Czech Republic in 2007 for discriminating against Romani schoolchildren and transferring them into “special schools”. Other international institutions and organizations such as Amnesty International or the European Commission have long been criticizing the Czech Republic for this.

According to the European Commission, while the Czech Republic has stopped the regime of “practical” or “special” schools, Romani children are still disproportionately represented in separate classes or in special education schools for pupils living with developmental disorders or disabilities. Romani Hub founder Tomáš Ščuka said education in segregated schools prevents Romani pupils from establishing beneficial relationships with their majority-society peers.

The parents of Romani children are still unaware that it makes a difference whether their children attend a school with many Romani pupils or one with fewer Romani pupils; what is primary to them is that schools be safe spaces where their children do not have to struggle with the prejudices and stereotypes which cause trauma that lasts into adulthood, Ščuka said. In his view, it is necessary to transform their approach.

Experts propose legislative transformations and the creation of a national platform

Last year the Education Ministry, the National Pedagogical Institute, and PAQ Research concluded a memorandum on measures which should be introduced over the course of two years to reduce the proportion of Romani pupils in ethnically-segregated schools and in special education classes or schools. The measures entail, for instance, reforms to educational counseling systems and support to the schools.

The desegregation website of the project states that it is possible to approximately designate the maximum proportion of Romani and other excluded children that can be enrolled with children considered to be from the majority society in the same class. However, once that maximum is exceeded, there is a risk that majority-society parents will transfer their children to other schools en masse.

According to experts, it is appropriate for the proportion of disadvantaged Romani pupils to not exceed 10-15 % and for there to be at most four such pupils in a class. Many segregated schools are located in municipalities and regions where roughly 8 % of children are disadvantaged Roma.

In those places, experts recommend that it is possible to achieve an even more ideal proportion of non-Roma to Roma in the schools, with no more than two such pupils per class. According to Karel Gargulák of PAQ Research, political debate on the grounds of the Senate is an important step toward addressing segregation in education.

“The problem of segregation in education and elsewhere has become a subject of political debate at the highest level, with the participation of senators, lower house lawmakers, and representatives of the state. The best experiences from practitioners and expert findings that we have so far in the Czech Republic were also heard on the grounds of the Senate. I am very pleased that we are approaching a point where there will exist a permanent platform of the state and municipalities for addressing the consequences of segregation,” Gargulák posted to social media.

Gargulák recalled that segregation is not just a social phenomenon, but to a great degree also a cultural one. “The solution is to recognize the segregated groups, involve them, and share power with them. The moment Romani people will be part of choosing and implementing supported solutions, when we will see Romani parents working as assistants, teachers, and psychologists in the schools, as representatives of the social services, as politicians, physicians, entrepreneurs, etc., that is the moment when desegregation will genuinely succeed,” he said.

The hearing ended with recommendations for creating a national platform for addressing desegregation, financially supporting inclusive schools, inter-ministerial collaboration, and legislative transformations to the Act on Education. According to those in attendance, segregation is one of the most burning problems of the Czech education system that has an essential impact not just on the educational outcomes of Romani children, but also on the cohesion of the entire society.