Groundbreaking judgment for Europe and Slovakia: First-instance court rules the state discriminated against a Romani girl in her access to education during COVID-19

This is the first judgment of its kind in Europe. News server Romea.cz learned of the case from the Center for Civil and Human Rights, which provided free legal representation to the girl.

Responding to the Czech News Agency (ČTK), the Slovak Education Ministry wrote that it will decide on what to do next in this matter after studying the verdict. In court the ministry rejected the claim of having discriminated against the plaintiff.

The Romani girl from a disadvantaged community in Jarovnice sued the Education Ministry for not providing equal access to distance education online during COVID-19. Neither the child nor her family had access to digital technologies or the Internet and all lacked digital skills.

Representatives of the school brought them worksheets in person once a week, but did not provide any support with how to use them and never assessed the resulting work. The child was represented by the attorney Vanda Durbáková, who collaborates with the Center for Civil and Human Rights.

The Center is a nonprofit organization that provides free legal advice and representation to people who have become the victims of discrimination, racism and violence. Durbáková said the court decision has confirmed serious failures of the state during the pandemic.

“The state never managed to provide quality education to Romani children who do not have access to the Internet, to digital technologies or to digital skills. It is apparent that the state forgot about the education of those children for many long months. It did not adopt effective measures to eliminate the obstacles to accessing distance education with which these children were grappling,” Durbáková said.

“This verdict, however, has another dimension that is much wider in scope. The courts in Slovakia have, for the first time, pointed to the digital divide that exists between the majority society, the privileged groups in the population, and everybody else, a divide that continues to deepen in the digital era today. This divide discriminates against disadvantaged groups in our society in many areas of life. The court has confirmed that the state must eliminate such discrimination,” Durbáková said.

The court decision has yet to take effect and the ministry may appeal it, but it is groundbreaking, as it is the first decision in the matter of the “digital divide” in Europe. According to the Center, the COVID-19 pandemic clearly demonstrated the fundamental importance of access to the Internet for the lives of individuals and society, including its necessity to modern education.

“This is why, in several countries, access to the Internet is officially recognized as fundamental human right. The state is not obligated to provide Internet access to all, but if it conditions access to education on the obligation to access sufficient technological equipment and Internet connections, as in this case, just to access distance education online, then it should have provided Romani children from marginalized communities with equal access to the Internet and to the necessary digital technologies and skills,” the Center for Civil and Human Rights said, adding that if the state was unable to introduce such measures, then it should have provided effective primary education through other means than digital technology.

The Education Ministry, which represented the state in this case, rejected the allegation that it had discriminated against the pupil. By introducing distance instruction, pupils’ constitutional right to education was preserved, in the ministry’s view.

Now that the judgment has been delivered, the ministry said it will decide what to do next after studying the District Court’s decision.