In the procedure initiated upon Praxis complaint, the Commissioner for Protection of Equality established that the Primary School “Djura Jaksic” from Kikinda discriminated against pupils of Roma nationality by removing the Romany language with elements of national culture from the school curriculum for the 2012/2013 school year.

Specifically, since 2005/2006 school year, the subject Romany language with elements of national culture has been taught as an optional subject in this school which is located near the Roma settlement Mali Bedem in Kikinda. At the end of 2011/2012 school year, the school teacher of Romany language with elements of national culture conducted a preliminary poll according to which nineteen parents stated that they wanted their children to attend Romany language with elements of national culture lessons. Even though this information was forwarded to the Primary School “Djura Jaksic” from Kikinda, the school has not conducted the poll about the needs of Roma children or given the children the possibility to attend these lessons, but offered them other optional subjects to choose from.

The Instruction on forming classes and the manner of financing in primary and secondary schools envisages that the required number of pupils interested in learning an optional subject cannot be less than 15 per group, and that groups are formed per classes. If groups contain less than 15 pupils, schools have the possibility to seek consent of the Minister of Education to organize the teaching.

In its opinion, the Commissioner for Protection of Equality established that, according to evidence that nineteen Roma children were interested in learning Romany language with elements of national culture, the school had omitted to conduct a poll, especially bearing in mind that this subject had been taught as an optional subject in this school in previous years.  Furthermore, the Commissioner stated that the education of Roma children was a particularly important question which should be given the greatest attention, and that the school should have been particularly careful when deciding to remove this subject from the school curriculum.

The Commissioner for Protection of Equality stated in its opinion that the Primary School “Djura Jaksic” had failed to undertake all necessary measures in order to enable pupils to learn Romany language with elements of national culture as an optional subject in the 2012/2013 school year, and thus indirectly discriminated against the pupils, which is prohibited by the Article 7, and in relation to the Articles 19 and 24 of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination.

Finally, the Commissioner has issued a recommendation to the school to conduct a poll among the pupils in order to establish whether there are enough children interested in learning the Romany language with elements of national culture and to organize teaching of this optional subject should the results of the poll indicate that there is the needed number of interested children. The Commissioner also recommended to the school to undertake all necessary measures within its competence and powers in order to enable children of all national minorities to exercise the right to education in their mother tongue.

In Serbia, Romany language with elements of national culture is taught in several schools in Vojvodina and exclusively as an optional subject.

See: Opinion and Recommendation of the Commissioner (Serbian only)