Upon the opinion of the Commissioner for Protection of Equality issued on the basis of the complaint filed by Praxis against the Nis City Administration – Administration for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport and the Primary School “Vuk Karadzic” from Nis for segregation and discrimination of Roma children, Praxis addressed the Commissioners with the plea to deliver the notification whether and to what extent the Administration has acted in accordance with the recommendation given in the opinion.
The representatives of the Administration for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport delivered the Proposal for Development of Plan of Measures for Solving the Problem in the Primary School “Vuk Karadzic” to the Commissioner for Protection of Equality. In order to develop the aforementioned plan, the meetings were held with a member of the Nis City Council in charge of social issues, representatives of the Administration for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development – Nis School Administration, republic and city inspectors, headmaster of Primary School “Vuk Karadzic”, pedagogical assistant in school, representatives of the Council for Human and Minority Rights, National Council of the Roma National Minority, local team for improvement of education of Roma, representatives of the Regional Centre for Professional Development of Employees in Education, and representatives of three non-governmental organizations (RNGO “Ponos”, Association of Roma “Cvetno srce” and “Centre for Active communication”.
The participants in meetings concluded that one of the main reasons for which more than 90% of Roma children attend the Primary School “Vuk Karadzic” is demographic composition of the population in the territory of the school, bad condition of the school building and also the fact that the existing legal regulation does not provide for the possibility of so-called administrative enforcement to enrol a child in certain school. This, according to their opinion makes this school less attractive than other schools in the territory of the City of Nis. Given that the problem of increased percentage of Roma pupils is very complex compared to pupils of other nationality and that it has been occurring over a long period of time, the participants agreed that it cannot be solved by one-time measured but through continuous application of a series of measures throughout a longer period of time. The proposed measures are divided in the following categories:
- Measures and activities directed at investing in the school building and procurement of contemporary equipment,
- Measures and activities directed at raising the level of knowledge acquired in preschools and motivating the parents to support the education of children,
- Measures and activities directed at the activities on improving the curriculum in the Primary School “Vuk Karadzic”.
- Measures and activities that will be carried out by the representatives of Roma non-governmental organizations, directed at raising awareness of Roma population about the importance of education and regular attendance of classes, as well as active work in the field, visiting families and distribution of adequate brochures and leaflets
- Measures and activities that include media coverage of the work of Primary School “Vuk Karadzic” and popularization of school in order to affect the enrolment of children of other nationalities in the following period.
Considering the complexity of proposed measures, which primarily require engagement of a larger number of actors not only at a local level also at the level of the state and competent Ministry, it is necessary to monitor the implementation of the proposed measures and effects of their application throughout the longer period of time. The evaluation will be done at the beginning of each school year, and the indicator will be the number of enrolled students of Roma and non-Roma nationality.
Given the seriousness of the consequences of segregation, it is necessary to carry out the proposed measures as efficiently as possible so that the first results would be soon seen and thus provide impetus for solving these problems in the following period.
Download: Proposals for Development of Plan of Measures for Solving the Problem of Segregation
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