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.

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 failure of the school 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, represents indirect discrimination prohibited by the Article 7 and in relation to the Articles 19 and 24 of the Law on the Prohibition of Discrimination.

For more information see: Primary School “Djura Jaksic” from Kikinda Discriminated against Roma Pupils in Access to Right to Education