Education is the only way out of poverty and exclusion for Roma
4 Apr 2014 04:07 PM
Around 90% of Roma pupils leave school before
the completing their studies in Member States such as the Slovak Republic,
Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. In some of these
countries, around 50% of Roma children are in segregated
schools.
Last week (4 April), Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner
for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, discussed what the EU is
doing to help address this problem and other issues which affect Roma
integration when she takes part in the European Roma Summit in
Brussels.
"Providing quality education for all is not
only a question of human rights. It is the only way out of poverty and
exclusion for millions of Roma. I find it unacceptable that in some countries
around half of all Roma pupils are in special schools. We have to join forces
to fight segregation and discrimination, including by looking at the way in
which schools are funded, set up and operated," said
Commissioner Vassiliou ahead of the event.
Since 2011, Roma education integration measures
have been implemented across the EU with the support of the European Social
Fund and the former Lifelong
Learning Programme.
In
addition, the ROMED programme, jointly funded by the European Commission and
Council of Europe, has trained around 1 300 Roma mediators whose aims include
encouraging Roma families to keep their children in education until the
completion of their studies.
In
2013-2014, the European Commission is allocating €1 million for 'ROMED
II', with a special emphasis on promoting the role and influence of women,
in contacts between Roma communities and local municipalities and as mediators
for young girls.
The European Roma Summit will also take stock
of how national Roma strategies are being implemented and if they are improving
the life of Roma communities. The event will be streamed live online.
Other speakers at the event will include European
Commission President José Manuel Barroso, the President of Romania
Traian Băsescu, Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria Zinaida Zlatanova and
Ministers and State secretaries from nine other EU Member States.
Non-government speakers include George Soros, chairman of the Open Society
Foundations and Zoni Weisz, survivor from the Roma holocaust (seeIP/14/317).
Last month, Commissioner
Vassiliou visited a number of education projects in the Roma communities of
Bucharest with Mr Soros and Remus Pricopie, the Romanian Minister of
Education.
For more information
European Roma Summit
EU and Roma
ROMED
European Social
Fund
Androulla Vassiliou's website
Follow Androulla Vassiliou on Twitter @VassiliouEU