ABC NEWS: The Czech Republic has failed to comply with a European court order to stop placing healthy Gypsy children in schools for the mentally disabled, Amnesty International said Thursday…
In a report, the human rights group said it found that Gypsies, or Roma, still make up almost 30 percent of the students in schools for those with mild mental disabilities, while the community makes up less than 3 percent of the country’s population.
“The widespread segregation of Romani children is a horrifying example of systematic prejudice, with schools introducing children to bitter discrimination at an early age,” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s secretary-general… (more)
EDITOR: A similar situation exists in Hungary. To the credit of the Hungarian, and the article is silent on the subject concerning the Czech, there is pre-school for children for two years prior to kindergarten. This is essential for helping Roma children to overcome the cultural differences between home and school.
Nevertheless, poverty in the Roma community is wide spread and these children are both undernourished and hungry at school. Feeding children is the most important thing to help them progress in school at a normal rate. Otherwise when they are tested many score as retarded and are sent to special schools.
Lancaster based American House Foundation, led by Richard Field a graduate of J. P. McCaskey HIgh School, among other efforts, provides bread and milk for children of 5000, mostly Roma, impoverished Hungarian families.
