When they say Roma do not want to go to school tell them this story

11 May 2017

By Đorđe Jovanović

In 2013 in France, several Romani families living in an informal settlement in Ris-Orangis (Essonne) made a formal request for school enrolment of 12 children. The mayor created a separated class for these children in an isolated room in a sports centre without any connection to any regular school instead of enrolling them in schools located in that municipality.

The families together with several NGOs referred to the Administrative Court of Versailles, asking it to cancel the measure taken by the mayor. Moreover the French Ombudsman provided observations in support of this request. It took almost four years to achieve justice for these children. With its judgment of 16th of March 2017, the Administrative Court of Versailles recognised the illegality of this separated class based on ignorance of the principle of equal access to public services in the field of education.

In fact, the court noted that these children are “exclusively Romanian citizens of Roma ethnic origin”, separated from the other children enrolled in primary or middle schools in the municipality, and denied access to services related to education, were put in a situation less propitious than the other pupils enrolled in regular schools in the municipality

The judgment is OK but my question is who is going to compensate these children for being subjected to such derogating treatment by being schooled in sport centre segregated from all other children just for being Roma?

Nevertheless, this court ruling stands as a victory for us - please tell this story of how these parents struggled for their children’s education when they tell us that we Roma do not want to go to school.