NGOs Visit Hungary to Find Successful Practices on Roma Education and Desegregation
09 February 2014
The Desegregation and Action for Roma in Education (DARE) Network gathered for a three-day exchange visit in Hungary to visit schools where good practices of desegregation projects are implemented, and to discuss successful practices on school desegregation and access to quality education for Romani children.
The visit was organised by the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) in collaboration with the Chance for Children Foundation, a Hungarian NGO engaged in litigating school segregation and ensuring equal access and quality education for Romani children in Hungary.
Network partners visited the local primary school in Hejőkeresztúr where a successful integration project of Romani and disadvantaged children is being implemented through various innovative programmes such as group work, board games and talent care. The methodology of teaching adopted by this school is recognised as a best practice for integration in Hungary.
The network partners visited a Romani settlement in Nyíregyháza where a segregated school was closed down in 2007 as a result of legal proceedings launched by the Chance for Children Foundation to eliminate the segregation of Romani children. However, the school was reopened by the Greek Catholic Church in cooperation with the local municipality in 2011 and has continued to operate as a segregated Romani school. The Chance for Children Foundation has launched a civil claim against the Church and the local municipality in order to close the segregated school down and bus children to other mainstream schools.
During their visit, the network partners visited an after-school programme facility in Budapest IXth District, where they met with project coordinators, teachers and Romani students participating in the after-school programme. The aim of this programme is to provide help for students with their core subjects and to help their integration into various schools. The programme also provides activities in order to facilitate community development.
As a final programme, the exchange partners visited the Headquarters of the Roma Education Fund in Budapest, where they got an insight into the work of the organisation and its different grant and scholarship programmes offered to Romani students.
The members of DARE-Net are: Integro Association (Bulgaria), Life together Association (Czech Republic), ANTIGONE (Greece), European Roma Rights Centre (Hungary), Romani CRISS (Romania), as well as FXB Centre for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. The DARE-Net project succeeded in creating a trans-national network of Roma and non-Roma civil society and academic organisations to analyse practices and initiatives relating to Roma education and school desegregation of Roma children in Romania, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.
More information on the project is available here.
The DARE-Net project is financially supported by Lifelong Learning Programme – European Commission
For further information, please contact:
Sinan Gökçen
Media and Communications Officer
European Roma Rights Centre
Tel. +36.30.500.1324
sinan.gokcen@errc.org
