News

The second partners meeting within the frames of CORE project took part in Tirgu Muresh, Romania. Representatives of all project partners from Bulgaria, Romania, Luthvania, Norway, Germany and Portugal met and discussed aspects of Roma educational integration at national and European levels. The meeting was host in the office of Liga pro Europa. As one of the project partners, Center Amalipe was represented by Deyan Kolev and Teodora Krumova.

Opening the meeting, Mrs Smaranda Enache, co-chair of Liga pro Europa explained that Transilvania is multi-ethnic and multi-religious region. The relationship among different ethnic groups have been sometimes controvertial and there were even ethnic crashes between Romanians and Hungarians in 1990, explained Mrs Enache. Nowadays the majority shares deep anti-Roma prejudices and discriminatory attitudes. That is why the main activities of Liga pro Europa are for promoting the rights of Roma: in education as well as in the othe fields. Mrs Enache specially thanked to Center Amalipe which partnership within Daphne and PROGRESS programs opened the commmnity development perspective in the work of LPE, facilitated employing Roma staff and lead to deepening the work at grass-root level.

During the first day of the meeting the partners discussed the precess of collecting good practices in the field of education of Roma communities. Profesor Horst Rolly introduced draft questionairy that will be filled out by the project partners and will be used as basis for preparing a special report to Euroopean Commission.

During the second day, Angelika Moldovan (expert on Roma language education in  the Regional Inspectorate of Education) introduced the system of Roma education in Romania and in Muresh county. She explained that Roma children have the opportunity to study all subjects in Romani language from 1 to 4 grades: textbooks in Romanes  are published by Ministry of Education and teachers are trained. This opportunity is used in 18 schools in Muresh county. Nevertheless, most of Roma parents prefer to enroll their children in Hungarian classes because of the support provided by Hungarian government. Mrs Moldovan explained also about the system of “reserved seats” for Roma students in secondary schools and universities: there is quota for students from Roma origin that stimulated their enrollment. Nowadays, many Roma students are enrolled also out of these reserved seats. Nevertheless, early school leaving remains a problem for many Roma children in Romania – especially after 5 grade.

As part of the meeting the participants visited the Community Development Center in the village of Glodeni, established within “Promoting the social inclusion of young people in marginalized rural communities” project – a partner initiative of Amalipe, LPE and national Roma Centrum implemented in Bulgaria, Romania and Macedonia. The Center is situated in the local school and two Roma community moderators work there. It implements activities for strengthening the self-organization of young Roma people and facilitating job opportunities. The participants visited community meeting and after it they walked within the Roma neighborhood in Glodeni.    

Promoting the Integration of Roma in and through Education: Contribution to the Role of Education – Educating Educators (CORE) project is one year initiative of ADRA – Bulgaria foundation. The project is implemented in Bulgaria, Romania, Luthvania, Norway, Germany and Portugal with the financial support of European Commission, DG Education and Culture.