News

To: Ms Meglena Kuneva

Minister of Education and Science

OPEN LETTER

By representatives of civil society organizations and teachers working to improve young people's access to quality education

Dear Mrs. Kuneva

We definitely support the project "Support of Roma students for successful completion of secondary education" by the Center for Educational Integration of Children and Students from Ethnic Minorities, and the cooperation of the Ministry of Education for its realization! We urge the Ministry to expand its efforts to implement the policy for educational integration set out in the Strategy for Educational Integration (approved by the Minister of Education in June 2015) and the National Strategy for Roma Integration (approved by Decision of the National Assembly by March 1, 2012 years)!

Investment in improving the access of Roma girls and boys to quality secondary education is an investment in the development of Bulgarian education and Bulgarian economy. It is well known that Bulgaria has the fourth lowest economic activity rate of young people up to 30 years in the EU and ranks second in Europe in the share of young people who are neither employed nor in education or training. This is one of the main obstacles to increasing GDP and overall economic development. As the forecast of the World Bank for Bulgaria in the next thirty years, published two months ago, pointed out "young and often low-skilled persons of Roma origin are increasingly important source to replenish the labor market. Roma already provided from 9 to 19% of new workers and their share is likely to increase substantially ... "The primary task of national interest is young Roma to be well educated and skilled, which requires a sharp increase in the percentage of Roma with secondary education.

According to the last census, fewer than 10% of Roma in Bulgaria have secondary education compared to 35% of Bulgarian Turks and 78% of ethnic Bulgarians. This serious educational imbalance requires targeted measures to overcome it. The application of such measures cannot be regarded as discrimination against the rest of the students.

The given statistics show that currently young men and women of Roma origin are in a disadvantage compared with other children; have relatively much more limited opprtunities. Therefore, the use of incentives is needed that will overcome the difference, up to an equal start. Bulgarian Law for Protection against Discrimination explicitly defined (Art. 7, p. 14) that the application of promotional measures to persons or groups of persons disadvantaged on the grounds of Art. 4 para. 1 in order to equalize their opportunities as far and while these measures are necessary, is not constituted as discrimination. In this respect Bulgarian legislation accurately and consistently transpose the requirements of Directive 2000/43 of the Council of the European Union.

Currently, more and more Roma boys and girls enrolled in secondary schools. Unfortunately, many of them drop out or have a large number of unexcused absences and low success thus fail to finish twelfth grade and do not receive a high school diploma. An indicator of this is the fact that the grouping schools according to the risk of early leaving, committed by MES for the needs of the project "Your Lesson", in group 1 (ie schools with the highest risk) more than half of the schools (39 total 74) were secondary schools with a high percentage of Roma students. The reasons are associated with low social status of the families, the need for students to travel daily to another village, remnants of patriarchal practices that prevent girls' education and others.

Many schools and teachers, as well as NGO-s take serious efforts to overcome those problems. Schools buy transport cards and textbooks from their limited delegated budget. Over 360 students receive support from 15 organizations and the Trust for social achievement within the program "Equal opportunity: access to secondary education," as the results of the 2015/16 academic year showed that supported students achieve success at national external evaluation, which is higher than the national average. It is the Ministry of Education to support the efforts of dozens of secondary schools and hundreds of teachers to facilitate the access of Roma young people to secondary education. "Support of Roma students for successful completion of secondary education" is a good start in this direction and deserves all the support of both the citizens and the administration.