25.07.2010Meeting of Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Education of National Minorities
More than 70 officials and NGO representatives from Europe, Asia and
“Education has been and continues to be central to the work of successive OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities. It is crucial in all societies… In a multi-ethnic society, however, it is even more crucial because it promotes cohesion and integration between different ethnic groups.”, stated in his Opening remarks Mr. Knut Vollebaek, OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities. He outlined two crucial topics in this direction. The first one is intercultural education and language education: the modern educational system should provide the minorities with the chance to learn about their history, culture and language. The second one is the increasing trend towards segregated education in many OSCE States. “I am so concerned about the proliferation of parallel educational structures, where children of different ethnicity do not interact and grow up in parallel worlds. It is the task of governments, civil society activists and us to stress the importance of integrated education, explained the High Commissioner.
The meeting agenda included three main sessions: Facilitating integrated education in Schools, Access to higher education and Adult education. During these sessions presentations and statements from governmental officials and civil society activists were presented.
The issue of Roma education was one of the most frequently discussed. The Roma activists invited to the forum (Andrzej Mirga from OSCE ODIHR, Isabela Mihalache, Stanislav Daniel from ERRC, Irfan Martez from NRC –
Deyan Kolev, Chairman of Center Amalipe, presented three statements. The first one was about the preparation of new Public Education Act in