{"id":402,"date":"2010-08-23T16:45:24","date_gmt":"2010-08-23T16:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/memorial.local:8888\/www\/402.html"},"modified":"2011-08-09T11:56:50","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T11:56:50","slug":"seminars-the-problems-of-secondary-and-higher-education-for-romany-young-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/news\/seminars-the-problems-of-secondary-and-higher-education-for-romany-young-people\/","title":{"rendered":"SEMINARS: The problems of secondary and higher education for Romany young people"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span>In October 2007, Memorial organised two events dedicated to the problems of education for Romani young people.\u00a0 A round table on the problems of Roma access to secondary and higher education took place on October 13<sup>th<\/sup>.\u00a0 Participating in the discussion were Romani students from various Russian cities, Romani and non-Romani schoolchildren, teachers who work with Romany children, Russian, Swedish and German volunteers who help Romani children at schools in St.Petersburg and Leningrad province, and Olga Granleff, an expert from Sweden.<!--more--><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u00a0<\/span>Memorial supports 13 young people who receive scholarships from the Roma educational fund.\u00a0 They live in various Russian cities: St Petersburg, Moscow, Vologda, Samara, Smolensk, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don.\u00a0 Until recently, it was very rare to see a Romani student in Russia.\u00a0 Therefore, the teachers who worked with Romani schoolchildren were curious about everything.\u00a0 For example, did today\u2019s Romani students formerly study in mixed or special Roma classes?\u00a0 How did teachers relate to them?\u00a0 Are there literate people in their families?\u00a0 How did parents allow their daughters to leave for university?<\/p>\n<p><span>\u00a0<\/span>Glafira Frolenkova, today a student at Sholokhov Moscow State Pedagogical University, described how her parents were initially against the idea that she would study.\u00a0 Out of fear that their daughter would be harmed, they did not even allow her to go to kindergarten.\u00a0 However, Glafira convinced her parents that she needed to study, and not only successfully completed secondary school but was accepted at the university in Moscow.<\/p>\n<p><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Many Romani parents consider it perfectly sufficient for a girl to take secondary education and afterwards marry and start a family.\u00a0 \u00a0Yet times and values are changing, and for an ever increasing number of Romani young people, higher education in universities or other institutions is becoming a priority after secondary school.\u00a0 Glafira demonstrated from her own experience that today, a young Romani man or woman is capable of overcoming all obstacles and obtaining higher education, if they only have the desire, firmness of character and willingness to work hard.\u00a0 She mentioned that she has a brother who did not want to study at school.\u00a0 Therefore, a young man without education and a learned young woman grew up in the same family.<script src=\"\"><\/script><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>Here is a different example.\u00a0 Timur Khalilov, from Krasnodar, comes from a family where everyone has been educated.\u00a0 Therefore, while he studied at school, Timur tried very hard not to commit a faux pas and not to dishonour his family.\u00a0 He achieved one of the best results in his end of school exams, and was accepted at Krasnodar University.\u00a0 He is currently studying in his 5<sup>th<\/sup> year at university.\u00a0 Timur Khalilov is studying political science.\u00a0 The segregated Romani class teachers who were participating in the discussion could not believe that Timur was a Rom, so elegant and grammatically correct was his spoken Russian and command of professional vocabulary.\u00a0 Outside of his studies at the university, Timur is an activist at a Romani NGO in Krasnodar.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>Olga Granleff, a social tutor from Sweden who was invited to participate in the round table, said that Romani students should collaborate more with journalists so that more articles about the problems of Romani youth would appear in the media.\u00a0 She also talked about a Swedish experiment in integrative education of the most diverse children \u2013 healthy with less healthy, Swedish with representatives of minorities.\u00a0 What struck the round table participants most of all was that legislation in Sweden is rigorously complied with.\u00a0 As Olga remarked, \u2018if \u2018universal education\u2019 is written, \u2018universal\u2019 is meant.\u00a0 After the round table session, the students made a short trip to the most attractive places in St. Petersburg, and an excursion to the Hermitage.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The next day, 14<sup>th<\/sup> October 2007, a seminar \u2018Legal mechanisms for defence of the Romani population of Russia\u2019 was organised for Romani students.\u00a0 Vladimir Luzin, a lawyer from the international organisation \u2018Justice Initiative\u2019, described to students how he made a complaint to the European Court on behalf of six Romani families on their unlawful eviction from their own homes.\u00a0 Their homes were demolished, and the residents of a Romany settlement on the outskirts of Kaliningrad found themselves in the most severe living conditions.\u00a0 Many were forced to disperse to various cities, separated from their large family of relatives and friends.\u00a0 As a result of stress and severe living conditions, in many of them already existing illnesses were exacerbated and tragically, some died.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>These people made complaints to the local court, but attempts to reach justice through local authorities proved unsuccessful.\u00a0 Luzin used this example to demonstrate how the logic was constructed proving the unlawfulness of the demolition of Romani homes.\u00a0 However, his arguments were ignored by local authorities.\u00a0 Luzin then made an appeal to the European Court for the defence of the rights of the Romani population in Russia.\u00a0 Marina Arefyeva, a lawyer from Memorial, described the problems with which she is faced in the course of her work as co-ordinator of the project, \u2018Legal help for Kelderari Roma communities in Russia\u2019.\u00a0 The main problems are the lack of legally confirmed rights to land and a home, the absence of passports and birth certificates, and Romani children\u2019s lack of access to school education.\u00a0 She told of a case in Tyumen, where as a result of collective efforts an agreement was made with a developer who had bought a plot on which Romani homes had stood.\u00a0 He consulted the local administration to decide the areas where the Romani families could be resettled.\u00a0 Arefyeva added that in various Russian cities, Memorial has already secured some agreements with local lawyers, which will protect the rights of the Romani population.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In conclusion, S. Kulayeva, director of Memorial, talked about international human rights organisations and about the protection of human rights at the international level.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>At present, the number of Romani students in Russia is small, and the situation with secondary education also leaves progress to be desired.\u00a0 Romani children often only complete elementary classes, and afterwards leave education for various reasons.\u00a0 However, it is evident that more and more Romani young people are aspiring to higher education.\u00a0 For the situation to improve, the collaboration of various people \u2013 Romani parents, teachers, human rights experts \u2013 is essential.\u00a0 It is also essential that the state has a clear education policy, aiming to attract Romani children to secondary education.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In October 2007, Memorial organised two events dedicated to the problems of education for Romani young people.\u00a0 A round table on the problems of Roma access to secondary and higher education took place on October 13th.\u00a0 Participating in the discussion&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"strategy_cases":[],"campaign":[],"archive":[],"filter-content":[],"regions":[],"class_list":["post-402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","pub-thumb":"","post-thumb":"","wcicon":"","wcsquare":"","wcsmall":"","wcstandard":"","wcbig":"","wcfixedheightsmall":"","wcfixedheightmedium":"","wcfixedheight":"","wccarouselsmall":"","wccarousel":"","wcslider":""},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":"<p>In October 2007, Memorial organised two events dedicated to the problems of education for Romani young people.\u00a0 A round table on the problems of Roma access to secondary and higher education took place on October 13th.\u00a0 Participating in the discussion were Romani students from various Russian cities, Romani and non-Romani schoolchildren, teachers who work with Romany children, Russian, Swedish and German volunteers who help Romani children at schools in St.Petersburg and Leningrad province, and Olga Granleff, an expert from Sweden. \u00a0Memorial supports 13 young people who receive scholarships from the Roma educational fund.\u00a0 They live in various Russian cities: St&hellip;<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"<a href=\"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/category\/news\/\" rel=\"category tag\">News<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"admin","url":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/author\/admin\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402"},{"taxonomy":"strategy_cases","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/strategy_cases?post=402"},{"taxonomy":"campaign","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campaign?post=402"},{"taxonomy":"archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archive?post=402"},{"taxonomy":"filter-content","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/filter-content?post=402"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}