Euros bring new meaning to being ‘gypped’
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Further to my post on the treatment of the Roma at the hands of EU countries, a great deal of the debate centred around the use of ‘special schools’ for upwards of 90+% of Roma children in countries like the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. I suppose that’s so much more palatable to debate and rationalize away to North American audiences than the practice of coercive sterilization of Roma women.
Can you imagine an entire group of people whose children….down to almost every single one is incapable of learning in a regular classroom setting? It might be possible to believe it – if you were reading about historical arguments against the education of North American slaves or reading the historical debate for the need of a ‘residential school’ system for Canada’s Aboriginal population.
Except, this is exactly what the governments of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary want us to believe in 2009. It might have even the slightest sliver of plausibility or creditability….except under the old Soviet system Roma children never made up more than 2.5% of any given population at ‘special’ schools for children with learning disabilities.
And yet, somewhere between the fall of the Soviet satellite system and the Velvet Revolutions there has been a sudden implosions in the cognitive abilities of Roma children; whereby over 90% of all children educated in the ‘special schools’ of Central Europe are Roma. What I have found is an interesting and obscure report which was submitted to the EU which detailed a great deal of ‘special’ and ‘interesting’ facts concerning the warehousing of Roma children in schools for the mentally disabled throughout Central Europe. The report is dated from March 2003 but given the same funding formula remains in place and the general European apathy towards all things Roma; I don’t suspect much of anything has changed other than racists of 2009 use a much more ‘nuanced’ argument than in the days of Jim Crow South. Check this out.
HUNGARY – SUMMARY
80. Between 1989 and 2003 we estimate that the number or Roma children in Special schools in Hungary increased from some 15,000 to 70,000.
81. During this same period the total financial transfers have been of the order of Euro 751.25 million.
82. Some Euro 75 million can be accounted for in terms of teachers salaries.
83. Some Euro 676.25 million remains unaccounted for.
CZECH – SUMMARY
84. Between 1989 and 2003 we estimate that the number of Roma children in Special schools in the Czech republic increased from 15,000 to 65,000
85. During this same period the total financial transfers have been of the order of Euro 850 million.
86. Some Euro 95 million can be accounted for in terms of teachers salaries.
87. Some Euro 755 million remains unaccounted for.
SLOVAK – SUMMARY
88. Between 1989 and 2003 we estimate that the number or Roma children in Special schools in the Slovak republic increased from 10,000 to 80,000.
89. During this same period the total financial transfers have been of the order of Euro 700 million.
90. Some Euro 54 million can be accounted for in terms of teachers salaries.
91. Some Euro 646 million remains unaccounted for.
CENTRAL EUROPE – SUMMARY92. The summary figures for Central Europe are provided in the graph below.
93. This shows that the number of children in Special schools are estimated to have risen from some 40,000 in 1989 to 215,000 in 2003 in spite of the prolonged discussions and undertakings with the European Union to reduce their number and in direct contravention of Article 13 of the European Treaty.
94. Some Euro 2.30 billion was transferred out to local authorities under the Special school scheme during this same period and around Euro 224 million can be accounted for in expenditures of extra teacher salaries.
95.This leaves, for Central Europe as a whole a total of some Euro 2..076 billion not being accounted for within the education domain.
Well, well. It looks like the Roma still have a great many lessons to learn about the art of boosting from their Euro-compatriots.
So much for the ‘Decade of Inclusion’ and all of which makes a mockery about the so-called scholarship funds allegedly set aside for Roma students throughout the the EU. But really now – if hardly any one Roma ever leaves the special schools for the mentally challenged – what is the point of scholarships for post-secondary training or education?
