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Two articles included in this release.

Roma Girls - Education

UNESCO Meeting Will Focus on Education for Roma Children

Paris, 3 September – Education for Roma children will be the focus of a meeting organized by UNESCO and the Council of Europe on 10 and 11 September 2007 at UNESCO Headquarters. Entitled “Towards quality education for Roma children: transition from early childhood to primary education”, the meeting will bring together experts from fifteen European countries.

The educational level of the Roma population, which suffers from poverty, unemployment and discrimination, is generally much lower than the average. In Europe, for instance, as much as 50% of Roma children fail to complete primary school. In Central and Eastern Europe, 50% to 80% of Roma children enrolled in school are still systematically routed into “special schools” established in the 1950s and 1960s for children with learning disabilities (Source: Council of Europe, 2006). They are also under-represented in pre-primary school............

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http://www.unicef.org/romania/education_1617.html

Quality Education for Vulnerable Groups

© UNICEF/Romania015/Bivol

Roma girl - also has the right to schooling

In poor Roma communities, many girls drop out of school early in order to help out in the household. This impedes their ability to complete their education, gain employment and be in control of their lives. In traditional Roma and rural communities girls generally marry and have children very young. A study carried out in 2002 by The Research Institute for the Quality of Life revealed that 66% of girls in Roma communities marry before the age of 18, and the number of pregnancies before that age has also increased in recent years. The parents do not have faith in the school and because of the hardships of transition, which has led to an increase in the unemployment rate, they cannot see a connection between schooling and getting a job. 

The Romanian curriculum needs to be improved from a gender-sensitive perspective, in order to reflect the realities of today’s world.

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