ECMI Panel

The European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) is organising a panel on Education Policies for Roma Children in Europe at the conference "Tolerance, Respect and Human Rights". The aim of this panel is to evaluate ongoing policies and actions in Europe regarding the education of Roma children, especially in the new member states of the Council of Europe, and to contribute to the development of adequate education programmes for Roma children. Various models of education policy will be presented, with an emphasis on best-practice and those developed by Roma themselves. The panel will deal with questions of integrated vs. segregated education, linguistic issues and will draw on theory as well as practical experiences from several countries including Finland, Macedonia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. In conclusion, the panel will attempt to identify the conditions which might contribute to the success of a given model.

Keynote Speech (Thursday, 20 January)

Ms. Josephine Verspaget - Chair of the Specialist Group on Roma/Gypsies at the Council of Europe
"The activities of the Specialist Group on Roma/Gypsies concerning Roma and education in particular and overview of the recommendations of the Council of Europe on this subject."

ECMI Panel on Roma Education (Friday, 21 January)

Co-Chairs: Ms. Farimah Daftary - ECMI Research Associate, Flensburg, Germany

Discussant: Ms. Josephine Verspaget

Dr. Tove-Skutnabb Kangas - Institute for Language and Culture, Roskilde University, Denmark)
"Theoretical introduction and evaluation of the comparative performance of different models of minority education for Roma"

Ms. Miranda Vuolasranta - Ministry of Social Affairs, Helsinki, Finland
"Practical experience in the fiels of teacher training in Finland" 

Mr. Sejdo Jašarov - Roma Participation Program, Open Society Institute, Budapest, Hungary
"Participation of Roma in the formulation of education policies affecting them in Macedonia and Hungary"

Ms. Dimitrina Petrovna - Executive Director, European Roma RIghts Center, Budapest, Hungary
"The ERRC legal strategy to challenge racial segregation and discrimination in Czech Schools"