Czech Romanies get to university thanks to preparatory course

More than half of Romanies who attended a preparatory course aimed at helping Romany students to get to university have been admitted, Barbora Subrtova from the Slovo 21 (Word 21) civic group that organised the course within the Pale o vudar – to Open the Door project told CTK today.

Of the 24 Romany students who attended the course, 14 have been admitted to universities, she said.

In all, 30 people attended the preparatory course in Usti nad Labem, north Bohemia, Plzen, west Bohemia, Olomouc and Ostrava, north Bohemia, and Karlovy Vary, west Bohemia, and 24 of them applied for entrance exams, Subrtova said.

Most of them applied for social and special pedagogical studies. Two of the participants successfully passed entrance exams to the Olomouc University Law Faculty, Subrtova said.

The course was organised for the third time. In the previous two years, 30 Romanies got to universities thanks to the preparatory course, she said.

According to a poll conducted last year by the Romany Dzeno civic group among 200 Romany parents, one-fifth of them would like their children to have university education.

However, according to the U.N. Development Programme, most of Romany children in the Czech Republic only have elementary school education – some 36 percent. About 16 percent of Romany children finish apprentice schools and only 5 percent complete secondry school education.

Only one in 300 Romanies acquire a bachelor’s degree and one in 300 Romanies acquire a master’s and engineering degree.