The Czech Brno IQ Roma servis group will end at the end of this month its
three-year educational project that was focused on Romanies and was a success,
Veronika Vankova, head of the educational programme, told CTK today.
The project was designed to increase the level of Romanies' education and
qualification and improve their social and economic situation which has been
achieved, Vankova said.
More than 2000 people joined the project, mainly young people between 13 and 18.
One of its goals was to engage young Romanies to remain in the educational
process as long as possible and it has been fulfilled, Vankova said.
Eighty percent of ninth grade pupils involved in the project have submitted
applications to secondary schools and have been admitted, Vankova said.
"Individual contacts with applicants for secondary school studies showed visible
progress in their ability to define their personal goals corresponding with
their abilities. Before consulting only one-fifth of the clients were able to
set such a goal while it was more than one half after the consulting," she said.
"On the other hand, the share of young Romanies who have no goal or who set
unrealistic goals dropped from 66 to 39 percent," she added.
Apart from consulting on the choice of a suitable school, the project also
included the IT and foreign language courses as well as spare time activities.
More than 600 adults have also joined the project. IQ Roma service was assisting
in the search of work for them and in solving their legal obligations.
"One-fifth of the job seekers have found jobs and kept them. As 90 percent of
the clients have only basic education it was cleaning and production line jobs
or jobs in construction," project manager Wail Khazal told CTK.
IQ Roma service will draft a report after the end of the project in November
that will contain the proposals of possible systemic measures, for instance, in
the legislation that could lower the extent of Romanies' social exclusion.
