In Albania, the Commissioner for Protection from Discrimination is currently drafting, in collaboration with experts from the Council of Europe, a feasibility study to avoid the segregation of students from national minorities in a school in Korça. The Strasbourg Court found the Albanian state guilty two years ago for violating the European Convention on Human Rights, on the separation of Roma and Egyptian children in a school in Korça, as well as for not implementing quick and comprehensive measures to avoid this phenomenon. . But commissioner Robert Gajda says for the Voice of America that the phenomenon was not only not reduced by concrete measures, but has already spread in several regions such as Shkodra, Korça, Elbasan and Berat, and has already become a concern on a national scale.
Even today, two years after the decision of the Strasbourg Court that blamed the Albanian state for segregating children in a school in Korça, the Commissioner for Protection from Discrimination, Robert Gajda, tells Voice of America that the situation there continues to remain the same: with maximum participation only of Roma and Egyptian children, with low quality in teaching, while the measures against this division are negligible.
This is the reason that the commissioner, together with experts from the Council of Europe, are drawing up a feasibility study on comprehensive measures for Albanian children and those from national minorities, to improve the situation in that school in Korça, measures that, according to him, need to be extended to the whole country, because this phenomenon has spread to many other provinces.
“Unfortunately, the phenomenon is widespread almost throughout Albania, except for some municipalities, where there are not many Roma and Egyptian communities. For the most part, especially in big cities, the phenomenon of segregation is widespread. The second problem is that the authorities, both of the government and of the respective municipalities, have already been informed for years about the segregation situation that they have in their realities, and we do not see any kind of serious division to deal with this problem. says commissioner Gajda.
From the observations of the activists and the complaints addressed to the commissioner by Roma and Egyptian family members, it appears that there are many schools in the country that are at risk of segregation and in conditions of separation, for which decisions have been made, where the elimination of this phenomenon, which affects human rights, social integration, coexistence and cultural diversity of the country.
Mr. Gajda says for the Voice of America that in schools filled to the maximum with only Roma and Egyptian children, the quality of teaching is low and those schools always rank last in the lists of educational results.
Even in primary schools with the exception of Roma and Egyptian children, according to him, the tendency to abandon them is also evident, due to the stigma and anathema from the surrounding society, a situation that can change first by using the criterion of residence , which has been violated to a large extent, bringing these consequences.
“Roma or Egyptian children are enrolled in only one or two schools in the city, which are overflowing with Roma and Egyptian children, while in other schools in the city there are no Roma and Egyptian children at all, or only one or more children enrolled. It is a situation where some schools in the city become impenetrable and inaccessible to Roma and Egyptian children for a number of reasons, while some other schools are overflowing with Roma and Egyptian children.” says Mr. Gajda.
The Office of the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner is also concerned about the high number of complaints about non-funding for the education of children from families in poverty and with economic assistance, where the Roma and Egyptian minorities are mostly included, who have been excluded from the scholarships for not abandoning school.
A very low number of these isolated students continue high school and even fewer of them attend university studies, leaving these communities not only without good education but also without quality representative voices such as teachers, civil society, non-governmental organizations and without specialists in social sciences to conduct studies on the condition and development of these national minorities and the protection of their rights.
