Czech Republic

Roma children continue to receive inferior education in segregated Czech schools, despite a court ruling ordering the Czech Republic to end their discrimination, Amnesty International said Jan. 13. In a report launched in Prague, the human rights group said the Roma children are still placed in schools designed for children with mild mental disabilities, or in segregated elementary schools that provide second-rate education. The activists said that ordinary elementary schools remain unprepared and unwilling to adjust to the needs of the Roma pupils. "Segregation in education is unlawful but, unfortunately, it is still practiced in the 21st Century in the European Union," the report's author, Fotis Filippou, told reporters. (DPA)