REF Chair Andrzej Mirga Addresses RomaVersitas International Student Summit

Andrzej Mirga, Chair of the Roma Education Fund Governing Board, spoke on the occasion of the opening of the first RomaVersitas International Student Summit held September 4-5, 2015 in Budapest, Hungary.

Andrzej Mirga, Chair of the Roma Education Fund Governing Board, spoke on the occasion of the opening of the first RomaVersitas International Student Summit held September 4-5, 2015 in Budapest, Hungary. What followed were two days of panels to provide participating RomaVersitas university students from Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Kosovo*, Macedonia, Moldova and Serbia as well as Roma university student observers from Croatia, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Romania and Slovakia, with a chance to learn from the experiences of business leaders, hear about professional and career opportunities within Europe, present their RomaVersitas experiences as well as interact and form new networks to strengthen their community. His introductory remarks at this historic occasion follow below. The full agenda is available here.

Andrzej Mirga

Dear Romani Students,
His Excellency Deputy Minister, Mr. Leon Djokaj,
Dear Roma Education Fund Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my honor to open and welcome you to the RomaVersitas Summit. This is one but prominent event in a series that will take place to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Roma Education Fund. I am particularly glad to see you here in such a number. It is an event to celebrate you, Romani  students, supported by REF across the Decade country’s region.

For 10 years now, the Roma Education Fund has worked to close the gap in educational outcomes between Roma and non-Roma. Towards this end REF has developed a substantial body of good practice whether in nurseries, kindergartens, schools or universities.  Some data can illustrate this the best:

  • 72 percent of REF grants and 50 percent of overall REF spending target Roma children. REF runs preschool/kindergarten enrollment projects in all of its focus countries.
  • REF primary education projects, among other, targeted Roma children at most risk of early leaving and supported 19,001 pupils, in 2014.
  • A total of 5,432 students from eight countries received secondary school scholarships and school-based mentoring, in 2014.
  • Since 2005 almost 7,000 Romani students from 16 countries have received university scholarship support.
  • Today, REF provides support to about 1,500 students in 16 countries each year through four scholarship schemes.
  • RomaVersitas program currently supports 475 students.

In realizing its mission, that is, closing this gap, REF itself cannot reach that goal. That is why essential part of REF mission is to serve governments with its accumulated expertise and model interventions. Ultimately, systemic change towards inclusive and integrated education can happen with decisive state policy. REF advocates for more engagement of central and municipal education authorities for introducing such a change that would work to ensure better education outcomes and open prospects for Roma youth in future, in particular, at the labor market.

REF had proved throughout its initiatives that there are ways to successfully overcome systemic challenges within the educational arena. REF’s scholarships schemes are perfect examples here. REF encourages governments to institutionalize scholarship schemes as an effective tool to overcome barriers in education and provide incentives to Roma children and parents to seek and continue education. This is an area where you, alumni of REF scholarship should speak up, to the governments and to the public, because you should be resembling the success stories of these schemes.

I would say even more: REF mission must be guided by the vision that invested funds in activities and programs should multiply the effects and outcomes for the Roma community, in the long-term. The aim here is not to design a short-term projects but to set up a mechanism that would generate tangible outcomes. What should be or could be this mechanism (or these mechanisms) about?

We request many things from the state and education authorities and we feel we are justified in our requests. But shouldn’t we think also about ourselves: What should be your roles, as the alumna’s of the REF scholarships programs and beneficiaries of these schemes here? I would like invite you to reflect on this question.

At the end, I would like to share with you one my experience. I was teaching at Rutgers University (New Jersey State University) between 1999 and 2003. What did I find there most surprising? The number of African-American students studying there. I was both surprised and jealous: could I see ever similar number of Roma students studying somewhere here in Europe? That thought rested with me for a long time.  Until 2014, when ternYpe, a network of Roma youth organizations, brought to Krakow and former Nazi extermination camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau around thousand Romani students, majority of them young. I really enjoyed seeing them all in one place, taking over the building and surroundings of the Krakow Pedagogical Academy and conducting all kind of activities for nearly a week.  We need such events.  We need such a large number of you not only for the sake of Roma community’s future, but also for changing the general public’s image of Roma. Rising Roma students, a future Roma elite, is something that we all need the most

I wish you a fruitful debate but also a good time here. Thank you for listening to me. Now, I would like to invite His Excellency, Mr. Leon Djokaj to take the floor.

 

*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.