engleski

Breaking the Glass Ceiling: The Necessity of Implementing “Roma Quotas” for Direct Enrolment in Higher Education Institutions

The Republic of Croatia has adopted the National Roma Inclusion Strategy for the period 2013–2020. In the field of higher education, Croatia wants to “increase by 2020 the number of Roma minority members who complete higher education and those who continue postgraduate studies”. In most institutions of higher education, candidates are ranked on the basis of the success of their leaving exams (maturity diploma, državna matura), which is why members of the Roma population are virtually disqualified from enrollment. Under the conditions in which about 70 percent of the Roma children in Croatia do not finish primary education, and only 10 percent finish secondary education, the number of the Roma who are studying or have completed higher education is extremely low. Unemployment, poverty, income only from welfare, illiteracy, unresolved housing issue, inability to pay children transport to school, certainly affect the outcome of Roma education, but this does not diminish the responsibility of institutions in securing the right of every child to realise their full educational potential. The introduction of direct enrollment quotas for the Roma is therefore not only an ethical or technical, but a civilisation and existential issue and a direct contribution to the inclusion of the Roma and breaking the glass ceiling in the academic community and society.

roma ; high education ; destigmatization

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