The Czech state wants to take away a part of welfare benefits from parents whose children do not attend school in order to improve education among Romanies. The new programme was presented by education and labour ministers, Josef Dobes (Public Affairs, VV) and Jaromir Drabek (TOP 09), in several places of the Usti region where a strong Romany community has been living. "Those who want support from the state must act responsibly," Drabek said. He said there is no need for big changes in laws because under the present legislation a number of welfare benefits may not be granted unless children regularly attend school. The ministers hope that higher education would help young Romanies find better jobs. Dobes said better education is the only way out of the current situation of Czech Romanies who suffer from high unemployment. He said many Romany children are placed into special schools for children with disabilities at the age of seven only because their command of Czech is not good enough. A child attending a special school has a markedly lower chance of being accepted to a secondary school. The new rules are to be introduced along with other measures that are to prevent welfare benefits from being misused, such as stricter checks and punishments of unregistered and untaxed incomes by the unemployed and a set number of hours of community work done by a person to be authorised to get unemployment benefits. Drabek admitted that it would be good to provide positive motivation for Romanies as well but he said the state did not have money to fund such a programme at present.
Prague Monitor
