Minister says giving Romany children equal access to education still a problem

Giving Romany children equal access to mainstream education may take years, Education Minister Ondřej Liška said in response to a critical report by the European Roma Rights Centre on Thursday. The report said that many Romany children were still being placed in special schools for children with learning problems and handicaps which dramatically lowered their chances of later integrating in society. A number of government programmes in aid of Romany children were introduced within the 2005 education reform but minister Liška said it was too soon to see results. He said he expected a marked improvement by 2011.