Diary Education news
Increasing number of Roma students
The largest interest is registered for the law studies, the philosophy studies, the pedagogical and the medicine studies
Lawyers, philosophers, teachers, philosophers, doctors. Those are the five professions that attracted the largest interest of the Roma students that enrolled into faculty in the year 2008/09. Around 15 percent (32 students) from total of 211 Roma students in the last year, have enrolled on law studies in the faculties across the country. The number of Roma students on the philosophy faculty is almost identical (30 students), while 29 students have decided to study on the Pedagogical faculty, 16 on philological and 11 on the medicine studies. The wish and the conscience of the importance of finishing faculty at the young Roma is increasing constantly. In 2007/2008 there were total of 211 Roma students on all faculties, while this year, the number increased to 260 students.
On the state’s University of St. Cyril and Methodeus, there are 230 Roma students accepted on the faculties. From the University governance said that the practice of increased number of Roma students should continue to increase.
In the past years there were quite a few young Roma that wanted to study and very small number of young Roma that got an employment. That was a turning point for the young Roma, who now realize much more how the education is influencing their quality of life. They now should be more aware with the challenges of the modern society – say people from the St. Cyril and Methodeus University.
They say that a big positive influence for the positive trends are the scholarships given by the Ministries and the NGO’s, which act as an additional impulse for the Roma that want to study.
From the private Univeristies – FON, European and the University of South Eastern Europe in Tetovo said that the number of Roma students is very small. According to their estimation, the poverty is the key reason behind this situation. However, they also confirm that the largest number of Roma students want to study on the Law studies.
The education is becoming one of the top priorities for the Roma community.
According to the NGO’s this is the result of the increased awareness of Roma about the importance of the education as a crucial segment in people’s lives. However, representatives from NGO’s say that the activities of the civil sector are the reason why these positive trends started to emerge.
In the past year there were 13 Roma students graduates. According to representatives from the Ministry of education this number is small, but they say that the positive thing is that these two couple of years brought far more Roma students on the faculties than the previous. The ministry is giving scholarships for the best students, which is an additional motive for those who want to finish higher education.
The students are aware about the lack of well educated Roma people. Therefore, they aim to increase the living standards in their community, and the best way for them to achieve that is exactly trough the education.
Ines Mustafovska
