Education a Lockdown Luxury for Slovak Roma Kids

Misko lives in a Roma settlement in the eastern Slovak village of Kojatice. He has not seen a blackboard or duster since his school closed in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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With no computer, internet or smartphone, his only lessons these past few weeks have come in the form of papers prepared and printed by his teacher and delivered to his shack by activists from People in Need Slovakia, a human rights group.

Misko's experience is echoed across hundreds of poor Roma communities in Slovakia.

"Children from marginalised communities often live in extreme poverty — some don't even have a table and a chair where they can study, nor any writing equipment and least of all any quiet space to themselves," People in Need activist Lenka Zapotocka said.

"And mostly, they don't have parents who can help them with their homework in any way, because they are illiterate or very poorly educated too."

Over the past two months, Slovak public health officials have warned that coronavirus risks ripping through Roma settlements where infrastructure like plumbing and electricity is often lacking.

Yet less attention has been paid to the chronic education deficiencies plaguing Roma communities — and the likelihood that the virus will deal yet another blow to already-limited life opportunities.

Roma children gathering around a local elementary school in a Roma settlement in Trebisov, Slovakia before the coronavirus crisis. Photo: Miroslava German SirotnikovaNo more school

"Children in the marginalised communities have been excluded from education and...