Indicator history

The Third Report on Portugal published by the Eurpean Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) states that Roma communities still suffer from social exclusion and encounter difficulties in their dealings with the majority population, local authorities and law enforcement officials. Access to education is one of the identified problems.

The report addresses the question of access to education for Roma children. According to the ECRI report, the school drop-out rate among Roma children is very high, as shown by the figures provided by the Portuguese authorities. There are very few Roma children who pursue their studies beyond the first cycle. The report identifies that Roma girls are particularly likely to leave school at a very early age for cultural reasons. 

The report adds that according to non-government sources there were fewer than ten Roma students in higher education.

In this report ECRI urges the Portuguese authorities to reinforce their efforts, in conjunction with Roma communities, to encourage regular school attendance by Roma children (p. 30).
 

Source

ECRI (2007), Third Report on Portugal, Strasbourg: Council of Europe, http://hudoc.ecri.coe.int/XMLEcri/ENGLISH/Cycle_03/03_CbC_eng/PRT-CbC-III-2007-4-ENG.pdf, Date of access: 27.02.2012.