The Gandhi Secondary School and the more than eight hundred students who took their school-leaving examinations there „convey the message that the Roma integration efforts genuinely make sense”, Zoltán Kovács, Minister of State for Social Inclusion of the Ministry of Human Resources stated on Wednesday in Pécs at the jubilee ceremony of the school.

In his welcome speech, the Minister of State said that governments were for decades unwilling to learn from the experiences of co-existence with our fellow citizens of Roma origin; however, the past four years have brought about major positive changes also in this respect.

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He reiterated that during Hungary’s 2011 EU Presidency, the cabinet created an international Roma framework strategy and a national inclusion strategy which sum up the problems that need to be resolved and which provide guidance. „We have set out on a path which will be long and winding, and we have recognised that we have mutual responsibility regarding the issues of the Roma. We must move forward hand in hand, by looking each other in the eye”, the Minister of State stressed.

Zoltán Kovács emphasised that it is not easy for the Roma to find recognition and appreciation, and it is, in some instances, difficult to get over their own lack of self-esteem; these are things that we all have to work for hard.

Péter Hoppál (Fidesz), Member of Parliament for Pécs said that Hungary and Europe have only been able to make progress in the adequate management of the situation of the Roma in the past few years. He reiterated that the wide-ranging cooperation launched in recent years with the involvement of various institutions, government players and stakeholders may be the guarantee for the advancement of people of Roma origin.

He added that the majority society must see that members of the Roma community have shown that they stand their ground very well in every walk of life, and to this end, people of Roma origin, too, must make efforts. He believes that the excellent performance of the Gandhi Secondary School serves this purpose, and the entire country has reason to be proud of this institution.

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Malay Misra, Indian Ambassador to Hungary said that the some eight hundred students who had completed their studies in the secondary school since 1994 have become qualified, constructive and useful members of society. He said that the institution has shown the way to the Roma in Hungary throughout its operation to date.

Gandhi is the only Roma minority secondary school in Hungary. Some 200 students attend the institution at present. The main emphasis is on skills development and personality development in the school, and students are prepared for the continuation of their studies and for finding their feet in the realm of work.

The institution is celebrating the twentieth anniversary of its operation with a series of programmes all day long. Among others, students whose lives and careers may serve as an example for present-day students delivered lectures as part of an extraordinary community class. An Indian room was also inaugurated in the school; in its spirit as well as in its physical appearance, this room invokes the origin and ties of the Roma people, and pays tribute to the eponym of the secondary school, Mahatma Gandhi. The Gandhi Secondary School will render the 20th anniversary more memorable with a twenty-hour-long story recital; students of the Gandhi Secondary School, parents, teachers and Roma story-tellers will tell stories in the community hall of the school from ten at night until six in the afternoon the next day.

(Ministry of Human Resources)