Czech media - and some mayors - scaring the public over Romani children in nursery schools
There is great confusion and misinterpretation underway in the Czech press regarding the measures to support nursery school attendance anticipated by the Czech Government Strategy for the Fight against Social Exclusion 2011 – 2015. The measures are meant to boost the nursery school attendance of children from socially excluded localities. The state will require a certain number of places be allocated to them, pay the costs associated with their attendance, and link their attendance to their parents' welfare benefits. Many media outlets and even mayors are interpreting this to mean that all Romani people will automatically attend nursery school for free, since the often reside in socially excluded localities. The proposal, however, counts on evaluating every socially deprived family individually. "Nowhere does it say that all children from socially excluded localities will get free nursery school. Child protection services will decide who gets to attend f