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Ombudsman - Public protector of rights
TOČÍK, Marek
The paper tries to present comprehensive information about the ombudsman institution and its activities. The theoretical part focuses on description of ombudsman institution in general, the method of electing the Ombudsman and Ombudsman's scope. The European ombudsman and the ombudsman for children are also part of the work. The core chapters are focused on Ombudsman's role in problem of discrimination in Czech Republic. The main task for this thesis was to address the issue of ethnic discrimination of Roma people, especially in access to education. Another task was to try to describe the behavior of Roma's communities and decide whether there really is discrimination in education. Supposed discrimination of Roma people is a problematic political topic and lately it has been frequently discussed. The public administration is trying to resolve this issue but with little result. The issue of Roma people is fairy difficult and so the author of this thesis aims simply to present the topic, describing the functions of Ombudsman in discrimination and find possible solution that would be fit for both sides. The research part tries to react on a research called "Research on the ethnic composition of pupils former special schools" done by the Ombudsman's office. The first phase of this research was to map the number of so called "special purpose schools" and their location throughout the region. Main source for this mapping was the websites of Ministry of Education and South Bohemian Region of Czech Republic. The first objective was to look up all the special purpose schools in the region and then I asked headmasters of these school for information about the Roma people students. Eight school were willing to participate in the research. In the next phase the assistance of welfare workers and teachers who had the experience of working with Roma students was needed. According to the instructions a qualitative survey was conducted through interviews and information obtained are processed into clear diagrams. Due to my previous working experience and personal acquaintance of respondents the information collection was not much a problem. The number of Roma people students attending the special schools in South Bohemian Region was higher than the study from 2012 VOP. This was however previously assumed. Another outcome from the survey was that Roma kids are not discriminated throughout the schooling systems. This opinion was shared among the teachers and welfare workers alike. Respondents often mentioned the lack of preparedness for school attendance, lack of interest of the parents or the fact that Roma do not perceive education as a perspective for the future as a main reason for their exclusion from the mainstream education. Welfare workers also stated that kids are being placed into special purpose schools due to the request of their parents. Solution for this situation could be creation of pre-schools, especially for kids that did not attend the kindergarten. Despite the efforts, the state still fails to implement any truly useful solutions concerning the education of Roma pupils. According to respondents, it's mainly a fault of parents, who are not able to prepare their kids for proper school attendance. Conclusion is that although the discrimination of Roma people could be a problem, it is not primarily the state schooling systems fault, but also parents fault. Without mutual respect and sense of understanding on both sides, the problem will continue to deepen.
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