as Chair of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI). It is clear from this experience as many of you have already articulated that minorities and minority ethnic groups including Roma, Sinti and Travellers and migrants experience discrimination in education. Consensus based decisions by the 56 participating OSCE States, the development of a Roma Contact Point with staff within the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights along with annual reviews of progress, form part of the OSCE’s response. With regard to education and addressing education disadvantage the OSCE is giving particular importance to pre-school education as a means of early promotion of the right to education. Much however remains to be done - not just in a few states but throughout the European region - to address the educational disadvantage, marginalisation and discrimination which act as barriers to the right to education for minorities and minority ethnic groups. Research and Annual Reports of the European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency underline this reality. Reports on Roma, Sinti and Traveller education point also to the continued existence in some places of segregated education provision and/or a lower quality than the mainstream, with educational outcomes very significantly below those experienced by the overall population.

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