Fourth Session of the Forum on Minority Issues guaranteeing the rights of minority women (UN) 29-30 Nov, 2011 29, Nov. 2011 Presentation: Beata Bislim Olahova, Grants Programme Manager at Roma Education Fund: ‘Roma' is an umbrella term for the variety of Romani groups who might describe themselves as Roma, Gypsies, Manouches, Ashkali or Sinti. With a population of some 11 million, Roma are Europe's largest ethnic minority. There are Roma communities in almost all EU countries. Roma in Europe face greater hardship than the rest of the population. Many lack the education they need to find jobs. They often have shorter lives and reside in poor-quality housing.           Romani women face a number of barriers in accessing education as reflected in higher illiteracy rates among Romani women compared to Romani men and significantly higher compared to non-Romani men and women. Barriers commonly faced by Romani women are based on high rates of poverty and patriarchal traditions which result in lower expectations for Romani girls to complete education. Romani girls are burdened with family obligations from a very early age. These barriers are further deepened by the common practice of placing Romani children in special needs schools for the mentally handicapped. Romani children are often wrongly placed is such schools on the basis of inadequate categorizing by medical commissions and lack of economic possibilities that force Romani families to send their children to special schools as these schools result in less expenses. Lack of personal identity and house registration documents needed in order to enroll in school are fundamental barriers for Romani children’s access to education. In some regular schools Romani children are segregated along ethnic lines into Roma only classes. Language barriers and lack of positive models are still prevalent among large sectors of the Romani community and result in a further barrier for Romani girls to access education. According to a report published by UNDP which focuses on social vulnerability of Roma Refugees and IDP’s, Roma fall behind national average of literacy rates. Enrolment rates at school also show an alarming situation. While 71% of eligible ethnic Serbian children attend school, only 24% of eligible Romani boys and 14% of Romani girls do. In Kosovo, Gender, like human rights, cuts through all sectors and has an impact on all issues related to politics, economics and culture. In addition to the high level of poverty and unemployment in Kosovo, women are at a disadvantage to men in terms of employment, education, opportunity for choice and active participation in public life. Gender disparities are greater after primary school, especially in rural areas. The situation is alarming amongst the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian: 78% of female and 62% of the males is out of secondary school and only 1.4% has finished secondary school. In Macedonia, the net enrolment rate of majority females to secondary schools is 74% while its only 13% for Roma females 1