Mayors from south-east want to encourage Roma to send their children to school

According to Novo Mesto Mayor Gregor Macedoni, the proposed changes to the Parental Protection and Family Benefits Act, Social Assistance Payments Act, Labour Market Regulation Act and the Drivers Act bring a systemic solution for children and youth from troubled social environments, including Roma communities.

Drawn up by the 11 mayors, the changes aim to create the conditions for a better future for children who are born into social environments where there is high probability for children not to finish primary school. There is some 1.5% of such children in Slovenia, Macedoni said.

In order to encourage finishing primary school, the mayors propose that only those who finish at least seven grades of primary school are allowed to obtain a driving licence. The changes do not take away welfare or child benefits but they make them conditional on regular school attendance.

The changes aim to enable a normal life and social inclusion to all those who live on the social bottom, the mayor said.

The initiative was presented to National Assembly President Urška Klakočar Zupančič last year and since no response came in six months, the mayors decided to collect signature of support to file the changes into parliamentary procedure.

Over 31,500 signatures of support were collected between 15 May and 15 July and submitted to the National Assembly last week. Each legislative proposal received between 7,600 and 8,200 signatures, well over the 5,000 required.

The changes were written primarily for the Roma community but as the signatures were being collected people pointed to other environments where children do not attend school, mostly in families where parents had not finished primary school either.

Macedoni thus stressed that the changes did not only target one ethnic group, which would be unconstitutional.

The mayors plan to visit all deputy groups to present them the changes.