Type Public school Gender co-educational Campus Urban | Established 1992 Language Hungarian, Romani Colour(s) Green, Red and Blue | |
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The Gandhi High School in Pécs, Hungary (in Romani: Gandhi (Mashkarutni Shkola ando Pech)), was founded with donations from several Romani organizations in 1992 to be the first Romani high school and has been running since 1994. It was named after the Indian Mahatma Gandhi, to emphasize the Indian origin of all Romani groups. The purpose of the middle school is to provide a school-leaving exam to improve the prospects of Romani children in Hungary and to foster pride in Romani culture.
The school is financed by the Hungarian government with additional funds from the EU and donations. The school consists of 6 classrooms where about 250 male and female pupils study, mostly until the ages of 14 to 18. There are also programs for adult education. The first group of pupils who started in 1994 took their school-leaving exam in 2000 and of 18 pupils, 16 have applied to universities and 7 have been taken up. Less than 1% of Romani in Hungary are university graduates. Although the school is open to all, currently only five non-Romani are enrolled.