egyszeruen a pofam leszakad, igy csak begepelem az ujsagcikket (az esetleges elutesekert elnezest elore is):
The Toronto Sun Monday March 1,
POPULATION EXPLOSION IN PARKDALE
Queen Victoria Public School has seen its student bodi increase by 20 % since September
With gold medals in fashion, maybe one could be awarded to school principal David Finkelstein and his teaching team a Parkdale's Queen Victoria Public School.
Their accomplishment? Dealing with the challenge posed by more than 130 Hungarian Roma students unexpectedly arriving since September - and counting, increasing the school's population by 20 %. Hardly a week has gone by when Queen Vicgtoria hasn't received more Hungarian Roma students - two weeks ago itt got another 14, last week it recieved seven.Other local school - Parkdale Junior and Senior and Parkdale Collegiate - have seen a rise too, though not as dramatic.The situation has become so extraordinary that local school trustee Irene Atkinson recently put it on a Toronto District School Board budget agenda, suggesting the board seek ore money from Ontario's education ministry to cope.
"It's the main thing we've been working with throughout the year" Finkelstein told me last week. He called the situation "fascinating" but also "a great challenge".
"We just reorganized (classes) this week because our Grade 4 and 5 classes had a bulge...we were getting up to 34, 35 kids a class..."
The Roma, sometimes called gypsies, have frequently been targets of racial discrimination and persecution, especially in eastern Europe where many live. It's the major reason they give when seeking international asylum. In 2008 - the year Ottawa lifted visa restrictions - Canada recieved 285 Hungarian refugee claims (most would be Roma). In 2009, that number spiked to 2,446. Most claimants head to Toronto.
Czech Roma were comming in big numbers, too. But federal visa changes last summer put a stop to that. Similar changes for Hungary are under consideration, but after European Union complaints about the Czech restrictions, speculation is Ottawa must move more diplomatically on Hungary, or risk EU retaliation. It's also speculated Hungary's current parliamentary election campaign, where anti-Roma politicians are expected to do well, is affecting the situation.
"I had one lady who had practically nothing done to her and I said, "Why did you come?" said Paul St. Clair, executivev director of Toronto's Roma Community Centre. "She said, "I'm afraid Hitler is coming back."
Mainwhile Queen Victoria, an already ethnically-diverse school where Tibetan-background students were the largest group, has been transformed in less than a year to one where Roma are now the bigest group.
"Most are adjusting very, very well," says Jonathan Shoss, central coordinating principal for TDSB's western region, who recently completed a board report on the situation.
The unique challenges posed by the Roma students include the sudden expansion of classes, large number of students with little to no English (and when there's that many, chattering away in their native tongue during class is much easier), students with big gaps in schooling (especially at the high school level) and families where parents also have no English and are themselves coping with instability - such as not having the same phone number two weeks in a row.
School board funding automatically generates more teachers as student numbers go up - Queen Victoria has received nearly seven more since September, including English as a second language teachers. But it's getting the translators and cultural interpreters together that hes been harder.
St. Clair, who has been helping Queen Vicgtoria cope, expects it will take another year before Canada's visa window comes down on Hungarian Roma.
If that's the case "the board is facing another three years of having serious issues with this, " St. Clair forecasts. That's how long it will take for the Roma families to get more settled and gain the Englis necessary to have a more stable, working relationship with the school system.
The story of one Toronto school caught in an international social and diplomatic storm.
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(kommentem? ezek miatt nem kapjak majd meg a normal turistak a vizomot, amit ezek miatt fognak bevezetni! ezek a felelotlen emberekre megy majd az adom egy resze, amit en es tobben akik DOLGOZUNK es TISZTESSEGESEN befizetunk az allamnak, ezek a felelotlen emberek zsebeben landol, munka nelkul, boldogan elhetnek.. ne mondjatok most nekem hogy "napjaik meg vannak szamlalva", oke?)
... ehhez kepest en SEHOL nem irtam rasszista utalast, nem kisebbsegiztem, szimplam beirtam, amit a cikk is mond - angolul