“The key is in our hands” campaign Romas start school, but do not finish it   This year, 1,539 first grade Roma pupils started school in 11 towns in Macedonia, which is almost twice as many as in the last year – 913. However, the Romas are still facing financial lack of financial power to send their children to school. Within “The key is in your hands” campaign, whose goal is complete involvement of Roma children in the primary education, 6,304 families from Tetovo, Skopje, Bitola, Prilep, Kavadarci, Veles, Kumanovo, Stip, Vinica, Kocani and Kriva Palanka, were being questioned in a survey. At the Roma National Center they say that the number of students has not grown because of the increased birth rate, but thanks parents’ raised awareness. Still, over 6 percent of children younger than 15 have never been to school and 15 percent of them never finish primary education. One fourth of the questioned do not have room in their homes to enable the child to study and the books and other school materials are usually donated. When it comes to possessing a computer, 93 percent said they do not have one. “The problem is that the support from the state institutions is only declarative. We see that the parents’ awareness that their children should go to school has increased, but they do not get any help, neither financial, nor material”, says Ashmet Elezovski, coordinator at the Roma National Center. He pointed out that even when children go to school, they are faced with non-acceptance, and they are often offended even by the teachers, not to mention the rest of the pupils and their parents. According to the survey, more than 20 percent of the children are not paid extra attention by the teacher to show better success, and as many as 4 percent of them are offended or not accepted.   S.N.