A NGO which specialises in helping disadvantaged kids has launched legal action against the government for allegedly failing to enforce the law which is supposed to guarantee a level playing field for school children, Nepszabadsag daily said on Wednesday.

The NGO calling itself the Chance for Disadvantaged Children Foundation (CFCF) has decided to sue Education Minister Istvan Hiller on the ground that the ministry has not enforced the education and equality law, the paper said.

The foundation says Roma kids are still being discriminated against and segregated in many schools with impunity.

It claims that the state has failed to adequately monitor the situation in schools. Nor has it held local governments to account in upholding the law which forbids discrimination against any minority.

The NGO also says that the minister knows precisely in which towns and villages segregation is still the norm, since the ministry commissioned research in 2005 which found that 170 schools in Hungary were guilty of Roma segregation.

The civil suit aims to reverse bad practices in 19 local governments which directly affect around 4,000 Roma students, the NGO told the paper.