Minority Education
Minority Education
In the majority of families belonging to the minorities the process of passing on the language has broken down, and the Hungarian language has become dominant. The different dialects spoken by the minorities do not lend themselves to regular refreshment, and thus their role in social communication is waning. This makes the role of the school as a vehicle for passing on the native language all the more important. The responsibility of educational institutes is even greater.
Minority education - as a part of the Hungarian public education system - must provide all the services that are generally provided by public education as a whole. Moreover, the task is not simply to offer these services in the native language, but it is also necessary to create the conditions for studying the native language and passing on the understanding of the culture and history of the people.
There are three kinds of minority schools. There are schools which teach the minority language as a foreign language, there are dual-language schools where the humanities such as history, literature, and geography are taught in the native language and natural science subjects are taught in Hungarian, and there are schools where all subjects except the Hungarian language and literature are taught in the language of the given minority. Unfortunately, the number of the latter is low because of a lack of suitable teachers, the children’s inadequate grasp of their native language, and other reasons.
In the 1997-98 school year 20,440 children attended the 394 minority pre-schools, while there were 53,021 pupils registered in the 390 minority primary schools. A total of 2,096 students attended the 24 minority secondary schools or special secondary school classes. Between 1992 and 1998, regardless of a decline in the overall number of children attending pre-school and primary school throughout the country, the number of minority children actually increased, primarily as a result of the increasing interest in German nationality education.
Higher education is also conducted in nationality languages, primarily for trainee teachers. In addition to domestic training and further training courses, youngsters belonging to national minorities also have the opportunity to participate in applied or post-graduate studies in the mother country on scholarships.
So-called Sunday schools are a special form of minority education which functions outside the educational system. In general the organizers and operators of this form of education - typically available for smaller minorities - are the national self-governments, financed by the Ministry of Education.
Minorities arranging “Sunday schools” make every effort to ensure that the curriculum is the same in all of their schools, that preparations are made for detailing the requirements for subjects taught in the schools (minority language and literature, minority awareness), and using one of the schools of the given settlement as a base school to be integrated into the public education system.
The educational data of the national minorities is not different from that of the majority population. Within the German and Serb minorities the number of graduates from higher education is above the national average.
As regards education, there are special problems associated with the Romany minority. Currently slightly more than 70% of Romany children complete primary school, but only one-third continue studies into the intermediate (secondary) level. This is far lower than the more than 90% proportion of children of non-Romany descent who continue studies at an intermediate level. The situation is made even worse by the fact that a large proportion of young Romany are qualified in subjects that provide them with only limited employment opportunities. Less than one percent of the Romany hold higher educational degrees. Preparatory classes to improve the chances of young people and studies starting at 0 level are held in several higher education institutions with the support of the Ministry of Education. This Ministry and public foundations assisting the national and ethnic minorities offer scholarships to assist the studies of the young Romany.
Special programs for the academic improvement of the Romany are designed to create opportunities and nurture talent among children and pupils belonging to the Romany minority. This form of instruction and education covers student hostels as well.
The success of pre-school and school education in establishing equal opportunities for the Romany community is to a major extent dependent on the professional quality of teacher training and further training. With support from the Ministry of Education, several institutions of higher education have introduced - within the framework of departmental, special college, or independent programs - Romany studies (Romology) in order to improve the understanding and awareness of the students.
