The representatives of Transcarpathian Hungarians met with the delegation of the Council of Europe on July 7, about which the Transcarpathian. today portal reported.
Ildikó Orosz , the president of the Transcarpathian Hungarian Teachers' Association (KMPSZ), gave information about the language situation in education and the restrictions on rights there. He explained in detail that the education law adopted in 2017 adversely affects Hungarian education in Transcarpathia.
– This is a significant restriction of rights, as two-thirds of the rights we had until then were taken away. In 2023, it will come into effect that starting from the 5th grade, education must be continuously taught in Ukrainian, and from 2030, all subjects must be taught in Ukrainian. The status of the national school has ceased. All schools are Ukrainian, which means that we can only use Hungarian in class, but not in communication with each other. It is not possible to write the school's nameplate in Hungarian, it cannot appear in its seal, it is not possible to conduct parent meetings, teacher meetings, etc. in Hungarian. "Ensuring the functioning of Ukrainian as a state language" adopted in 2019 even established a language commissioner's office to check this. Since then, complaints have been filed against Hungarian schools in many cases, because e.g. information was also written on the website in Hungarian, Hungarian was spoken at events and in state or municipal institutions.
He recalled that the principal of the school in Akslatina was reported because he gave an interview in Hungarian to a Hungarian TV channel.
"I drew attention to these." We came prepared. In 12 pages, the KMPSZ summarized the rights we enjoyed in the field of language use until 2017. And what reductions have taken place since then. We made suggestions for possible solutions. Hopefully, the monitoring committee will prepare its report and now we just have to hope that there will be a tool in Europe and the world with which they can influence politicians. We hope that in the near future the restrictive laws and measures that prevent the use of minority languages will be amended, which we did not experience even in the Soviet system.
