The exchange of opinions between representatives of organizations interested in and involved in the development of Hungarian education in Slovakia took place at the Upland Pedagogic House in Komárom in connection with the presentation of the Carpathian Basin public education (circular) map held at the beginning of the week.
It can be learned as a lesson that the Hungarians in the highlands do not have a survival strategy, which is mostly shown in the ad hoc nature of decision-making. However, the good news is that the data is available, and there is no shortage of professionals. However, in order to preserve the Hungarian community in the highlands, competent people and money must be assigned to carry out the analyses, research - everyone agreed on this.
In five points, they discussed what processes currently influence public education in Hungarian
According to the conclusion drawn from the presented publication
Hungarian-language public education in the Carpathian Basin is primarily determined by demographic processes, i.e. the declining number of children, the emigration of Hungarian families and assimilation.
In addition, an important influencing factor is the appreciation of urban schools at the expense of small schools. A third identifiable process is clustering (which characterizes the entire Hungarian population), i.e. the increasing concentration of Hungarian students in block areas.
The ever-increasing share of Hungarian-speaking Gypsies in the Hungarian school contingent is also of great importance, which at the same time maintains the Hungarian school network, but in some cases catalyzes significant segregation processes. The fifth determining process is the increasing demand for Hungarian-language education on the part of mixed families and non-Hungarian speakers, typically in scattered areas.
However, this presents educational methodological challenges to the experts, changes, or at best makes the language of teaching and internal communication mixed, while
there are educational institutions in the Carpathian Basin that are only Hungarian schools or kindergartens on paper, but in fact no longer teach in Hungarian, said the book presentation in summary.
After that, the organizers, educational specialists: Attila Fodor, Beáta Kiss and László Szarka invited those present to a forward-looking professional discussion, which "could have an outcome in the future", said Beáta Kiss. "Many of us have formed opinions about the Hungarian education network in the highlands in many different ways, but there is little in the way of well-founded, scientifically conducted research, and none has been published in the past ten years, with the exception of the publication presented now," he underlined.
According to László Szarka, on the other hand, the basic questions, which are currently not systematically researched by anyone, but there are specialists, must be formulated, and a research program must be put together, a "small project about big questions", with which supporters can already be approached. In response to this, Attila Fodor suggested that we actually have no idea what goes on inside the walls of Hungarian schools in Slovakia and that it would be worth researching, even though these are the most expensive researches. According to him, in the last ten years, Slovak schools as a whole have surpassed Hungarian schools in terms of innovation, activities and openness.
"This tells me that Hungarian education in Slovakia has lost its dynamism," he noted. that the Hungarian Education Council in Slovakia should be established in parallel with the research project
Source, full article and image: Felvidek.ma
