We are ringing the alarm bell, because there is a good chance that we can conclude that there will be problems with the Romanian language and literature exam in next year's graduation, Csaba Borboly said.
In Hargita county this year, the pass rate at the high school graduation was 62 percent, the national value is 78.2 percent. 33 percent of the students in Hargita County failed to pass the Romanian language and literature exam.
"We are sounding the alarm because there is a good chance that we can conclude that there will be problems with the Romanian language and literature exam in next year's graduation as well," pointed out Csaba Borboly, chairman of the Hargita County Council, at his press conference on Wednesday.
They want to achieve - he continued - that children's rights are not violated, that they get a chance to catch up with the national average, and in addition, they want a change at the Ministry of Education level in the teaching of the Romanian language for Hungarian-speaking students.
At the same time, he also reported that the Hargita County Council won a lawsuit against the Ministry of Education in the Supreme Court regarding the teaching of the Romanian language.
Based on this, they are preparing for another lawsuit and lawsuits, and they contacted the Hargita County Bar Association to find a lawyer who would take on the case. In the end, lawyer Tamás Szikszai from Csikszereda took on the task.
In a healthy society, I should not be here, i.e. it should not be forced by legal means that someone receives adequate education in their mother tongue or in another language, explained Tamás Szikszai.
He added that since there is already a Supreme Court decision that clearly established the fact of discrimination, the premise of the impeachment and most of its legal elements are already established. In a healthy society, such a decision would probably have been followed by appropriate measures at the ministerial level.
"However, this did not happen, as the examples also show that discrimination exists," he said.
That is why they are requesting moral compensation from the Ministry of Education on behalf of the students who volunteered. So far, 17 affected students have applied to file a lawsuit, their case is represented by Tamás Szikszai, and the county government is also participating in the lawsuit.
Csaba Borboly also said that students who had higher marks in other subjects had applied, only they failed the Romanian exam. He also emphasized that those involved do not have to go personally to the court, to the courtrooms. All those who would participate in the lawsuit as stakeholders should contact Tamas Szikszai, he said.
Demeter Levente, chief inspector of Hargita County, also participated in the press conference, explaining all the programs that all served the purpose of facilitating the teaching of the Romanian language for Hungarian-speaking students. As he explained, one of the biggest obstacles to language learning is linguistic isolation, which is mainly characteristic of students living in rural areas. That is why they organized student exchange programs, took Hungarian students to a Romanian environment, organized competitions where Romanian and Hungarian students could participate together, and also trained teachers.
For the past three years, eighth-graders who speak Hungarian as their mother tongue have been given a differentiated set of items on the aptitude test, and twelfth-graders will take the exam on the basis of such a differentiated set of items for the first time in next year's matriculation exam. In 2024, 2188 students graduated in Hargita County, more than three hundred of them did not finish their school studies this year.
Among the students who appeared, 1,357 students passed the exam, which means a 60.9 percent pass rate. 33 percent of the examinees obtained a grade of less than five in Romanian language and literature, and 20 percent of them received a grade of between 5 and 6, which is sufficient to pass the subject exam, but in order to pass the exam overall, the examinee must achieve a grade in the other exam subjects to get at least a high school average of 6.
This year, by the way, 15 percent of the high school graduates scored above eight, but no one managed to achieve the maximum score, according to the analysis provided to us by the county government.
Cover image: The students are going to court against the Romanian state, it was announced at the press conference
Source: Hargita County Council
