Éva Márkus: Minority Education – Germans living in Hungary
Right for minority education is one of the most important part of cultural autonomy pertaining to minorities. Preserving self-identity – language, traditions and other cultural values of a given community – is one of the basic preconditions of realizing minority educationpreserving self-identity. The role of the education is of key importance, because a child living in a less assimilated community is not able to succeed only with the archaic mother language „brought from home“ spoken in the family: acquiring language skills that fit for modern and Euroepan requirements and generally suitable for the modern society can be ensured only through school system training. The German language from 1945 exists practically exclusively as a school language, and/or a language of the older generation. The Germans in Hungary – often despite the good German skills – speak with each other in formal and informal situation Hungarian. It is a question if the school can take over the role of families in language socialiation. The German teachers in Hungary generally during the teaching breaks speak Hungarian with their students. From the introduced data and made examinations it is evident that in Hungary the children of the German minority can receive no education in their mother language, although the legislative body created possibilities for this basic right. From the bilingual schools the minorities can choose from a very few number, but the vast majority of educational institutions still offers the form of language teaching that is unacceptable from the point of view of achieved language skills. The widening of the pallette of bilingual education would be desired, and the gradual transfer to a one-language, German mother language education that could strengthen identity of the German minority.