Abstract
Minority education in Hungary developed
controversially during this era. The
laws and government decrees ensured relatively broad opportunities to minority
education (free foundation and selection of schools) but in practice, a number
of obstacles made mother tongue education difficult. In
the 1920-ies, and 1930-ies, there were three types of minority schools in
Hungary. In one of them, teaching was performed in the language of the
minority, and Hungarian was an obligatory foreign language. In the second type,
they taught in both languages: literature and science was taught in the
language of the minority, while history and civics in Hungarian. In the third
type, (in settlements with Hungarians in majority) education was provided in
Hungarian, but the minority’s language and folks knowledge was an obligatory
subject. The leaders of the settlement, the education authority, and the
representatives of the parents decided on the used language of education.
However, several factors made the operation of the theoretically flexible
system difficult. There were not enough native teachers to teach children in
their mother tongue, modern student books, and educational resource. Hungarian political circles urging the revision
of the peace treaty, especially the ones working at the lower levels of public
administration rolled obstacles in the way of minority education, in this way
they tried to make the minorities’ assimilation faster.
