Gov't to yank support for bilingual education

Support for bilingual education will be discontinued next year under the current draft budget despite schools saying this would pull the rug from under students, Friday's daily Nepszabadsag said.

Head of the governing Socialist party's education working team, Andras Toth Tatai told the paper that bilingual education is not a basic education task. Bilingual education is not planned to be discontinued but financing needs to be resolved from alternative sources, such as local councils or parents, he added.

Bilingual education was first introduced in Hungary in one secondary school in Budapest and another in Sarospatak in 1987. Currently, more than a hundred schools throughout Hungary operate bilingual classes, where around 30,000 students learn usually five subjects in a foreign language.

Bilingual education is cost-demanding because it requires more teachers. Schools offering this type of education are eligible for extra budget support, which was 74,000 forints (EUR 274) per student last year, 68,000 forints this year and is planned to be discontinued from September next year, the paper said.

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