The Ombudsman's Report

Report edited by Lajos Aáry-Tamás
Source: Report by the Ombudsman in Charge of Minority Affairs Regarding the Comprehensive Survey of the Education of Minorities in Hungary, 1998

'The language, material and intellectual culture, the historical traditions of national and ethnic minorities living in the area of the Republic of Hungary with a Hungarian citizenship, as well as all other particularities related to their minority existence are a part of the individual and communal identity.

All these represent a special value and their protection, sustenance and enrichment is not only a basic right of national and ethnic minorities but represents a vested interest for the Hungarian nation and, ultimately, for the international community.'

(Preamble to Act LXXVII of 1993 on the rights of national and ethnic minorities)

LAUNCHING THE SURVEY

It has become evident on the basis of the experiences of the last two years that the content and quality of minority education is of special importance for members of Hungary's national and ethnic minorities. This is proved by the complaints submitted to the ombudsman in charge of national and ethnic minority rights in which teachers, parents and minority representatives report on abuses occurring in minority education and request remedies for these malpractices. The office has received almost a hundred letters in which plaintiffs itemise offences against minority rights related to minority education. The majority of plaintiffs complain about omissions and breaches of law by municipal governments but several complaints also refer to shortcomings in, or to the complete lack of, legal regulation in certain areas. Many of the complaints request my opinion regarding the interpretation of the law or the form in which it is to be enforced.

As ombudsman in charge of the rights of national and ethnic minorities, I have always paid special attention to the handling of complaints regarding the education of minorities since, through § 68 (2) of the Constitution, the Republic of Hungary ensures members of national and ethnic minorities the right to an education in the mother tongue. § 43 (2) of Act LXXVII of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities (henceforth: Act.n.e.m.) leaves it to the child's parent or carer to decide whether the child is going to participate in national or Hungarian education and the parent or carer must not be limited in practising this right. Act.n.e.m. devotes a separate chapter to the cultural and educational self-management of ethnic and national minorities. The free choice and retention of identity may be significantly furthered if the person belonging to the minority is acquainted with the culture and language of their minority group. In Hungary entire generations of minorities have lost their mother tongue in consequence of the assimilation process. To put an end to the process of assimilation or, in a positive approach, to help the retention of minority identity, is one of the prime objectives of the Act on minorities. Schools and nursery schools, which are perhaps the most important means of attaining this objective, may help children as well as their parents in finding and retaining their identity and in stopping the process of assimilation.

The Hungarian system of general education is in a state of transition. The amendments to Act LXXIX. of 1993 on General Education (henceforth: Act.gen.ed) came into force as of September 1st 1996 and after September 1st 1998 the new National Base Curriculum is being progressively introduced. Minority education is an organic part of the Hungarian education system - the changes to this system, which will determine the education and upbringing of their children for decades to come is not indifferent to members of national and ethnic minorities. I consider the reform of the education system a timely and necessary process and I agree with its basic objectives. Yet, even at this early stage in the transformation process there have emerged shortcomings of legislation and the application of the law which it is not too late to remedy. For this reason I have ordered ex officio a national comprehensive survey in order to detect abuses of legislation and the application of the law in the area of the education of minorities.

THE AIM OF THE SURVEY

In the process of the survey we were seeking to answer the question as to whether the legal regulation of education is in harmony with the regulations defined in the Constitution and in the Act defining the rights of national and ethnic minorities. It was also the aim of the investigation to determine whether in the course of the application of the law the rights of national and ethnic minorities to cultural and educational self-management were being enforced in accordance with the pertaining legal regulations. It was a separate objective within the survey to detect whether negative discrimination against minorities was being practised in the course of education.
The aim of the survey was not to find scapegoats but to unveil abuses in the area of education and formulate suggestions and initiatives for their eradication in order to create an institutional system which could properly ensure the rights of Hungary's national and ethnic minorities.

METHODS OF THE INVESTIGATION

Hungary's minorities live scattered throughout the country and consequently institutions of minority education can be found in almost all counties. Thus it would have been an impossible target for the office to examine all schools and nursery schools where members of national and ethnic minorities are being educated. The amendments to the Act of General Education only came into force as of September 1st 1996 and the National Base Curriculum is only being introduced since September 1998. Thus there has not accumulated enough practical experience on the basis of which empirical examinations could be conducted. In spite of this fact the ombudsman in charge of the rights of national and ethnic minorities has received a steady flow of indications according to which abuses occur in the legislation or the application of the law in the area of minority education. For this reason, beside handling complaints submitted to the Ombudsman's office, we also organised 'Open Days' and professional forums in Pest, Baranya, Békés and Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén counties. At the 'Open Days' the Ombudsman in charge of the rights of national and ethnic minorities listened personally to the complaints of people while professional forums were organised with the participation of teachers, parents, minority representatives and the representatives of local municipal governments. The aim of these latter was to give the users and providers of general education services to make their complaints, worries and observations known to the ombudsman in charge of the rights of national and ethnic minorities. Beside the personal participation, several written complaints were also submitted on these occasions. Meetings have also been organised with the representatives of offices of public administration. Institutions of minority education have been visited.

Questions regarding the financing of minority education have been submitted in a circular to the heads of county administration offices and the answers have been incorporated in the survey.

We involved members of the National Minorities Committee in professional discussions. This committee is the advisory body assisting the Minister of Culture and Education and consists of one delegate from each of the central minority self-governments of this country. In the area of minority education we made use of the results of several surveys and research projects. Commissioned by the Ombudsman in charge of the rights of national and ethnic minorities, leading experts have carried out further research projects the results of which we also made use of in the survey.

Experts of the Ombudsman's office have analysed Hungarian and international legislation regarding minority education.

The present, rather unusual survey, so far as its genre is concerned, on the education of national and ethnic minorities was compiled using the information that was collected in the above described fashion. It contains the analysis and evaluation of problems that emerge and the initiatives or suggestions regarding the solution of abuses wherever these could be detected.

CONSTITUTIONAL, NATIONAL AND ETHNIC MINORITIES' RIGHTS UNDER EXAMINATION

- the right to education in the mother tongue - Const. § 68 (2)
- the prohibition on negative discrimination - Const § 7O/A (2)
- measures in the interest of the eradication of inequality of opportunities in order to ensure equality before the law - Const. § 7O/A. (1)
- the right to the free choice of identity - Act.n.e.m. §7 (1)
- the right to the knowledge, maintenance, enrichment, and passing on of the mother tongue, history, culture and traditions of persons belonging to national and ethnic minorities - Act.n.e.m. §13 a)
- the right to participation in education and general cultural life in the mother tongue - Act.n.e.m. § 13. b)
- the right to the protection of personal data connected to the person's belonging to a minority group - Act.n.e.m. - §13. c)
- the right of opinion and the right of consent of local and central minority self-governments and of the local spokesmen of minorities - Act.n.e.m. § 29, § 38, § 4O, Act.g.ed. §8 (3) and (1O), §9. (2), §84 (6), § 88 (1) and (1O), § 9O (4), § 93 (1). § 94 (1), (4) and (5), § 1O2 (3) and (1O), § 1O7
- the right to self-management in education and culture - Act.n.e.m., Chapter VI.

LEGAL REGULATIONS APPLIED

A. Hungarian regulations

- The Constitution of the Republic of Hungary
- Act LXXVII of 1993 on the rights of national and ethnic minorities
- ActLXXIX of 1993 on general education and Government Decree No 2O/1997 (Feb. 13) on its enforcement
- Act LXV of 199O on Municipal Governments
- Act CXXIV of 1996 on the budget of the Republic of Hungary for the year of 1997 as well as the joint decree of the Ministries of Finance and Home Affairs regarding the per capita allowances, national and ethnic supplementary support sums, allocations of personal income tax collected, and official contribution to the operation of the fire brigade payable to municipal governments in the year of 1997.
- Act CXLI. of 1997 on the budget of the Republic of Hungary for the year of 1998,
- Act XXXVIII of 1992 on State Finances as well as the Government Decree No. 156/1995 (December 26) on its enforcement.
- Government Decree No. 13O/1995 (Oct. 26) on issuing the National Base Curriculum,
- Government Decree No. 47/199O (December 15) on the sphere of authority and of responsibility of the Minister of Culture and Education
- Government Decree No. 137/1996 (August 28) on the national foundation programme of nursery school education
- Government Decree No. 1O93/1997 (July 29) on the middle range package of measures aiming at improving the living conditions of Gypsies.
- Directive on the nursery school education of national and ethnic minorities and Decree No. 32/1997 of the Ministry of Culture and Education (Nov. 5) on issuing the directive on the school education of national and ethnic minorities,
- Decree No 11/1994 of the Ministry of Culture and Education (June 8) on the operation of institutions of education
- Decree No 1/1994 of the Ministry of Culture and Education (Feb. 3) on the system of the approval of books as textbooks, of supporting the cost of textbooks and of supplying schools with textbooks.

INTERNATIONAL REGULATIONS

UN documents

- UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education 196O. (Introduced in Law Decree [equivalent to US executive order] No 11/1964.)
- -Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to national or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities 1992.

CSCE documents

- Charter of Paris for a New Europe 199O
- Report of the CSCE Meeting of Experts on National Minorities 1991

Documents of the Council of Europe

- The European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 195O,
- directives Nos. 285, 814, 1134, 1177, 12O1
- The European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages 1992,
- Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities 1994

Regional documents

CEI Instrument for the Protection of Minority Rights 1994

The survey was led, under the personal supervision of the Ombudsman in charge of minority affairs, by Lajos Aáry-Tamás.

Participating in the preparation of the report was Peter Radó sociologist.
Special thanks are due to Katalin Pik, sociologist, Dr István Orlai head of department, and the members of the Roma Press Centre, for their assistance and for their critical remarks.

MINORITY EDUCATION

The education system is one of the most extensive services provided in the country which, besides having to fulfil mandatory tasks, must also adapt itself to the particular needs and requirements of those using this service. This is also true of minority education.

The system of minority education functions not in isolation but as a part of the national system of general education. It is the duty of the state to organise minority education wherever the necessary legal framework is provided. The concept of minority education necessarily includes nursery school education as well.

In the analysis of regulations pertaining to minority education three regulations of special importance have to be given consideration. One of these is the Constitution of the Republic of Hungary, the others are Act LXXVII of 1993 on the rights of national and ethnic minorities and Act LXXIX of 1993 on General Education - it is through the joint interpretation of the regulations of these that it becomes possible to analyse the framework and content of minority education and the educational self-management of national and ethnic minorities. At the same time, we cannot leave out of consideration the regulations of Act LXV of 199O on Municipal Governments (henceforth Act.m.g.), of Act XXXVIII of 1992 on State Finances (henceforth Act.st.fin.) or of the regulations pertaining to the Act.gen.ed.

The minority model outlined in the Act.n.e.m. intends to create a form of cultural autonomy in which the educational self-management of minorities plays a significant part. The current form of educational autonomy consists in the right of consent and of opinion in decisions where matters concerning minority education are under discussion. Thus according to the main rule the national minorities (their self-governments) do not themselves make decisions in matters regarding their interests but practice a right of consent and of opinion in order to influence decisions made by others.

It is the task of the state to operate the system of general education. The Act.gen.ed. also makes it possible for legal and natural persons (within this for local and central minority self-governments) to run educational institutions. Still it is true to say that regulations of the Act have a tendency to conserve the currently existing educational system. The method whereby institutions of education may be transferred from one operator to another and the way in which they are to be operated are prescribed by strict rules. Knowing the present financial conditions of the self-governments of the minorities it is hard to imagine how any of them could take advantage of their right to found new institutions as it is defined in the Act.gen.ed. The only solution open to them would be the transfer of already existing institutions. There are no legal barriers in the way of such processes but the costs of running such an institution would not be covered by the joint sum of the educational per capita allowances and the national minority supplementary support offered by the state. Although it is possible to make an agreement with the local municipal government in order to maintain an educational institution but municipal governments have not so far taken advantage of this opportunity. The above regulations of the Act.gen.ed can also be interpreted as a legal possibility for occasions in which minority self-governments are successfully enforcing the interests of the given minority and are also successful in the practical 'networking' activity that enforcing these interests entails. The possibility of signing a general education agreement with the local municipal governments is also open to central minority self-governments. On the basis of § 81. (1O) of the Act.gen.ed the central minority self-governments can sign a general education agreement with the Minister of Culture and Education. The minister is obliged to sign a general education agreement with a central minority self-government if the school or boarding service of those belonging to the ethnic minority is not provided for within the services offered by the local municipal government. The central minority self-governments, however, can only make use of this right if they already qualify as institutional operators, i.e. if they have already founded an educational institution or had one transferred to them.

Thus most minority self-governments influence decisions concerning minority education not as maintainers of institutions but by practising the right of consent with regard to institutions which are maintained by local municipal governments. One reason why this is justified is that the majority of ethnic schools provide pupils who belong to a national minority with education in their mother tongue, usually in mixed schools. The amendment of the Act.gen.ed came to include, at the minorities' ombudsman's suggestion, the definition of a minority institution. This assured the application of §29 (2) of the Act.n.e.m. which concerns the nomination of heads of minority institutions. It was necessary, however, to arrive at a clear understanding as to which are those decisions of local municipal governments which concern the education of minorities and which require the consent of the minority self-government in question. The answer to this question can be found in §1O2 (1O) of the Act.gen.ed. This regulation lists the cases in which the consent of local and central minority self-governments is required in the case of institutions maintained by local municipal governments. Minority self-governments practice their right of consent not only in the case of minority institutions but in the case of all institutions which participate in the nursery school education, school education and instruction, boarding school education and instruction of national and ethnic minorities. With regard to this regulation it is necessary to note that it covers only institutions maintained by local municipal governments. It is necessary to explore whether the right of consent might be extended to institutions which are not maintained by the state or local municipal councils (except of course for those institutions which are themselves run by minority self-governments).

With regard to the right of consent it is important to note that the regulations of the Act.gen.ed contain regulations concerning cases in which no agreement had been reached between the local municipal council and the minority self-government and the debated question cannot be solved through negotiation. In this case a committee of nine members is to be created into which the education board and the organisation practising the right of consent delegate three members each and a further three are invited by the organisation maintaining the school from among the experts listed in the National Experts' List. The committee makes its decision with a simple majority and the decision supplements the agreement between the parties. The application of a simple majority makes it advisable to suggest that at least one of the experts should be a minority expert.
On the basis of Act.gen.ed §93 (1) the Minister of Culture and Education issues the "Directive for the nursery school education of national and ethnic minorities" and the "Directive for the school education of national and ethnic minorities" and fulfils the tasks related to the supervision of these.

Decree No. 32/1997 (Nov. 5) of the Ministry of Culture and Education contains the "Directive for the nursery school education of national and ethnic minorities" and the "Directive for the school education of national and ethnic minorities."

The most recent comprehensive modification of the Act.gen.ed contains several regulations which concern the education of minorities and which are finally in harmony with the regulations of the Act.n.e.m. The amendments eradicated shortcomings of legislation, extended the sphere of application of the right of consent and the right of opinion and also came to include the expectations of the National Base curriculum. The Act has made it clear that the language of education is Hungarian or the language of the national or ethnic minority in question. The language of examinations can also be that of the national or ethnic minority and the final certificates have to be produced in both languages, in Hungarian and that of the national or ethnic minority.

The Act has also clarified that the foundation documents of any institution of general education must contain the type, name, basic activity of the institution, its ethnic minority related and other tasks, its subsidiary institutions, the funds on which it relies in order to fulfil its tasks, the basis for the right of control over these funds, the authorisations related to the financial management of the institution, the name of the founder, the address of the institutions headquarters and sites, in the case of educational and teaching institutions the name of special faculties, in the case of a school the number of years that the course consists of. This latter regulation assumes special importance with regard to the financing of minority education since according to Appendix No 8 of the Act CXLVI of 1997 on the Budget of the Republic of Hungary for the Year of 1998, supplementary support may be applied for if

a) the nursery school education, school education and instruction of national and ethnic minorities is taking place at the parents' request on the basis of educational and teaching projects, programmes, curricula for the education of national and ethnic minorities as forwarded or approved by the Ministry of Culture and Education, after September 1st 1998 in the first and seventh years of school on the basis of the educational directive for the school education of national and ethnic minorities or on the basis of local curricula and plans that were made on the basis of the Directives for the nursery school and school education of national and ethnic minorities. In the case of the education and instruction of those belonging to the Gypsy ethnic minority a further criterion is that if the education and instruction is not taking place on the basis of the local curriculum then at least six sessions a week, whether during or outside of normal lessons time, need to be provided for the realisation of the programme.

b) the foundation document of the educational and teaching institution contains the fact of the institution fulfilling tasks in the education of national and ethnic minorities.

An educational institution may be maintained by a local or a central minority self-government alike. The national and local minority self-governments may practice the right of consent and opinion in a great number of cases. Before determining the catchment area of the operation (admissions) of the institution it is necessary to obtain the consent of the local minority self-government or, in the case of a school which fulfils a national or regional function, that of the central minority self-government.

As we have already indicated, the law has created a specialist body called the National Minorities Council which contains one member delegated by each central minority self-government. The legal status of the committee is equal to that of the National Council of General Education i.e. it is a body whose function is to prepare decision making, to offer opinions and to make proposals. Before submitting to the Government the national Base curriculum and the examination regulations of the school leaving examination and before the issuing of the Directives of the nursery school education and the school education of national and ethnic minorities the consent of the National Minorities Committee must be obtained. This right of consent, however, may not supplant the right of consent practised by central minority self-governments.

If the educational institution in question is maintained by a local municipal council then the consent of the local minority self-government, or in the case of an institution of general education fulfilling a regional or national function, of the central minority self-government, must be obtained for the founding, closing down of educational and teaching institutions participating in the nursery school and school education and instruction or boarding education of national or ethnic minorities as well as the modification of their function, the determination of their name, the drafting and modification of their budget, the evaluation of their professional activity, the approval or their organisational and operative regulations, the approval and execution of their educational programme, the pedagogical programme or pedagogical and cultural programme. In the case of minority educational institutions the consent of the minority self-government must also be obtained before the head of the institution takes up or leaves office. (See appended - the regulations of the currently valid Act.gen.ed regarding minorities.)

§4 (7) of the Act.gen.ed contains general regulations regarding the prohibition of negative discrimination. According to this, 'in general education a prohibition extends to negative discrimination on any grounds, particularly on that of the colour, sex, religion, national and ethnic background, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, financial and income position, age, the lack of or limitation on their disposing power, their birth or other position or on the basis of the maintainer of the institution of education and instruction.'

This legal regulation, however, contains no sanctions for cases when the prohibition is broken. The procedural rules (§83-84) contain the concept of 'request for ascertaining legality' which may be submitted with reference to a breach of law which is judged on the second instance level and the whose revision by a court of law may be requested. The court handles such cases with urgency. It is our conviction that negative discrimination ought to be distinguished from felonious activity so that the burden of demonstration may be reversed. In other words, the person charged with discrimination should be the one forced to prove that they have committed none, rather than the reverse. We shall later return to the question of negative discrimination.

OUTLINING AND ANALYSING THE ABUSES OCCURRING IN MINORITY EDUCATION.

I. Nursery School education

1. As we mentioned above, the range of minority education extends to nursery school education, as well. According to §43 (4) of the Act.n.e.m., if a request is made by the parents or legal representatives of no less than eight children belonging to the same minority, it is mandatory to launch and operate a separate minority class or study group. This regulation suggests that minority education can only be organised in schools, but §43 (3) renders the question obvious when it prescribes that the education of minorities in the mother tongue or learning the mother tongue may happen in minority nursery schools, schools, school classes or study groups as determined by local facilities and requests. The wording of the Act.gen.ed is in harmony with this latter when it speaks of institutions of teaching and education, as well as about nursery schools, schools and boarding institutions. Accordingly, the right of consent and opinion of local minority self-governments and the institution of co-management is also valid in the case of the nursery school education of minorities.

2. At professional forums nursery school teachers have complained that the delay in the appearance of the ministerial decree regarding the Directive concerning the nursery school education of ethnic minority puts them into a difficult situation since it means that they will have to produce and gain acceptance for their educational programme in a very short period of time. On the basis of the number of children receiving their education according to a national minority nursery school education programme, local municipal councils are entitled to a national or ethnic extra support allowance. According to the regulations of the Act.gen.ed, this sum may not be used for any other purpose but the education of national minorities. As we shall show below in a separate chapter, we have found errors in legislation and in the application of the law in the financing of minority education and what is described under this head is also valid for the nursery school education.

3. Nursery school teachers complain of a legal regulation the application of which, according to them, creates a very disadvantageous situation for many of them. The regulation in question, which is mentioned on every possible occasion, is the one which prescribes that nursery school teachers can only be employed if, by the year 2000 they obtain specialist qualifications as national minority nursery school teachers. This involves a financial outlay which most of them cannot afford and the time left for obtaining the qualification is anyway so short that many of them fail to fulfil the requirement contained in the law.

According to §128 (1) if a teacher's qualifications are not up to the standard defined by the law and at the time when the law came into force then if the teacher

a) has less than ten years before reaching the age of retirement then they may be employed in the same sphere of employment until that time

b) has more than ten years before reaching the age of retirement then, after five years from the date of the law coming into force they can only be employed as a teacher if they have commenced their studies at an institution which provides tertiary level teaching qualifications.

The law contains more severe regulations regarding teachers who have teaching qualifications but no specialist qualifications in national minority education, only a state foreign language certificate of type 'C' . According to § 128 (3) teachers in possession of appropriate teaching qualifications and a state foreign language certificate of type 'C' or an equivalent document can be employed in teaching a foreign language and in teaching and education in a foreign language or in the language of a national or ethnic minority up to September 1, 2000, or in the case of new employment as defined in §127 (9). The comparison of the above two regulations reveals that after the date when the law came into force, teachers of national minorities have three and a half years in which to start their courses at an institution which provides the required qualification while teachers who are not working with minorities have five years in which to start their studies. We believe that it is unjustified to discriminate between teachers of national minorities and other teachers as, according to the above regulations, teachers of national minorities are in a disadvantageous situation compared to others. The above regulation is against the prohibition of negative discrimination as recorded in the Constitution, in the Act.n.e.m. and the Act.gen.ed. This disadvantageous situation originates from a shortcoming of legislation and thus the Ombudsman in charge of national and ethnic minorities is going to suggest that the legislator modify the law accordingly.

4. Several surveys have shown that a high percentage of children belonging to the Gypsy minority does not participate in nursery school education, 11% of Gypsy children do not go to nursery school or pre-school preparatory courses even after the age of five. This is partly responsible for the generally poor performance of Gypsy children in their later school career. We believe that it is important to conduct surveys into the question as to why Gypsy parents do not send their children to nursery school and on the basis of such surveys educational policy-makers ought to elaborate systems of incentive and communicational strategies in order to alter the present situation.

SCHOOL EDUCATION

1. The most frequent complaints at professional forums have been that teachers feel a lack of harmony between the rules regulating general education and the regulations of the Act.n.e.m. Teachers working in minority education are particularly concerned about the National Base Curriculum. In the chapter on the Particular Principles of the Education of National and Ethnic Minorities, the NBC prescribes that in the type of minority school whose special profile is language teaching, the language of education is Hungarian and the teaching of the minority mother tongue happens from the first years onwards, following the criteria prescribed by the NBC for living foreign languages. At the same time, for the years 1 to 6 it prescribes a rate of 32-40% for the educational area of language and literature. The regulations do not distinguish between the educational area of Hungarian Language and Literature and the minority language and literature. It ascertains no proportion for living foreign languages in these years. According to the school teachers, the problem with this regulation is that the time frame of compulsory school lessons excludes the allowance for the minority language and literature which, considering we are talking about minority education, they consider unacceptable. Alternatively, the teaching of Hungarian language and literature will be excluded from the language teaching type of institution which means that minority students will not be able to answer the requirements of the NBC. Some teachers see a solution to this in raising the number of classes but this is not allowed by the regulations of the Act.gen.ed. They believe that minority language and literature could be organised as optional study classes but this would mean that minority students are at a disadvantage compared to their non-minority fellow-students. The long-term effect of this may be that parents do not enter their children to institutions of minority education and may thus lead to the loss of the future intellectual section or group of the given minorities. Teachers believe that the contradiction in the regulations indicated above ought to be resolved because in its present form it indirectly 'fosters' the assimilation of minorities.

§52 (3) of the Act.gen.ed. defines the upper limiting number of compulsory lessons for schoolchildren. This is done in the interest of children, so that they cannot be obliged to participate in more classes than the number there defined. Divergences from this could only be made possible if the legislator modified the regulations of the law. It is to be feared however, that even so, parents of children belonging to minorities would decide, precisely on account of a raised number of study sessions, not to enter their children into minority schools as this would expose them to a heavier work-load than that of non-minority children. Although the work-load to which students may be subjected is the topic of serious professional debate, this extent has not yet been measured in any way thus far. Such measurements however will definitely have to take place in the future as it is only when we are in possession of the experiences of the future years that we shall be able to revise the relation of valid regulations to the rights and interests of national and ethnic minorities and thus to arrive at the desired ends of minority education. (E.g. to prevent further assimilation and to encourage minorities to find and retain their identity.)

What needs to be examined is whether it is possible to organise the education of students belonging to minorities in such a way that the programme could remain within the available time-frame as defined by the law and should simultaneously answer the requirements of the National Base Curriculum and the Directive for the Educational National and Ethnic Minorities. For this purpose the analysis of the already mentioned Acts is inevitable.

In its arrangement of the various areas and sub-areas of instruction in accordance with the peculiarities of the two educational phases, the National Base Curriculum follows proportions which indicate the 'weight' or 'role' of various areas of instruction within the NBC and which are also meant to orientate the drafting of variant or local curricula. The proportions between various areas of instruction cannot be expressed in terms of the number of study sessions only in terms of approximate percentages. This is because areas of instruction may be organised into school subjects in various ways. On the other hand these proportions are defined by the individual schools in their local curricula on the basis of the total of the available number of compulsory and non-compulsory study sessions.

The areas of instruction defined by the NBC may be organised into school subjects in different ways by different local curricula. Some of the areas may in themselves constitute a subject. At the same time, certain spheres which belong to more than one area of instruction in the NBC may be organised into one subject.

In the case of compulsory sessions, schools formulate the number of sessions and the lesson plans of the local curricula in view of the proportions indicated by the NBC, while in the case of non-compulsory sessions these are formulated entirely freely by the individual schools.

The compulsory character of the NBC means that

- the main principles are to be enforced in different local variant curricula, in subject programmes, school books and other auxiliary educational material,
- areas, sub-areas and themes of instruction must be taken cognisance of,
- emphasis should be given to study material and activities which may serve as a basis for realising general and partial developmental criteria,
- that the attainment of at least the minimum standards is to be ensured for every student.

The NBC is not a curriculum in the traditional sense but a basis for local curricula and subject programmes. A local curriculum is a plan of school education for the whole of the educational cycle. According to the regulations of the Act.gen.ed., as a part of the educational programme defining the teaching and educational objectives of the institution it primarily contains the compulsory and optional subjects and study session activities which are taught in each year, the numbers of these sessions, their main topics and the outlines of the requirements in these, the criteria for stepping up into a higher year, the substantial and formal requirements of assessment and evaluation, the modes of differentiation, the decisions regarding the school books and other study material that may be used. The programmes of the subjects of the individual years are connected to these. Local curricula are assembled by the teachers of individual schools either by borrowing or adapting ready-made curricula and subject programmes based on the NBC or by their own initiative.

Among the special principles of the education of national and ethnic minorities we find the regulations which are perhaps most important from the point of view of the present problem and these are those according to which it is possible to diverge from the proportion among areas of instruction recommended by the NBC in the curricula of schools which work on the basis of a minority programme.

From comparing the above regulations it may be ascertained that teachers working in institutions of minority education enjoy a great deal of freedom in formulating the minority pedagogical programmes.

We are convinced that the local conditions for minority education can only be formulated in such a way as to serve the rights of the minorities in question and at the same time to answer the requirements of the National Base Curriculum if the management of the school establishes a close connection with the parents, with local minority self-governments and with the local municipal government and also if the local government shows a high degree of co-operation with the teachers and the heads of institutions. It is only in this alliance that they will be able to create the educational programme and local curriculum which best serves the interest of the minorities that live in the given town or village. The local conditions for such a successful co-operation are available.

2. Uncertainty in the above question was created by the fact that the Ministerial Decree containing the Directives regarding the Nursery School and School Education of National and Ethnic Minorities was delayed by more than eighteen months. This delay brought institutions active in the teaching the education of minorities into a disadvantageous situation as the educational programmes of schools and nursery schools could be formulated and accepted only by taking into account what is included in the Directives. The first version of the draft for the Directives was considered unacceptable both from a legal and from a professional point of view and the version was thus withdrawn. In the meantime the National Minorities Committee came into existence which practices a right of consent, alongside the central minority self-governments, before the issuing of the Directives. After the next draft was accepted by the NMC, the consent of central minority self-governments also had to be obtained. The Central Government of Germans in Hungary indicated to the Ombudsman that officials of the Ministry fail to involve the minority self-government in elaborating the Directives. The final outcome of this was that both the Central Self-Government of Germans in Hungary and the Central Self-Government of Serbs in Hungary refused to endorse the draft until their suggestions came to be included in it. In the end, the valid Decree came into being with the consent of all central minority self-governments.

The Directives are intended to create the professional basis for the nursery school and school education of minorities in harmony with the National Base Programme for Nursery School Education and with the National Base Curriculum. However, at the time of the completion of the present survey that part of the decree which is supposed to contain the detailed requirements broken down into details for the different minorities and described both in Hungarian and in the minority language had not yet appeared. Failing these, the local curricula for the minority language and literature cannot be formulated in any of the available forms of minority education, except the form called intercultural education.

Consequently, neither teachers, nor the representatives of minority self-governments nor even the representatives of municipal governments nor the officials working for them are clearly and adequately acquainted with their tasks and rights which also means that local debates cannot be organised regarding the question. Responsibility for the emergence of the present situation clearly lies with the heads of the Ministry of Culture and Education since delayed legislation has caused teachers of minority schools to have a far shorter period of time in which to prepare for the new kind of work, while their duties, tasks and responsibilities are the same. Our experience has been that another reason for this kind of misunderstanding and uncertainty is in the faulty circulation of information. In questions of such great importance as the organisation of minority education, teachers were expecting a far greater amount of information and assistance from the Ministry of Education and from the National and Ethnic Minorities Office. The time left till the beginning of the new academic year might just be enough for the two offices to make up for this shortcoming by various programmes and information booklets and by professional discussions in which they must involve educational specialist services and pedagogical institutes.

3. We must deal separately with the education of students belonging to the Gypsy minority. As we mentioned in our introduction, the basis of minority education is the regulation of the constitution of the Republic of Hungary which creates the possibility for the education of national and ethnic minorities in their mother tongue. Local municipal councils must organise minority classes or groups if requested by at least eight parents belonging to the same minority. While students of national minorities study their mother tongue and national culture following a minority programme within minority education, in the case of Gypsy children only a small proportion participate in education organised according to a minority programme and even within that most of them work according to a 'catch-up programme'. But such 'catch-up' education is usually not initiated for these children by the Gypsy parents. According to §45 (2) of the Act.gen.ed it is possible to create special frameworks of education in order to reduce the educational disadvantages of the Gypsy minority. We consider the above regulation of the Act.gen.ed. as extremely disquieting in its wording, since it talks about the disadvantages of the Gypsy minority and not of certain students. Thus it practically suggests that the Gypsy minority as a minority has disadvantages in terms of education which is indubitably untrue. We believe that the basis for organising catch-up programmes for Gypsy children is not the possibility of reducing disadvantages but the constitutional requirement of ensuring the equality of opportunities. The prime aim of these catch-up programmes is the reduction of disadvantages in this sense. We consider the organisation of such programmes as a measure aiming at eradicating inequalities of opportunity which consequently serves the fulfilment of the constitutional requirement of the equality of rights (Const. § 7O/A (3)). Naturally, minority education as such is aiming to create also an equality of opportunities but the success of minority education is different in the case of the national minorities and within the Gypsy minority.

It is worth examining the question of organising separate Gypsy classes from this point of view. After examining the pertaining regulations it may be ascertained that the organisation of education in separate classes is not per se anti-Constitutional since education in separate classes and groups is a general characteristic of minority education. The crucial question is how, why and by whom this separated education was organised and whether it led to or leads to the attainment of the Constitutional objective in whose interest it was organised. In the case of students belonging to national minorities it may be declared that separate education fulfils its purpose which is the finding and retention of national identity and the passing on of the national language and culture.

The situation is fundamentally different with Gypsy students. There are very few Gypsy education programmes which make the finding and retention of identity and the passing on of Gypsy language and culture their aim. Some of the reasons for this are the lack of internationally recognised standards for the Gypsy language and culture, the low social prestige of Gypsy culture and Gypsy people generally, the powerful pressure arriving from the majority in the direction of assimilation and finally the fact that Gypsy people themselves are divided regarding their own culture.

The above reasons, however, do not justify the education of Gypsy children in separate classes without any special educational programme and without the approval of their parents. We have no precise information as to the number of Gypsy classes of this type functioning in Hungary but after comparing legal regulations we may declare that the organisation of separate Gypsy classes which are operated without a Gypsy catch-up programme, or on the basis of a programme which is not in accordance with the Directive for the School Education of National and Ethnic Minorities, as well as run without the knowledge and agreement of the parents is against the law, since it constitutes the negative discrimination of Gypsy students. The restoration of legality may take place in different ways according to local conditions and parameters. Where separation is not justified either for reasons of minority rights or for educational reasons, the organisation of students into integrated (mixed) classes is advisable.

It has been (and in many places still is) a general requirement toward Gypsy students participating in integrated education (mixed classes) and catch-up courses that in the interest of integration they should in every way adapt to the expectations of Hungarian schools. The final outcome of this sort of attitude and practice was that although after 1990 the number of Gypsy persons completing primary education increased (70-75%), the rate of those entering further education remained low. While more than half of non-Gypsy students continue their education in some form of secondary school, the rate of Gypsy students accepted into secondary education is just under 3% while in tertiary education the rate of Roma students is 0.22%.

The social background of Gypsy children doubtlessly plays a part in their low rate of success in education. In Hungary only 30.8% of Roma men of a working age, between 19 and 59 has found employment, the rate among women is as low as 17.5% (Kemény-Havas, 1994). One out of every three Gypsy students is being brought up in a family where both parents are unemployed. The parents' chances of reintegration in the labour market are dropping lower and lower and this has its effect on the education of the children. In order to eradicate this intolerable situation the Government constructed a package of measures the aim of which is to improve the life conditions of Gypsies. We wish to monitor the realisation of this project in the future. At the same time the Hungarian system of general education does not take into account the difference in the cultural background of Roma people. The pedagogical methods of the catch-up courses have not yet become clarified, their evaluation has not taken place, and their efficiency has not been tested. At the same time Hungarian general education is becoming increasingly competitive thus leaving less and less of a chance for such programmes as they necessitate the mobilisation of further budgetary resources. Under such conditions neither the integrated, nor the segregated education of Gypsy students is able to attain the constitutional objective of eradicating the difference in the equality of opportunities. Besides, as we shall see below, the organisation of Gypsy classes may lead to negative discrimination. In the education of Gypsy students, Hungarian general education and within that the catch-up courses organised for Gypsy children have proved to be a failure. As the Minister of Culture and Education himself admitted, the professional and legal background for the education of the Gypsy minority is non-existent.

We believe that general education as a public service ought to take into account the needs and interest of its users. At the present time it has become a clearly recognised expectation that parents need to be much more involved in decisions regarding the education of their children than previously happened. At the moment there is a lack of communication between Gypsy children and the schools in a great number of places. The eradication of this communication failure could be the task partly of teachers and partly of the minority self-governments which mediate between the Gypsy communities and the maintainer of the school. The legal framework for such a process is provided but the mediation can only be successful if the representatives of the minority self-government are also in possession of the necessary professional information and expertise. Besides this we strongly encourage the heads and maintainers of educational institutions to involve the representatives of other professions in this joint effort in order to increase the efficiency of the teaching work and to attain more efficient communication. Graduate experts of social work may be able to represent points of view which had been equally ignored by representatives of the minority self-government and by teachers. Social workers and social educational experts have a joint knowledge of the educational process and the family conditions with which to contribute to the efficient resolution of the characteristic problems of children belonging to this minority.

One reason why parents have to be involved in decisions is because Gypsy catch-up programmes cannot be organised without the parents' knowledge and approval. The practice in this regard has not so far been obvious since we received complaints whereby Gypsy pupils are receiving Gypsy catch-up education without their parents' knowledge and that the local municipal government in possession of data regarding the pupil's belonging to a minority had applied for extra national and ethnic minority per capita allowances. In connection to one concrete case I sought out the Ombudsman in charge of data protection and requested his opinion regarding the questionnaire that members of the Gypsy catch-up course had to fill in. The opinion of the Ombudsman in charge of data protection was that questionnaires inquiring into the pupil's ethnic background can only be used if the programme serves the reduction of the disadvantages of the Gypsy minority and is in agreement with the regulations of the Directives for the Education of National and Ethnic Minorities. According to §7 (1) of the Act.n.e.m. it is the individual's exclusive and inalienable right to state and declare their belonging to an ethnic group or minority. No one can be forced to make a declaration regarding their belonging to a minority group. In view of the above regulations filling in the questionnaire can only be voluntary.

On the basis of §2 (2) of Act LXIII of 1992 on the protection of personal data and the publicity of data of public interest, data concerning national and ethnic background qualify as special data. On the basis of §6 (1) and (2) the person concerned or their legal representative must be informed about the voluntary character of data recording, as well as of its aim and the mode of handling of the data. Gypsy catch-up courses must thus be organised in such a fashion that they should fully comply with the above outlined legal regulations. We believe that for this to take place it is inevitable and necessary to involve parents and teachers in intensive communication and co-operation.

According to the currently valid regulations a decentralised system of general education is to emerge in Hungary but the success of minority education requires that the Ministry of Culture and Education should create, with the involvement of those concerned, the professional foundations for the education of members of the Gypsy minority. It is also necessary to circulate information in order to help publicise those educational programmes which have been operating and proved successful, to help the acquisition of knowledge about Gypsy culture through further training courses. In the interest of the educational self-management of the Gypsy minority the local minority self-government must be given the opportunity to come to understand their rights regarding minority education and the conditions for the enforcement of these rights.

FINANCING

The most important alteration in terms of the financing of minority education is that the 1996 amendment of the Act.gen.ed has declared the national and ethnic minority supplementary per capita allowance supports as 'not to be used for any other purpose' (Act.gen.ed Appendix No. 1., Part Two, Point 2.) In formulating their 1997 budgets, local municipal governments had to apply this regulation. Act CXXIV of 1996 on the Budget of the Republic of Hungary for the year 1997 contains the following regulations regarding normative state supports,

§19 (1) Parliament defines the pretexts and sums for the various types of normative state supports in Appendix 3.

(2)Normative state supports are publicised by the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Home Affairs in a joint decree before 31 January 1997, on the basis of task indices and other indicators based on the data provided by the local municipal councils.

§20 Parliament establishes state supports with mandatory utilisation (..)

e) for the support of the nursery school education, school instruction of national and ethnic minorities and for the support of bilingual instruction according to conditions as defined in Appendix 8. These supports are publicised on the basis of task indices and other indicators based on the data provided by the local municipal councils.

The decree defined in §19 (2) is the joint decree of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Home Affairs 1/1997 (Jan 28) whose §1 (3) declares that the description of supplementary supports which local municipal councils may claim for the year 1997 on the basis of §20 (1) point e) of the Budgetary Act and its Appendix 8. for encouraging the education and instruction of members of national and ethnic minorities, taking into account task indices and other indicators based on the data provided by the local municipal councils is contained in Appendix 2, broken down into municipal governments and types of support. In 1997 municipal councils received almost HUF 3.25 billion as supplementary support for national and ethnic minorities. It is of no small interest as to whether a financial support which amounts to such a significant sum has actually fulfilled its mission, that is, whether it has been spent on minority education or not. §44 of the Act.n.e.m. admits that instruction in the mother tongue or of the mother tongue involves extra costs which must be covered by the state or the local municipal government as prescribed by law. It is this extra cost that is supposed to be covered by the national and ethnic minorities supplementary support.

In my 1996 report I indicated to Parliament that the realisation of the above regulation will not be without difficulties. My predictions proved correct, as early as the first quarter of 1997 we received complaints whereby some local municipal councils subtract the sum of the supplementary support from the sum that is allocated to minority institutions, claiming that no more is needed for the institution to fulfil its function. The other problem is that the budget of minority institutions does not include the sum of the supplementary support under a separate heading thus heads of institutions do not know how much they can spend on minority education. This is what happened in the case of one minority school in Baranya county. Since the complaints allowed us to judge that the problem is characteristic of the entire country, we contacted the heads of country administration offices and requested that they examine whether similar cases had occurred in their county and to submit their opinion as to the legality of the above described state of affairs.

At the same time we contacted the central minority self-governments and requested them to inform us whether they know of the occurrence of such instances. Next, we contacted the members of the National Minorities Committee and requested them to issue a professional opinion. Last, but not least, we sent a letter to the Minister of Culture and Education, to the Minister of Finance and to the Minister of Home Affairs, requesting them to describe their opinion regarding the system of normative support for national and ethnic minorities and regarding the information that we had received in connection with it.

1. The heads of county administration offices were most helpful and ready to co-operate with our office and investigated the problem we had indicated in a short period of time.

The head of the Baranya County Administration Office investigated the complaint of the school headmaster of the township in question regarding the national minority supplementary normative support. After reviewing the Budget of the local municipal government all that could be ascertained was that the sum of the per capita allowance appeared on the credit side. In the school's Budget the sum of the general education per capita allowance, which is provided without obligation of utilisation, and the national and ethnic minority supplementary support appears jointly in the bracket 'institution's income, financing'. The head of the Office established that the sum of the national and ethnic minority support does not appear individually either on the credit or the debit side. According to the opinion of the Head of Office, the significance of the indicated problem reaches far beyond the range of task and authority of his office and the National Auditing Board ought to be involved in its resolution.

The above described instance raises the question as to how educational institutions can utilise the sum of the allowance for the education of national and ethnic minorities if their budget does not reveal the end to which they are obliged to utilise it.

After the analysis of the pertaining regulations it can be established that the supplementary par capita allowance cannot be separated on the debit side because neither the prescriptions of Act XXXVIII of 1992 nor the Government Decree 156/1995 (Dec. 26) issued for its implementation contain the specialist task of such denomination for Budgets prepared according to their guidelines. One head of office suggest the amendment of the pertaining regulations so as to ensure clearly the possibility of control both in terms of the appearance of the support in the budgets and in term of its utilisation.

The head of another office draws attention to the fact that local municipal councils act correctly if they pass the entire sum of the support stipulating mandatory utilisation is passed on to the educational institution. In the opposite case, according to §21 (5) of the Budgetary Act the allowance must be repaid with interest after the acceptance of the final settlements. According to their opinion a factor of decisive importance in this matter is the existence or otherwise of good working relations between the head of institution and the local mayor. In any other case it is possible that the local government ensures the per capita allowance state support with mandatory utilisation for the institution but reduces the annual budget of the given institution by redistributing the support which is received without mandatory utilisation. This possibility is left open for the mayor by §84 (2) of Act LXV of 199O on local municipal governments.

According to point 2. of Appendix 1 of Act LXXIX of 1993 on General Education, 'the nursery school education and school education of those belonging to national and ethnic minorities as well as bilingual education must be supported by supplementary professional per capita subsidies which may not be utilised to any other purpose.' According to the opinion of the head of office in question, the relating regulations are difficult to interpret clearly. If the supplementary per capita support related to national and ethnic minorities must be passed on to the institution on top of the normative per capita support without mandatory utilisation, this should be clearly declared so in a legal regulation, which also ought to regulate clearly the addressee and precise method of the obligation to account for the sum.

All heads of county administrative offices, without exception, find the participation of the National Auditing Board necessary in order to investigate the problems of financing minority education.

2. The educational experts of central minority self-governments (who are in most cases also the members of the National Minority Committee) were also most ready in responding to our request and indicated the abuses that they themselves had experienced. In the following paragraphs we are going to describe a few of these.

According to the experience of the headmaster of the Hungarian-German Bilingual School in Pécs, Chairperson of the NMC, in the case of educational institutions which beside the normative per capita support without mandatory utilisation are also entitled to national minority supplementary support, the contribution of the local municipal council was reduced by approximately the same sum as the sum of the national minority supplementary support. He believes that the solution could be achieved if schools could plan to use the supplementary support to cover the extra costs entailed by national education (breaking classes into smaller groups, student-swaps, special national projects) and they need assistance in protecting themselves from the above described actions of local governments. Thus this budgetary item could not be used for covering material costs that occur in any type of school.

According to the Education Committee of the National Slovakian Self-Government, local municipal governments usually spend far more on the maintenance of their national and minority school than the total sum of the school and the national minority normative per capita supports, so that they can always prove utilisation. 'This is only a play with figures' - the quote is from the head of the financial manager of the municipal council. This means that the national minority normative support is still swallowed up by basic maintenance, even though it is separated. The person who is the source of this information suggests a change of law to ensure the solution which would render it possible to control that the sum of the minority support is actually utilised for purposes of minority education.

The head of the Training and Educational Committee of the Central Self-Government of Croatians in Hungary describes in their answer that their committee is in direct contact with the heads of the institutions of Croatians in Hungary and on the basis of the information that they supply it can be declared that the minority normative per capita allowance is utilised for purposes other than that of minority education and that the control of the course of these sums is almost impossible. They believe that the reasons for this are that the utilisation is not under any control. The heads of institutions public servants' councils, school boards and minority self-governments do not practice their rights and the representatives of minority self-governments lack the knowledge of the legally assured rights.

3. As we indicated above, we also contacted the Ministers of Culture and Education, of Finance and of Home Affairs and requested them to express their opinions regarding the system of supplementary per capita normative allowance of minority education and regarding the complaints we received in this regard. All three Government Ministers assured me of their support and readily gave their points of view on those problems which were indicated. In his answer, the Minister of Culture and Education admitted that it is a basic criterion for the practical enforcement of rights related to the education of national and ethnic minorities that the supplementary per capita normative support should be utilised in the appropriate fashion. The head of the educational portfolio considers it a success that the mandatory utilisation of this sum has been recorded in the letter of law. He, too, has been informed that in spite of this there are institutions carrying out minority education which do not receive a sum increased by the sum of the supplementary per capita normative support from their maintaining body.

He considers it one of the basic problems that minority self-governments cannot always and in every place enforce their wide-ranging legal rights and their right of consent. A great proportion of schools are maintained by local municipal governments and it is they that apply for the per capita normative allowances, they decide the budgets of educational institutions, they have to accept the educational programme of schools and practice the rights of the maintainer. It is in co-operation with them that self-governments of minorities could and should ensure that the minority per capita normative allowance should actually be provided for institutions of instruction and education as an extra resource for financing the extra tasks that flow from the peculiarities of minority education.

According to the Minister of Education the other significant problem is that although the professional conceptions regarding the education of other minorities was developed years and even decades ago and Ministerial regulations subsequently appeared on the basis of these, the minority education of Gypsies still lacks the appropriate professional and legal background. This makes it excessively difficult to examine and control the appropriate utilisation of the supplementary per capita normative allowance for Gypsy minority education. According to the Minister the desired resolution may emerge through the enforcement of the Ministerial Decree regarding the Directives for the Nursery school and School Education of National and Ethnic minorities, since on the basis of this and the National Base Curriculum it will be possible to create those local educational programmes which record the system of requirements for minority education in a fashion which is easy to control. In future they wish to tie the provision of national and ethnic minority supplementary per capita allowances to the realisation of these programmes.

The Minister of Home Affairs, in agreement with the Minister of Finance, informed me that according to the currently valid regulations the financial and economic regulation system of local municipal councils is of a credit interested nature, i. e. it does not define or detail expenditures. Local municipal councils handle their incomes independently, within the frames defined by law, and they finance their legally prescribed compulsory tasks as well as their voluntarily undertaken tasks from a unified budget. Consequently the realisation of the various compulsory tasks, mainly prescribed by law, which are financed by municipal councils from various sources of income can be examined, in effect, on the basis of their compliance with the rules of occupational branch and profession related regulations. A sure point of reference is provided for such an examination by §38 (1) of the Act.gen.ed according to which institutions of public education must possess the resources they need in order to fulfil their function. Institutions of education m ensure the fulfilment of their tasks on the basis of resources provided by the founding and maintaining organisation and arising from other sources. The cost of the operation and maintenance of institutions of public education must be prognosticated in a budget which is compiled annually and is established by the maintaining body. According to the Minister of Home Affairs and the Minister of Finance since §1O2 (1O) of the Act.gen.ed also contains that for the formulation and modification of the budget of institutions of education and instruction which also participate in fulfilling minority related tasks the consent of the minority self-government in question must be obtained, all legal guarantees are available to ensure that the budget of the institutions in question should be formulated in accordance with the minority-related function and as described above.

The Ministers of State also remark that supplementary supports with a mandatory utilisation such as the support of the nursery school and school education of members of national and ethnic minorities is related to the extra tasks (e.g. a higher number of language lessons, special professional requirements) which occur in this particular area in the process of education. The legally correct utilisation of this sum can, naturally, be separated from the total support received by the institution but this does not mean that this supplementary support needs to appear over and above the institutional 'base support' as a kind of extra development resource.

On the basis of the above analysis it can be ascertained that the legal regulations regarding the financing of minority education are far from self-evident and thus their application is in no way a unified practice, either. We cannot accept the approach according to which the budgetary resources which the state has allocated with a mandatory utilisation only reach their target, the institutions of minority education, if the ability of the local minority self-government displays efficient interest enforcement techniques. The institution of the rights of consent and opinion ought primarily to serve co-operation rather than confrontation. For this, however, clear legal regulations are needed, and this is also required by the constitutional requirement of legal security. The legislator was also aware of the problem we indicated since Act CXLVI of 1998 on the Budget of the Republic of Hungary for 1998 contained a regulation in its Appendix No 8 according to which the support must be utilised for fulfilling the extra tasks entailed by minority education, for ensuring the time frame necessary for the study sessions and for breaking classes into smaller groups as is necessitated by teaching the language of the minority or for instruction in the minority language, and for ensuring the material and personal conditions of minority education. At the same time harmony must be created between the regulation of the law and the regulations of the laws prescribing implementation so that the state support should indeed be utilised for the purpose of minority education.

The abuse that has been indicated goes back to a shortcoming in legislation and I shall request the State Auditing Board to carry out expert investigations from the points of view of legality and practical purposefulness.

TEXT BOOK SUPPLY

The poor supply of textbooks is a general problem of minority education. The existence of textbooks and other study material which is in harmony with the National Base Curriculum, the National Minority Education Programmes and the aims of National Minorities education is a condition without which National Minority education cannot integrate itself organically with the new system of public education. A particularly damaging fact for teachers of national minorities was the delay in the publication of Directives for the School Education of National and Ethnic Minorities since it is only in the knowledge of the system of requirements based on this directive that the Ministry of Culture and Education intends to subsidise national minority textbook supply. As regards a system of textbook supply which is subsidised on a competitive basis, their is only a plan whose realisation, according to the Minister of Culture and Education, is currently underway. Thus new developments of publishers and the publication of much needed textbooks which are out of print are presently subsidised by the Ministry. We know of a national minority school which did not receive its national textbooks by the beginning of the 1997/98 academic year. The reason for this was clearly that ' due to the alteration of the system of subsidies this year and to the more circumspect preparation of agreements, related business contracts were signed later this year than has been customary.' (The quote is from a letter by the Minster of Culture and Education.) At professional forums publishers' representatives and teachers likewise declared that the present system of textbook supply and subsidisation is untenable. In several schools teachers are commissioned to translate textbooks and in other places they use books which are imported and incompatible with the National Base Curriculum or simply out of date. In the absence of textbooks and other study material it is useless to create educational programmes and local curricula, as there is no hope for their realisation. This may cause a contradictory situation in national minority education and the Ministry of Culture and Education must instantly act in order to remedy it.

TEACHER TRAINING AND FURTHER-TRAINING

The future of national minority general education is tied in with the development of national minority teacher training. National minority general education can only answer new challenges and rising expectations (this latter is proven by empirical surveys) if there is an adequate number of suitably qualified national minority teachers available. The system of national minority teacher training is also in a state of transition. The present comprehensive survey now proceeds by examining the system of national minority tertiary education and the system of in-service training. It is only possible to secure the standard of national minority public education on a long term scale if the machinery of tertiary education is also prepared to face this task.

NEGATIVE DISCRIMINATION

1. The content of negative discrimination

The definition of negative discrimination is contained in the UNESCO Convention on the battle against discrimination in education (announced in Law Decree 11 of 1964). According to Article 1. of the Convention 'by the term "discrimination" we mean any sort of distinction, exclusion, limitation or favouritism according to race, skin colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social background, wealth or birth the aim of which is the eradication or curtailment of equality of treatment in the field of education, such as

a) the exclusion of any person or group from participation in any type or grade of education
b) the curtailment of the education of any person or group in one grade and the demotion to a lower grade,
c) the establishment or maintenance of separate systems or institutions of education for certain persons or groups, maintaining the reservations included in Article 2. of the present Convention or
d) causing persons or groups to come into situations which are incompatible with human dignity.

2. For the use of the present Convention 'education' means all the types and grades of education and includes the sense of the possibility of participation in education, as well as the standard and quality of education and the conditions among which the studies are carried out.'

According to Article 2. 'it is not considered discrimination if certain states allow

a) the establishment and maintenance of separate educational systems of institutions for students of the two sexes as long as these systems or institutions provide equal opportunities for participation in education, each working with teaching staff with equal qualifications, possessing school rooms and equipment of equal quality and facilitates the completion of identical or equivalent courses of study,
b) the establishment and maintenance of separate systems of institutions for religious or language reasons which provide such education as satisfies the requirements of students or their legal representatives as long as the participation in these systems or attendance at these institutions is open to free choice and the education here provided is in harmony with the norms that might be accepted or prescribed by the pertaining authorities especially in terms of education of the same grade,
c) the establishment or maintenance of private institutions of study so long as the aim of these institutions is not the exclusion of any particular group but to broaden the choice of educational opportunities offered by the public authorities, provided that their practical operation is in harmony with this theoretical objective and that the education there provided is in harmony with the norms that might be accepted or prescribed by the pertaining authorities especially in terms of education of the same grade.'

The above regulation is an organic part of Hungarian internal law and thus we consider it a starting point for the examination of negative discrimination in education.

Negative discrimination against students belonging to different minorities is usually traced back to the prejudices or racism of the members of the majority society. This approach, which assumes a negative motive in each case, is unjustified and is an undue simplification of the problem. Pedagogical practices which are disadvantageous for students often arise from pure ignorance and are the result of the fact that teachers or decision makers of educational policy are not suitably prepared for their mission. (Pertaining literature distinguishes between the concepts of intentional and unintentional discrimination.) Since the intentions are different if not from the point of view of possible modes of therapy then certainly from the point of view of results, in our discussion of practices which lead to negative discrimination against minority students we shall also include cases which may even have been the result of good intentions.

The concept of negative discrimination has three possible interpretations which are again not unrelated to the intentions involved, (1) according to the narrow interpretation it only includes cases in which the disadvantage experienced by minority students is the result of negative discrimination, (2) a broader interpretation includes all educational practices which create a disadvantage for students coming from a national minority as students coming from a national minority or (3) which does not help to clear up the disadvantages which arise from the minority positions of these students.

Although the third approach clearly blurs the boundary between disadvantage and negative discrimination, this is still the definition we are going to use, for the following reasons.

(1) As we have already discussed, the disadvantages discussed by these students are not in every case the result of prejudice or racism or consequent segregation and discrimination.
(2) In the following it will become clear that in all cases discrimination is only one element of the disadvantages which affects students to a varying extent from minority to minority. These disadvantages are inseparable from each other and they cannot as a rule be demonstrated or remedied in a pure form.
(3) The Hungarian system of minority related legislation goes further than the mere prohibition of negative discrimination but also prescribes the application of a system of positive measures which serve to balance out various disadvantages.

We clearly cannot consider as negative discrimination those disadvantages which equally effect students belonging to both the majority and the minority, (e.g. certain social problems) or those which cannot be irradicated by the system of means that are available to the law or educational policy (e.g. educational segregation which emerges on a systematic level as a result of residential segregation) or those which although affecting minority students are the result of decisions made by members of the minority in question. (Poorly functioning minority institutions.)

Since negative discrimination is very much a contextual phenomenon we consider it necessary to outline the system of relations within which certain educational situations can be considered the source of disadvantages for students belonging to minorities. From this point of view we have to take into account the following three criteria.

- the avoidance of all forms of discrimination.
- the 'translation' of minority rights into educational practice. (e.g. acquiring language and culture, free choice of identity, etc.)
- equal opportunities for progress within the educational system.

On the basis of the above we consider as negative discrimination the following:

- such features of the educational system as limit equality of opportunity,
- inadequate and disadvantageous solutions in the organisation of education,
- inadequate and disadvantageous educational practices.

Practices within public education which qualify as negative discrimination do not affect all minority groups in Hungary and affect them to different degrees. On the basis of typical problems minority students may be classified into the following three groups,

- students participating in school level minority education
- gypsy students participating in school level minority education,
- students belonging to minority groups with no school level education.

Students belonging to the larger national minorities (Croatians, Germans, Slovakians, Rumanians) participate in minority programmes, in educational institutions maintained by the local municipal councils. Since these groups are not 'visible' minorities, (i.e. not recognisable by exterior signs) by students belonging to the minority group we mean the students who participate in the minority programme. Gypsy students belong to a visible markedly distinct group but only some of these of students participate in minority 'catch-up' programmes. Students belonging to smaller national minorities do not usually study in institutions of minority education instead the minority education characteristically takes place in so called 'Sunday schools,' on a training course basis.

NEGATIVE DISCRIMINATION IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

The Hungarian system of education displays several structural features which may be the source of negative discrimination for certain minority students (thus not entirely for the entire minority group.) These structural features are the following;

1. The problem of minority programmes which are impossible to complete in the period of time defined for basic education.
2. The lack of educational institution models which are suited to serve specialist requirements and are adaptable to various minority situations.
3. The disadvantageous function of the system of special needs education for gypsy students,
4. The lack of an adequate system of professional development and services.
5. The dissatisfactory standard of regulation and educational policy aiming to eradicate negative discrimination.

2.1 In the new system of practical educational regulations, basic education is not completed at the end of the eighth year of primary school but by a Basic Education Examination which is to be taken at the end of the tenth year. In the present system of minority education, however, minority programmes usually come to an end at the end of primary school, except for national minority grammar schools which offer the opportunity of further education to an average of 15% of minority students most of whom belong to the larger national minorities. This means that the great majority of students participates in an incomplete minority programme. More precisely, in the ninth and tenth year they do not participate in a programme which would prepare them for taking the Basic Education Examination in their minority language. This language is the very reason why the present system of general education is not permeable from the point of view of minority education. This is in spite of the fact that in terms of the totality of the system of general education various guarantees of permeability help to resolve the tensions between school structures which are at odds with levels of regulation as regards practical realisation.

The extended duration of basic education can also be a source of disadvantages for Gypsies, for a different reason. Since the proportion of Gypsy students who continue their studies in institutions of secondary education is incredibly low, it becomes even more difficult for them to participate in occupational training for which at the moment a completed ten year course of basic education is a criterion in most cases. This may have a dramatic effect on the already disastrous level of education of the Gypsy minority and thus on their position on the labour market.

2.2 The question of models for educational institutions which satisfy specialist, minority requirements is something that concerns, to varying degrees, all three minority groups that we identified earlier. It is a shared feature among these models that in view of the disadvantages flowing from a minority position they are supposed to ensure equal opportunities for students belonging to minorities in terms of progress within the system of general education.

2.2.1. The disadvantages afflicting Gypsy students are of such an extent that a solution whose only target are institutions maintained by municipal councils will not be able to reduce to the desirable degree the vast difference between the level of education of Gypsies and of the majority society. For this it is also necessary to create special institutional models whose conception takes the special position of Gypsies as its starting point and whose educational programme is formulated accordingly. (From this point of view it is indifferent whether these institutions are maintained by local municipal councils, minority self-governments or non-profit organisations.) The possible educational models are already available (six and a half year secondary grammar schools, technical schools, study courses, local collegiate schools for small villages etc.) We need a whole national network of so-called Gypsy minority educational institutions which ought to be formulated not by introducing one model all over the country but by building on local initiatives in a way which is adapted to local characteristics, in harmony with the principles of the free choice of identity and of educational autonomy.

2.2.2. So called 'Sunday schools' cannot be transformed into a school system education, mainly because of the insufficient number of students attending them. Nonetheless permeability between 'proper' general education and a course-based minority education could be created with the help of examinations and suitably formulated examination certificates.

2.3. According to the data of the school statistics of the academic year 1992-93 the rate of Gypsy students in Hungarian general education was 7.12%.The residential-geographical structure of the Gypsy minority and their segregation within individuals towns and villages causes the proportion of Gypsy students to be quite different in certain educational institutions than in others. In the year just mentioned, over 7O% of Gypsy children studied in a school where their proportion exceeded 1O% and, within this, 42% went to schools where their proportion exceeded 22%. (Segregation within the school system has only got worse since that time.) The tendency of segregation cannot be stopped by mere anti-discriminatory measures and regulations - it can only be reduced through a complex government programme which embraces the entire set of problems related to the Gypsy minority. In view of this fact we place a special emphasis on the realisation of the package of measures whose aim it is to improve the life conditions of Gypsy people.

The channelling of Gypsy children into special needs schools or classes originally organised for mildly mentally handicapped children is a method for the segregation of Gypsy children which is not unknown in other Central European countries. According to estimations, about half of the children studying in such institutions are Gypsy which means that their proportion there is six to seven times higher than their proportion in the whole of the system of general education. The rules of transfer to special needs classes have been repeatedly tightened but even this failed to prevent the use of such classes as massive 'deposits' for Gypsy children. The great number of Gypsy children in this type of institution which cuts them off any chance of further study or employment is not a sign of the intellectual unsuitability of Gypsies but of the discrimination that is practised in regard to them and of the pedagogical failure of the regular institutions of general education. Thus a possible package of measures aiming to eradicate this phenomenon must simultaneously serve the eradication of discriminative practices and the improvement of 'ordinary' institutions of general education which expels from itself a great number of Gypsy children. In 1998 we wish to conduct a comprehensive national survey in order to map out the negative discriminations that afflict Gypsy children in special-needs schools.

2.4 It can be considered a problem present throughout the entire system that while there exists a legal prohibition on negative discrimination, there is not a system of educational development and services which could offer effective help for educational institutions to supplant practices of school organisation and educational practice which are disadvantageous for minority students with other solutions. The two years that have gone by since the re-organisation in 1995 of the minority education development and service system have proved that the system of minority services which is integrated into the system which offers its services to the entire Hungarian system of general education has become overly fragmented. This causes their work to be uncoordinated and its achievements hardly ever reach the targeted institutions.

2.5 A problem related to those summarised in the above points is the lack of such a central conception, or local regional conceptions, of educational policy which might include all the related tasks of regulation, control, institution development, educational development, evaluation, research and financing and as such might visibly reduce the extent of the negative discrimination of minority students within a reasonable time.

NEGATIVE DISCRIMINATION IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

The targets of practices which may be qualified as negative discrimination in individual educational institutions are almost always Gypsy students. At the same time, students who belong to national minorities do not always receive the minority education that is available to them on the basis of the existing system of minority legislation. The language and cultural content offered by national minority programmes often falls short of satisfying the right of students to acquiring their own language and culture. The language teaching efficiency of typically language-oriented minority educational programmes is, to say the least, doubtful and in many schools the teaching of the area of education which is called 'minority nation studies' is entirely absent. The solution to these problems necessitates the launching of educational development programmes which are of a satisfactory standard without exception and the procurement of the required financing.

The negative discrimination of Gypsy students takes two forms - one is segregation and the other is the unsuitability of educational methods used in their education. The reason for negative discrimination within the school is often other than prejudice against the Gypsy students. Lacking the necessary conditions and skills many schools and teachers use methods which are unsuited to offer Gypsy children a sense of achievement, indeed they usually act to increase their disadvantages and to make the student more acutely aware of them.

Negative discrimination in schools has various degrees. School practices which merit the above qualification range from education of a reduced value through segregation of varying degrees to the practice of getting rid of Gypsy students entirely (making them fail, exempting them from studies, referring them to special schools or classes.) Education of reduced value does not necessary entail segregation, it can be achieved by 'differentiated conducting of classes and evaluation'. This process is characterised by partly reducing the requirements facing Gypsy students and partly reducing the time devoted to their education and also to the entire lack of special, out-of-class education which is offered to other students (swimming, foreign languages, computer skills etc.).

In its mildest forms segregation means physical separation within the class room, in worse cases the organisation of Gypsy classes for students of various ages. In 1995 out of 84O data-providing schools, 132 operated one or more Gypsy classes. We do not know the precise number of Gypsy classes but it is likely to be over 15O. In these classes the students do not receive a higher quality of education than those studying in integrated classes. The development of Gypsy children educated in these segregated classes usually comes to a halt and after one or two years their re-integration in the normal course of education is no longer possible. Segregation strengthens the children's sense of distance between the minority and the majority and conditions them in this respect. This also means that it has an immeasurably harmful effect on children who belong to the majority society. These Gypsy classes can be called the dead-end streets of general education no less than the special-needs classes.

A recent form of negative discrimination is the re-classification of students as 'private students'. We have received signals to the effect that the parents of 'problem children' have been persuaded to apply for their children to be permitted to complete their studies as privately educated students. Phenomena like this must most urgently be surveyed and recorded.

CONCLUSIONS

The statements of this survey have hopefully highlighted the fact that there are serious shortcomings and malpractices in legislation and in the application of the law as regards the education of national and ethnic minorities in Hungary. These malpractices may be remedied by the modification of legal regulations or by the creation of new regulations or by the correct application of already existing regulations. This is the aim of the proposals and initiatives formulated in the following chapter.

We should like to draw attention most emphatically to a few main points of view. It has been our experience that most of the complaints addressed to our office emerge because the people directly involved in minority education (teachers, students, parents, municipal and minority self-government representatives) have very little information at their service to help them to understand how local education is to be organised in the future and what role they are to play in this. It is our conviction that the post-communist transition can only genuinely take place in the education system if all its participants are clearly aware of their rights, duties and opportunities. For this, however, it is not satisfactory to master the mass of legislation that regulate general education. As we have mentioned in our introduction, institutions of minority education are operated jointly by local municipal councils and local minority self-governments. They are right to expect assistance in this effort. According to the Act on General Education, the national organisation of educational-professional services which are instrumental in assisting minority education and instruction must be taken completed. To the date of the completion of the present survey this system of institutions has failed to emerge and consequently teachers and representatives feel that they have been abandoned and left to their own resources. According to the signals that reach our office, the Ministry of Culture and Education cannot on its own cope with the task of mediating the mass of information which is necessary to implement the Act yet they cannot confer this task on any other authority. In a stable democracy it is a requirement urged by the state of law and order in the course of creating laws of higher importance that before a regulation comes into force, a satisfactory amount of time should be left in which to make preparations to implement the new law in the proper fashion. In the period of the post-communist transition we reconciled ourselves to the situation that the time available to those applying the nascent regulations is, as a rule, too short for preparation. This situation can only be considered in any sense acceptable if this short period is characterised by an intensive circulation of information, if we see the organisation of training programmes, and if the state organisations use the widest repertoire of communicational strategies in order to supply the users of the law with the necessary amount of information. The National and Ethnic Minorities Office must accept a far greater share of this effort than heretofore, since one of its functions according to the legal regulation defining it is to foster the flow of opinions and information between the Government and the minority organisations.

Although the duties related to the above mentioned tasks are primarily the responsibility of state organisations, the central minority self-governments can be of great help in this work. They can use their own means to further the preparations of local minority self-government representatives since it is in their joint interest that minority education should function in an adequate fashion and that minority interests should be enforced within the system of general education.

Teachers as well as representatives of municipal councils, local and central minority self-governments must make efforts to involve parents to the greatest possible degree in educational decisions. The legislative framework for this is available since the institutional framework of general education and, within that, of minority education facilitates the participation of parents, students and minority self-governments in decisions or in the preparations of decisions.

PROPOSALS, RECOMMENDATIONS

On the basis of §25 of Act LIX of 1993 on the Ombudsman of citizens' rights I make the following proposal to the Minister of Culture and Education.

1. As the minister in charge of the preparation of the legal regulation of general education to propose the amendment of (3) §128 of Act LXXIX of 1993 on General Education in order to put an end to the negative discrimination of the teachers of national minorities in regard to the conditions of obtaining specialist qualifications,
2. to propose the amendment of Act LXXXIX of 1993 on General Education in order to include regulations regarding the definition, surveying, sanctioning and demonstration of negative discrimination in education in the Act.

On the basis of §25 (1) of Act LIX of 1993 on the Ombudsman of citizens' rights I make the following proposals to the Minister of Culture and Education.

1. To accelerate the process of legislation so that the detailed regulations of the Directives for the school education of national and ethnic minorities, broken down according to individual minorities, may be completed within the shortest possible amount of time.
2. In accordance with §36 (6) of Act LXXIX of 1993 on General Education to take steps to ensure the organisation of a nation-wide system of educational-professional services in order to assist the education of instruction of national minorities in nursery schools, schools and boarding institutions.
3. To elaborate the system of competitive support for national minority text books in order to put an end to the presently prevailing dissatisfactory situation in the area of national minority textbook supplying.

On the basis of §2O (1) of Act LIX of 1993 on the Ombudsman of citizens' rights I make the following recommendations to the Minister of Culture and Education.

1. To conduct investigations in order to explore why Gypsy children absent themselves to the present high degree from nursery school education and on the basis of these investigations to elaborate educational policy systems of incentive and communicational strategies in order to change the present situation,
2. To conduct a nation-wide survey in order to map out the discriminative practices in the organisation of education prevalent in the system of general education which afflict students belonging to national and ethnic minorities and to elaborate measures with which to eradicate these.
3. With reference to §1 of Government Decree 47/199O (Sept. 15) to elaborate programmes, using the complete arsenal of communicational strategies, in order to provide adequate training for local minority self-government representatives who participate in decision making related to minority education, in order to put them in possession of information regarding their related legally guaranteed rights, thus assuring the practice and enforcement of the rights of national and ethnic minorities.

On the basis of §18 (3) of Act LIX of 1993 on the ombudsman of citizens' rights I make the following request that the Head of the National Auditing Board examines what sort of malpractices of legislation or of the application of the law may be detected in the utilisation of the per capita normative supplementary support for national and ethnic minorities as regulated in Appendix 1., Part Two, Point 2 of Act LXXIX of 1993 on General Education and on the basis of the findings of the examination, if necessary, to initiate the amendment of the law by the legislator.

On the basis of §2O (1) of Act LIX of 1993 on the ombudsman of citizens' rights I make the following recommendation to the head of the National and Ethnic Minorities Office to elaborate a programme on the basis of §2 (4) point b) of Government Decree 34/199O (Aug. 3O) for furthering and making more efficient the flow of opinions and information between the Government and minority self-governments in order for local minority self-government representatives to gain adequate knowledge of the rights that they may practice in the area of minority education, on the mode of practising these right so that they may participate in training programmes regarding questions of minority education.
On the basis of §2O (1) of Act LIX of 1993 on the ombudsman of citizens' rights I make the following recommendation to the heads of Capital City and County Public Administration Offices, whereby they are requested in the course of dealing with the tasks of training and further training as laid down in §18 of Government Decree 191/1996 (Dec. 17) to place special emphasis on ensuring that the staff of public administrations fully respect the rights of members of national and ethnic minorities as laid down in the pertaining regulations. As far as possible, representatives of local minority self-governments should be given the opportunity to participate at these training courses.

February 1998 Budapest
Dr Jenô Kaltenbach

APPENDIX

THE MAIN REGULATIONS OF ACT LXXIX OF 1993 ON GENERAL EDUCATION.

Preamble

In order to assure the practice of the right to culture and education on the basis of equal opportunities, to ensure the freedom of conscience and conviction and of religion, in order to ensure that the love of the country is provided for within the course of general education, in order to ensure the right of national and ethnic minorities to education in the mother tongue as well as the freedom of learning and teaching, in order to define the rights and duties of children, students, parents and the employees of general education and in order to ensure the management and operation of a system of general education which provides up-to-date knowledge, Parliament makes the following law.

§3 (2) Institutions of general education may be founded and maintained by the state, by local minority self governments, by central minority governments, by legal persons registered in the Republic of Hungray and by economic organisations, foundations, associations and other legal persons which were founded in the territory of the Republic of Hungary, which have headquarters in this country and finally by natural persons if they have acquired the right of carrying out such activity as prescribed by the law.

§5 The language of nursery school education, school education and instruction, and of boarding education is Hungarian or the language of national and ethnic minorities. Children and students belonging to national and ethnic minorities, may receive their nursery school education, their school education and instruction and their boarding education in their mother tongue, or in their mother tongue and Hungarian or in Hungarian depending on the choice they make as defined in the Act on the rights of national and ethnic minorities. Education and instruction may also take place, partly or entirely, in a different language.

§8 (3) The educational practice of nursery schools is based on the nursery school's educational programme which is, in turn, based on the National Base Programme for Nursery School Education. The National Base Programme for Nursery School Education is issued by the government. Before submitting the National Base Programme for Nursery School Education to the government, the consent of the National General Education council and, in questions concerning the nursery school education of national and ethnic minorities, the consent of the National Minorities Committee and, finally, the opinion of the General Education Policy Council must be obtained.
(8) The National Base Curriculum defines requirements according to areas of instruction for the end of the fourth, sixth, eighth and tenth year. The National Base Curriculum also contains the base principles for the special curricular criteria for
a) the school education and instruction of national and ethnic minorities
b) the school education of students of physical, sensory, speech and other disabilities.

(1O) The National Base Curriculum is issued by the Government. Before submitting the National Base Curriculum to the government, the consent of the National General Education Council and, in questions concerning the school education and instruction of national and ethnic minorities, the consent of the National Minorities Committee and, finally, the opinion of the General Education Policy Council must be obtained.

(11) Nursery schools providing national and ethnic minority nursery school education and schools providing such education and instruction apply the contents of (1) - (9) with the alteration whereby in preparing the nursery school education programme and the local school curriculum they take into account the Directives for the Nursery School Education of National and Ethnic Minorities or the Directives for the School Education of National and Ethnic Miniorities, respectively. These Directives are issued by the Minister of Culture and Education with the consent of the Naional Minorities Committee and after requesting the opinion of the National General Education council and the General Education Policy Council.

§9 (1) The Basic Education Examination and the Secondary Grammar Final Examination are state examinations which must be conducted according to nationally unified examination criteria (henceforth: central examination requirements). The central examination requirements of the Basic Education Examination are based on the National Base Curriculum. The central examination requirements for the Secondary Grammar Final Examination are to be defined on the basis of the general requirements of the pertaining examination regulations. The general requirements of the Secondary Grammar Final Examination contain the compulsory and uniform subject requirements of the education and instruction that are provided in the 11th and 12th year of school education. The central examination requirements of the Basic Education Examination and the Secondary Grammar Final Examniation may be supplemented by extra examination requirements by the school, on the basis of their local curriculum and as defined in the examination regulations. The establishment and announcement of the central examination requirements and the definintion of methods of evaluation is the responsibility of the state. The examination, unless otherwise instructed by the regulations of the Secondary Grammar Final Examniation, are organised by the school. Oral examinations are open to the public. The chairperson of the examination may limit the participation of the public if this is justified by the need to maintain law and order at the examination. The examination takes place in the language which is the language of instruction - in Hungarian, in the language of the national or ethnic minority or in another foreign language. The examinees may inspect their examination papers and may submit their opinions regarding the evaluation of the paper.

(2) Regulations regarding the organisation, general procedure,, general requirements of examined subjects, the evaluation of the performance of the examinees, application and administrative procedures of the Basic Education Examination and the Secondary Grammar Final Examination are defined by the examination regulations of the Basic Education Examination and the Secondary Grammar Final Examination. The examination regulations of the Secondary Grammar Final Examination defines the subjects which must be taught at schools from the 11th year onwards. The examination regulations of the Secondary Grammar Final Examination are issued by the government in a Government Decree. Before the submission of the examination regulations of the Secondary Grammar Final Examination, the consent of the National General Education Council and, in questions concerning the school education and instruction of national and ethnic minorities, the consent of the National Minorities Committee and, finally, the opinion of the General Education Policy Council must be obtained.

(5) At the Secondary Grammar Final Examination the student's performance is examined in compulsory and in optional subjects alike. Compulsory subjects are the following, Hungarian Language and Literature, History. For those participating in national and ethnic minority education the mother tongue and its literature. Unless otherwise ordered by law, further compulsory subjects are mathematics and, except for those participating in national and ethnic minority education, one foreign language. Examination in the subjects of the Secondary Grammar Final Examination may be conducted in two tiers comprising different standards of expectation.

§17 (1) Unless otherwise ordered by the present Act, persons employed as teachers in institutions of education and instruction must hold tertiary (university or college) qualifications as prescribed by the present Act and specialist qualifications. Acceptable tertiary qualification and specialist qualifications are the following,

a) at nursery schools - nursery school teacher's qualifications,
b) within the first four years of primary school education, infant school teacher's, conductor-infant school teacher's (henceforth, for the joint qualifications of conductor and infant school teacher we use 'conductor'), if, on the basis of the local curriculum, the school provides a raised standard of instruction in certain areas of instruction, infant school teacher's or teacher's qualifications may be required for the subjects which comprise the areas of instruction of the various arts, foreign languages, national and ethnic minority languages and literatures, physical education and various sports.

(3) If the language of nursery school education or school education and instruction or boarding education is the language of the national or ethnic minority or any language other than Hungarian then the person employed as teachers for education and instruction in the given language must hold

a) qualifications as national minority nursery school teachers or national minority infant school teachers or
b) the tertiary qualification defined in (1) as well as language teaching qualifications and specialist qualifications as infant school teachers, as school teachers or as language teachers of the given language.

Conditions for heads of institutions of education and instruction are the following.

§18 (1) The person who is to be the head of an institution of education and instruction must hold
a) such tertiary and specialist qualifications as are necessary to be employed as teacher in the given institution of instruction and education as defined in §17 (1)-(2) as well as specialist teaching qualifications. In secondary schools, unless otherwise ordered by the present Act, the requirements are university level teaching qualifications and specialist qualifications as well as specialist teaching qualifications,
b) no less than five years of professional experience (as teacher) except in cases as defined in (6),
c) tenured employment as teacher in the given institution of education and instruction or tenured employment as teacher during the term of office as head of institution.

(2) If nursery school education or school education and instruction takes place in the given institution of education and instruction purely in the language of the national or ethnic minority or more than half of the students conduct their studies in two languages simultaneously, that of the national or ethnic minority and in Hungarian, then the person employed as head of institution must fulfil, beside the criteria defined in (1), the requirements as described in (3) of §17 of the present Act. In the case of equal qualifications priority must be given to the applicant who belongs to the national or ethnic minority in question.

Secondary Grammar Schools

§28 (1) Secondary grammar schools, except in certain exceptional cases defined in (2)-(3), consist of four years. In four year secondary grammar schools, education and instruction begins in the 9th year of the educational cycle and ends with the 12th.

(2) A secondary grammar school may operate with six or eight years if on the basis of the prognosis of the medium range school entrance plan (§88 (2)) this is necessary for fulfilling the requirement of compulsory education and if on a county or capital city level other students can be provided for who wish to start their gramar school education in the 9th year. In six-year grammar schools education and instruction begins in the 7th and in eight-year grammar schools in the fifth year of the educational cycle and ends, in both cases, with the 12th year.

(3) if in secondary grammar schools as defined in (1)-(2), education and instruction takes place in two languages (Hungarian and one foreign language including the languages of national and ethnic minorities) (henceforth - bilingual education), the course of education offered by the school may end in the 13th year of the educational cycle, according to the Directive for bilingual schools and the Directive for the school education of national and ethnic minorities.

Secondary Comprehensive Schools ('Szakközépiskola')

§29 (1) Secondary comprehensive schools, except in the cases defined in (2) and (8)-(9), have four years in which to provide a basic general education (henceforth: secondary school years). Education and instruction in the secondary school years of secondary comprehensive schools begins in the 9th year of the educational cycle and ends in the 12th year.

(2) If instruction and education in the secondary comprehensive school takes place in two languages - according to the Directive for Bilingual Schools and the Directive for the School Education of National and Ethnic Minorities, instruction and education at the secondary school years may end in the 13th year.

§32 It is the task of boarding schools (dormitories) to create the conditions necessary for carrying out school studies for those who
a) do not have the opportunity to practice their right to studying, the free choice of school or to study in their national or ethnic minority language or to study in institutions for the education and instruction of the mentally disabled at their own place of residence or
b) whose parents lack the means to ensure the conditions necessary for studying.

§36 (6) The organisation of educational services including nursery school education, school education and instruction and boarding school education of national and ethnic minorities at a national level must be ensured, according to a division of tasks as regulated in (5).

§37 (5) The foundation documents of institutions of public education must contain the type, name, basic activity of the institution, its national and ethnic minority related and other tasks, its subsidiary institutions, the funds on which it relies in order to fulfil its tasks, the foundations for the right of control over these funds, the authorisations related to the financial management of the institution, the name of the founder, the address of the institutions headquarters and sites, in the case of educational and teaching institutions the name of special faculties and in the case of a school the number of years that the course consists of.

(10) Unless otherwise ordered by law or government decree, institutions of public education founded and maintained by the local minority government and the central minority government are managed according to the regulations pertaining to schools founded and maintained by local municipal governments.

§47 The programme of nursery school education must contain
a) the educational functions which will ensure the children's development, their preparation for life in the community, for the integration of those with a disadvantaged social background and
b) in national or ethnic minority nursery school education the tasks which are entailed by fostering the culture and language of the given minority.

§48 (1) The educational programme of schools must determine
a) the aims of the education and instruction taking place in the given school,
b) the local curriculum of the school and within that
- the subjects taught in the individual years of the school, the mandatory and optional study session activities and the number of sessions in which they are taught, the curricular material prescribed and the related requirements,
- the principles for selecting the textbooks, auxiliary study material and equipment which may be used,
- the criteria for entering a higher year at the given school,
- the requirements and form of school assessment of the taught material, the criteria for the evaluation and qualification of the students' good behaviour and working progress and, within the frames defined by law, the form for the evaluation of the students' good behaviour and working progress,
- in the case of the school education and instruction of national and ethnic minorities the material related to the given minority in the areas of mother tongue, history, geography, culture and civilisation,
for students participating in national and ethnic minority school education and intruction the study material necessary for acquiring Hungarian language and culture, for students who do not belong to a national and ethnic minority the study material that serves their understanding of the culture of the national and ethnic minorities living in their village or town.

§60 (3) One representative each may be delegated into the school board by the
a) maintaining body
b) boarding school, child protection institution
c) local minority government, in the case of schools fulfilling a regional or national function the central minority self government unless it is the maintaining body of the school
d) in technical schools and secondary comprehensive schools the regional economic chamber in question.

§66 (2) Primary schools, including the nominated school, are obliged to accept the entry or transfer from another school of school-age students whose domicile (or if they have no domicile, their place of residence), is in the school's catchment area (schools with compulsory acceptance). The maintaining body may nominate technical schools in the 9th and 10th year as a school with compulsory acceptance. Nominated schools (§30 (4)), if they are not schools with compulsory acceptance, can only deny admission by reference to lack of available places. The entry or transfer from another school of applicants belonging to national or ethnic minorities must be accepted into schools (branches, classes, groups) where the language of instruction is that of the national or ethnic minority or the language of instruction is that of the national or ethnic minority and Hungarian, so long as they fulfilled the entrance requirements.

§72 (1) Students receive a certificate about completing the requirements of the individual years, of the Basic Education Examination, the Secondary Grammar Final Examination and the Occupational Examination. The certificate is a public document. The certificate is to be issued in Hungarian or, where the school instruction takes place partly or fully in the language of a national or ethnic minority or in another foreign language, it is to be issued in the language of the national or ethnic minority or in the given foreign language. The certificate form must contain the Coat of Arms of the Republic of Hungary.

§81 (1O) The Minister of Culture and Education can make a public education agreement with the central minorities self governments. The Minister of Culture and Education must make a public education agreement if the school education and boarding of members of national and ethnic minorities is not provided for by the local municipal government.

§83 (3) With regard to institutions of public education maintained by central minority self governments the legal functions described in §8O and (1) of the present act is fulfilled by the chief notary in charge at the headquarters of the institution.

§84 (6) Persons who are entitled to the right of consent with regard to decisions concerning public education in institutions of education and instruction may make their statements within thirty days. This deadline may be prolonged by a further thirty days before the expiry of the first deadline, through a declaration made to the other party and on no more than one occasion. Missing the deadline entails forfeiture of the above right and no justifications are accepted. Deadlines are to be calculated according to the regulations of the Act on the general rules of state administration procedures. If in the course of practising the right of consent a point of debate between two interested parties cannot be solved by direct negotiation, a board of nine members must be established at the institution of education and instruction. In this committee three members are delegated by the teaching staff, three by the party practicing the right of consent and another three are invited by the maintaining body of the institution of education and instruction, to the debit of the budget of the institution of education and intruction, out of the experts who are listed in the National Experts' List. The committee defines its own order of procedure with the one limitation whereby it must make its decision with a simply majority. The decision constitutes agreement between the parties.

§86 (1) The municipal councils of villages, towns, capital city districts and county-right cities are obliged to provide for general nursery school and primary school education which enables students to complete their mandatory course of education, and in townships inhabited by national and ethnic minorities for the nursery school education and for the primary school education of those belonging to the minority in such a way as to enable them to complete their mandatory course of education.

(2) The obligation described in (1) also includes the obligation to provide for children and students with such physical, sensory, slight mental, speech and other disability as permits them to be educated along with other children or students.

(3) County Municipal Councils and, unless otherwise regulated in (4), Capital City Municipal Councils must provide for
a) general education and the boarding school education of national and ethnic minorities,
b) secondary and technical school education
c) the secondary and technical school education of national and ethnic minorities
d) adult education
e) basic level education in the various arts
f) higher education and career choice counselling, educational counselling, speech therapy services and therapeutic physical education in cases in which the municipal councils of villages, towns or capital city districts refuses to fulfil the function in question or the function is not provided for in the area of the capital city or the county.

§88 (1) The capital city municipal council or the county councils make a plan for fulfilling its function, for operating its network of institutions and for further developments (henceforth: development plan) after requesting the opinion of and with the participation of the capital city districts or the local municipal governments operating in the county's area, respectively, which serves the preparation of local government decisions necessary for organising the function of public education. In preparing the development plan the opinions of the capital city or country statistical office, labour centre (henceforth, jointly: participants), the regional economic chamber, the parental and student representative organisations of the capital city or the county, of maintaining bodies of institutions other than the state or the local municipal council and the capital city or county level trade unions of teachers. The development plan is formulated by the county council and county town for its own area and then is accepted jointly in a mediating committee. Local minority self governments may attach their opinion to the development plan under preparation and may participate in its preparation. The opinion of the central minority self government must be acquired for the preparation of the development plan. At the request of the capital city council or the county council the participants are obliged to provide such data as are necessary for the preparation of the development plan. The capital city development plan is issued by the capital city council, the county development plan by the county council as a decree, in the form of a Recommendation. In the application of the present section by parents' and student organisations and teachers' professional organisations, these are organisations which have been registered with the capital city or county council after presenting their Articles and court registration certificate.

(10) If a nursery school or school is in charge of the education of national or ethnic minorities, then for decisions as described in (6)-(8) the local municipal government is obliged to acquire the consent of the local minority self government at the headquarters of the institution and the opinion of the central minority self government.

(11) If the institution of education and instruction comes into existence as a result of legal succession, the cessation of the former organisation does not affect the children's place at nursery schools or the legal status of students at schools or the membership of boarding students at boarding institutions. In cases when the parent does not want to enter his or her child in the newly emerging institution of education and instruction, or if the institution of education and instruction ceases without a legal successor, the local government appoints, as described in (6)-(7), the institution of education and instruction in which the parents can request the transfer of their child before the cessation of the institution of education and instruction. The head of the appointed institution of education and instruction can only refuse the acceptance of the child/student in question by reference to a lack of vacancies.

§89 In order to ensure the proper and uninterrupted flow of the affairs of public education, capital city and county councils make a co-operation agreement with the local municipal councils that function in the area of the capital city or the county about organising the regional type services related to general education, with special emphasis on the following,
a) on fulfilling the tasks related to completing the course of compulsory education (formulating the network of schools, ensuring education in the 9th and 1Oth year), registration, transfer, the operation of educational specialist services),
b) ensuring the nursery school and school education of children and students belonging to national or ethnic minorities and of children or students with physical, sensory, mental, speech or other disabilities,
c) creating the conditions for participating in compulsory education, operating the service of travelling specialist teachers for mentally disabled children, of travelling speech therapists and conductors,
d) ensuring the opportunity for changing schools without a transfer entrance examination or without having to repeat a year of their course for those whose school education and instruction to the end of the period of compulsory education is not provided at their place of permanent residence,
e) settling questions related to secondary and technical school entrance examinations, solving particular problems,
f) establishing the catchment (entrance) area for institutions offering regional services (schools and boarding institutions for the education and instruction of disabled children or students, speech therapy institutions etc.) and establishing the contribution necessary for the maintenance and operation of the institution.

§ 90 (4) Before establishing the catchment (entrance) area of institutions of education and instruction in charge of the nursery school education, school education and instruction of children or students belonging to national minorities the local municipal government must obtain the approval of the local minority self-government or, in the case of schools offering regional or country-wide services, the approval of the central minority self government.

§ 93 (1) The Minister of Culture and Education
a) issues, at the recommendation of the National General Education Council and after requesting the opinion of the General Education Policy Council, the Directives for Bilingual School Education, the Curricular Directives for the School Education of Disabled Children and the Requirements and Curricular Programme of Basic Level Education in the Arts. The Minister also issues, with the consent of the National Minorities Committee and after requesting the opinion of the General Education Policy Council, The Directives for the Nursery School Education of National and Ethnic Minorities and the Directives for the School Education of National and Ethnic Minorities and is responsible for the supervision of these
b) regularly, but at least once every three years, evaluates, with the participation of the National General Education Council and the National Minorities Committee, the experiences related to the introduction of the National Base Programme for Nursery School Education and the National Base Curriculum and, if necessary, in questions concerning children belonging to national or ethnic minorities, the national General Education Council, with the consent of the Naitonal Minorities Committee and after requesting the opinion of the General Education Policy council, suggests the necessary modifications to the Government. The Minister also ensures the elaboration of nursery school education programmes and school curricula - in the case of national or ethnic minority nursery schools and schools this means involving the central minority self government in question.

§94 (1) The Minister of Culture and Education regulates
a) the introduction and issuing of Directives for the nursery school education of national and ethnic minorities, Directives for the School Instruction of National and Ethnic Minorities, Directives for Education in Bilingual Schools, Directives for the Nursery School Education of Disabled Children, Directives for the School Instruction of Disabled Children, Requirements and curricular Programmes of Basic Level Education in the Arts, adhering to the procedural rules defined in §93 (1) point a), and obtaining the consent of the central minorities self government before issuing the Directives for the Nursery School Education of National and Ethnic Minorities and of the Directives for the School Instruction of National and Ethnic Minorities.

(4) Before submitting the National Base Programme of Nursery School Education and the National Base Curriculum to the Government, the consent of the National General Education Council, and in matters concerning the nursery school education and school education and instruction of members of national and ethnic minorities that of the National Minorities Committee and the opinion of the General Education Policy Council must be obtained.

(5) Before submitting the Government Decrees defined in points a)-c) and point f) of (3) to the Government, in questions regarding the nursery school education and school education and instruction of members of national and ethnic minorities the consent of the central minority self governments must be obtained.

§ 97 (2) The members of the General Education Policy Council are four delegated representatives from each of the following organisations
a) teachers' national professional organisations
b) national teachers' trade unions
c) national parents' organisations
d) national students' organisations
e) interest protection organisations of local municipal governments
f) central minority self governments
g) non-state and non-municipal school maintainers
a) and one delegated representative each from

§ 98 (1) The National Minorities Committee participates in preparing those decisions of the Ministry of Culture and Education which concern nursery school education, school instruction, and the boarding school education of national and ethnic minorities. The National Minorities Committee consists of one delegated member from each of the central minority self governments. The legal status of the National Minorities Committee is the same as that of the National General Education Council.

§ 1O2 (3) Before decisions regarding the closing down or reorganisation of institutions of general education, regarding a change of their function, the establishment of their name, the drafting or modification of their budget, the appointment of their head or the withdrawal of such an appointment, the maintainer of the institution obtains the opinion of the community of employees at the institution, of the School Board, of the school's parents' organisation (community), of the Student Society, in the case of institutions of education and instruction where instruction takes place in, or partly in, the language of a national or ethnic minority and partly in Hungarian, the opinion of the local minority self government, unless this body has the right of consent, if there is no local minority self government, the local speaker for the minority or if there is not such a person, the local organisation of the given minority, or, in the case of secondary comprehensive and technical schools, the opinion of the relevant capital city of county economic chamber.

(4) Demand for preparation in the Hungarian language and for education and instruction in the languages of national or ethnic minorities must be surveyed by the body of representatives (general assembly)) annually, involving in the process the local self-government of the relevant minority or, in the case of a general assembly the central self-government of the relevant minority.

(10) If the maintainer is the local municipal council, for the
a) founding, closing down, modifying of sphere of activity, establishing the name
b) establishing and altering the budget
c) evaluating the professional work carried out by the institution
d) approving the rules of organisation and operation
e) the approval of the educational programme, educational and cultural programme and the evaluation of the realisation of these in institutions of education and instruction participating in the nursery school education, school education and instruction or boarding education of national or ethnic minorities or of institutions offering special educational services related to the service of the children in question, the approval of the relevant local minority self-government or in the case of institutions of education fulfilling regional or national functions that of the central minority self-government. In the case of institutions of minority education (§ 121 (6)) the approval of minority self-governments must also be obtained, according to the division of labour as defined earlier, before the head of school comes into or leaves office.

§ 1O7 (1) Participants of the professional inspection of institutions of general education must be listed in the National Experts' List, with the exceptions as specified in (2) point b).(2) If the professional inspection takes place in institutions of general education fulfilling a national or ethnic minority function,
a) the professional inspection may be lead by an expert who speaks the language of the national or ethnic minority or if there exists no such expert, the inspection must be carried out with the participation of a teacher who speaks the language of the national or ethnic minority,
b) the central minority self-government must be notified of the professional inspection and can send a representative who satisfies the conditions defined in § 1O1 (3) of the present Act, to participate in the inspection even if he or she is not listed in the National Experts List.
c) At least seven days before starting the professional inspection the head of the inspection must agree with the head of the institution of general education and with the initiator of the inspection the duration of the professional inspection, its form and methods, its time and the way in which those interested may express their opinions regarding the findings of the inspection. In cases as defined in a) - b) of (8) at least seven days before the begininning of the inspection notification must be sent to the maintainer of the institution of general education in question, informing the latter that he or she may be present at the professional inspection.

(4) The findings of the professional inspection are to be sent to the person concerned in the professional inspection as well as by the person on whose iniiative the inspection was implemented as well as the maintainer except as defined in (8) point f). If the inspection is taking place in an institution which fulfils a national or ethnic minority function, the findings of the professional inspection must be sent to the relevant local minority self-government and to the central minority self-government.

(8) Professional inspections may be launched, with the obligation to cover the costs,
a) at a national regional county and capital city level - by the Minister of Culture and Education, with regard to professional training - by the Minister of Labour, or by the Minister in charge of the relevant occupational qualification in order to prepare setting the objectives of national training policy or in order to gain an overview of the realisation of these objectives or by central minority self-governments in order to evaluate the fulfilment of the national and ethnic minority related tasks of general education,
b) on a county or capital city level by the county or capital city municipal government in order to prepare, or gain an overview of the realisation of, the county or capital city development plan and of the objectives of educational policy,
c) on a local municipal level by the local village, town, county city or capital city district council in order to prepare the objectives of the local educational policy, to gain an overview of the realisation of these or by the local minority self-government in order to overview the realisation of tasks related to the nursery school education and school education and instruction of the national or ethnic minorities of the municipal area,
d) on the institutional level by the maintainer in order to prepare the objectives of the local educational policy, to overview the realisation of these and to evaluate the standard of the educational and instruction work carried out in the individual institutions,
e) by the head of institutions of general education in order to evaluate the standard of the educational and instruction work carried out in the institution or in order to gain an evaluation of individual employees by an external expert,
f) by the employees of institutions of general education in order to gain an evaluation of their own work.

§ 121 (1) In the application of the present Act
4. 'state organisation' means - an organisation operating according to the order of planning, management and reporting prescribed for budgetary organisations, with the exception of local municipal governments and minority self-governments,
1O 'maintainer' means - the legal person (local municipal government, state organisation, clerical legal person, institution of tertiary education, company, co-operative, foundation, civil organisation, interest-enforcement organisation of national or ethnic minorities, minority self-governments, associations and other legal persons) or natural persons which or who possess the authorisations necessary for offering general education services and provides for the conditions required for the operation of institutions of general education as defined in the present Act.

20. 'further provision on an adequate standard' means - that the material and personal conditions of nursery school education or school education and instruction or boarding school education within the new circumstances satisfy the official standards and the regulations defined in Appendices 1. and 3. of the Act on General Education and that the existing educational services are still available. (E.g. nursery school education, school education and instruction of national and ethnic minorities takes place in the context of the relevant language, special educational sections remain available, specialist education and instruction of disabled children and students continues.)

31. 'special educational section' means - a separate institutional unit within nursery schools and schools, established in order to provide one of the following services: adult education identical with the institution's original function, nursery school education for disabled children, school instruction for disabled students, nursery school education for members of national and ethnic minorities or bilingual education.

§ 121 (6) In the application of the present Act, minority institutions as defined in §29 (2) of Act LXXVII of 1993 on the Rights of National and Ethnic Minorities means

a) nursery schools, schools and boarding school institutions
- which according to its foundation documents was founded as a national or ethnic minority institution of education or instruction or
- in which the nursery school education, school education and instruction or boarding school education takes place according to national minority requirements (nursery school educational plan, school educational and instruction plan, boarding school institutions' plan of education, nursery school educational programme, school educational programme, boarding school institutions' educational programme)
b) nursery schools, schools and boarding institutions
(institutional unit, subsidiary instituion) is thus qualified even if over the average of three year periods, the nursery school education, school education and instruction or boarding school education of more than 25% of the children or students attending the institution is organised according to the national minority requirements listed under point a), second '-'.

§ 128 (3) Until September 1, 2000, teachers in possession of adequate teaching qualifications and of a state language examination certificate of no lower than intermediate level, type 'C' or an equivalent document or, in the case of new employment as defined in § 127 (9), may be employed to teach foreign languages or to offer education and instruction in a foreign language or in the language of a national or ethnic minority .

Appendix 1. Part II.
2. within the sum defined as normative per capita budgetary contributions in (4) of § 118 of the present Act
a) the nursery school education, school education and instruction or boarding school education of members of national and ethnic minorities as well as bilingual education must be supported by a supplementary professional normative per capita allowance with mandatory utilisation.

The organisation of classes and groups
2. nursery school groups and school classes must also be organised and maintained for members of national and ethnic minorities if this is requested by the parents of eight or more children or students belonging to the same minority.