The number of Hungarian school entrants in Slovakia is rising again: last year, 3,819 students started their primary education in Hungarian, which is the best result in the last seven years in terms of Hungarian school choice, the Rákóczi Association informed MTI on Tuesday.
The number of school entrants in 12 of the 16 Hungarian-speaking districts increased compared to the previous year.
The fragmentation in the transition between Hungarian kindergartens and Hungarian schools has decreased significantly in recent years, and far fewer Hungarian children than before (12-13 percent) start their education in Slovak-language institutions.
The decline in the share of Hungarians starting school in the total number of school entrants in Hungarian-inhabited districts over the past two decades seems to be slowing down.
In the nearly two decades since Hungary’s school election program was introduced in 2004, Bratislava (Bratislava, 77.8 percent) and Kosice (Košice, 88.9 percent) have seen the largest increases in the number of Hungarian school entrants over the past 20 years. This indicates that the attractiveness of a high-quality Hungarian-language education has also increased in binational families.
The school bus program launched by the Rákóczi Association in September 2022 has increased the number of school starters in the 15 facilities in Slovakia by an average of 30 percent. “Outstanding growth” was achieved at the comprehensive schools in Lewenz (Léva, Levice), License (Losonc, Lučenec) and Moldova (Szepsi, Moldava nad Bodvou), among others.
