House speaker for Hungarian education to Romania's Csangos

 

Tuesday, 06 November 2007

 

Budapest, November 6 (MTI) - Hungary's Speaker of Parliament Katalin Szili will seek assistance from her Romanian counterpart to provide Hungarian-speaking Csango children in Romania with Hungarian-language education, Szili told reporters on Tuesday.

The Csangos, a Roman Catholic community which speaks an ancient dialect of Hungarian, number about 60,000 in north-eastern Romania.

Szili, speaking after a meeting with representatives of ethnic Hungarian organisations in north-east Romania, said that only about 10 percent of the children of the ethnic Hungarian community in the area have access to schools where lessons are taught in Hungarian. She said she would ask her Romanian counterpart to help increase that ratio.

"We need to find a European way to resolve the issue," Szili added.

Adrian Solomon, head of the federation of ethnic Hungarians outside the Carpathian Basin, said that some 1,400 children were taught Hungarian at school, while 9,000 others spoke a Hungarian dialect at home, but had no access to Hungarian education, mainly because of a lack of teachers.

In 2007, the Hungarian government contributed 56 million forints (224,000 euros) to educational and cultural programmes in the area east of the Carpathians.

At the press conference, Szili announced that she would visit theregion in the spring of next year.

 

source: The Budapest Times

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Opening of the school year autumn 2007

 

The new school year has also started in the Csango villages in Moldova on 17 September. Based on the feed back of our teachers we can say that one of our eyes smiles, the other one cries. There are places where everything has started smoothly, and there are places where the local authorities do everything to prevent the introduction of Hungarian classes.

Frumosza/Frumoasa - Teacher Krisztina Mathe can educate the children already 21 hours/week, and the classes continue in the afternoon with Adrian Neagu.

Labnyik/Vladnic - Attila Orban has started the new school year in the nicest house of the village. A new colleague will join in the coming days, who will teach the children outside school.. According to our hopes we can extend the education for the children in the nursery school.

Leszped/Lespezi - Attila Martn has moved to the village, where he managed to establish a well-functioning relationship with the headteacher. A new Hungarian classroom was established, where the afternoon classes can take place without any difficulties. So our association does not have to hire a room for the teaching outside school hours. Accoring to the management of the school they have not received anything from the subsidy from the Romanian government acquired with the support of the RMDSZ to renovate the school.

Kulsorekecsin/Fundu Racaciuni - Two new teachers have arrived: Peter Trunchi and Ilona Trunchi, who both are going to teach 21-21 hours weekly. There is a big challange for them as the state school is undergoing a major renovation., therefore children are attending the school in 3 shifts, and the classes will be shortened. The teachers are very enthusiatsic,as the program enabled Peter to return to his local village.

Csikfalu/Ciucani - Large part of the state school was demolished, therefore there is a lack of rooms for education. The mayor's office has asked our association to provide rooms for the united classes of II-IV and for the nursery school children. They have found a partner in our association, and we were very happy to fulfill their request as this also making the Hungarian classes easier making our teacher Edit Bende happy. A new teacher will be arriving in Csikfalu, too, who will be partially responsible for the teaching of the afternoon groups.

Klezse/Cleja, Buda, Somoska/Somusca - Requests are still under negotiation as the headteacher is not willing to accept the new classes allocated by the head authority. She makes impossible the teaching with her views on class allocation. Our teachers Angela istok and Maria Fulek would spend most of their time commuting between schools and not having enough time for the children.

Dioszen/Gioseni - Emese Kiss and Attila Salak continue their effective work, which has started last year. Attila continues to teach in Trunk also, which he visits twice a week.

Kostelek/Cosnea - The situation is unchanged. Andreas Ferencz and Eva Imre have started the new school year in a very positive mood. They hope there will be children also this year, who wish to continue their education in the Hungarian high school in Csikszereda.

Pusztina/Pustiana - Two new teachers have arrived, who have already moved into the village house in Pusztina. Eva Vajda will continue the lessons at school, Laszlo Szabo will continue the lessons outside school.

Magyarfalu/Arini - new teachers have arrived: Reka Zsigmond and laszlo Borbely. Reka will teach 2 groups at the local school in addition to Judit Edit Zaharia, who has 7 groups, which she already taught last year.. In the meantime the renovation works continue for the purchased house, which can hopefully accommodate our colleagues in the near future.

Gajdar/Coman - The hungarian lessons were presented shortly before the beginning of the school year, therefore Gabriella Farkas-Ferencz and Endre Farkas- Ferencz can continue their work outside school only.

Lujzikalagor/Luizi-Calugara- The situation is similar. Our colleague Csilla Szasz can continue her teaching only outside school.

Bako/Bacau - Increased number of pupils have enrolled at the Ion Luca school, who are taught by Melania Kovacs.

Preparatory works have started at 2 new locations Nagypatak and Dioszeg, where the education is expected to start in the near future.There is a strong interest by the locals.

We wish everybody a great new school year.

 

Melania Kovacs

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Shame

 

In Coman, a ceangai/csángó village of comuna Sanduleni the mayor and the primary school director together made impossible the start of Hungarian lessons at school on the first day of tuition year 2007/08. As known, the inhibitants of this village speak Hungarian as their native tongue though are not allowed to enjoy education and clerical services in Hungarian which in controversial to the constitution of Romania.
The mayor and the school director visited the families who asked for native language education for their children at school one by one and threathened them by telling obvious lies. The leader and the local teacher of the Hungarian teaching program in Moldavia showed them in vain a document from the chief school-inspector of Bacau county saying Hungarian lessons at school in Coman are permitted. The mayor backed by policemen insisted: there would be no Hungarian lessons in Coman.

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Financing Problems of Csángó Schools Are Solved

 

September 6, 2007, Gabriella Pásztor, State Secretary of the Romanian Ministry of Education, came to Bákó Province on an official visit. After she participated in the competitions on which the future Hungarian teachers are selected and had some chat with the teachers, she visited two schools where the beginning of the new schoolyear and the Hungarian education met financial obstacles.
In Gajdár it turned out that the school-directory rejcted in writing the aaplications for introducing of Hungarian language education; that is to say, it refused the Csángó children's right of studying their mother tongue. Thanks to the parents' endurance, fourty-two children have the opportunity to study their mother language within the school, finally.
Gabriella Pásztor visited Lujzikalagor as well. Unfortunately children have there no opportunity to study Hungarian at school. Next year we are going to try again to start Hungarian education within the school.
In many Csángó towns and villages, where Hungarian lessons were held in the previous years as well, the schools and the Educational Inspectorate of Bákó announced less Hungarian lessons than they should have - taking account of the number of children and previous years' legal agreements.
As a result of the consultation with Ovidiu Cojacaru, Educational Inspector, 207 Hungarian lessons will be held this schoolyear (instead of the announced 130); moreover, Inspector Cojacaru signed the list of Hungarian teachers. In the afternoon Gabriella Pásztor visited our new community center.

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9th Csángó Educational-Methodology Camp

22-23 August, 2007, Lábnyik

 

This year the MCSMSZ organized its usual annual Methodology Camp-Conference for the first time in Moldova. The Children's House, which was consecruted in the Spring in Lábnyik, was an appropriate place to hold a conference for fourty teachers. The programme included discussions, experience-exchanges, debates and lectures.
For the teachers having already teached in Moldova and the ones who will start their career in the Fall was this event a good opportunity to become a team. One of the first plans that turned up was the syllabus. The teachers worked in groups all week to edit a syllabus with which the education would follow a uniform standard in the Moldavian villages. The participants worked on an excercisebook as well, according to the half a year reports of the teachers. The folkdance and music teachers recorded hundred and forty songs and several dances that they usually teach the children encouraging their colleagues to make music part of their lessons.
Beside the teamwork lectures were held every day. Anghel Nastase, the responsible Inspector for Minority education from the Inspectorate of Bákó, discoursed about the teaching posts and chairs, number of lessons and competitions. János Bácsi MD, associate professor of University of Szeged, talked about methods of competence-development and introduced a software called "Talking Master". Katalin Román, drama teacher, taught new games and Ida Bogdán held a lecture about teaching Literature in Moldova; the participants had a debate about the minimum level of knowledge that is necessary for a Csángó pupil and about the preparation of students going to attend the Hungarian Lyceum in Székelyföld.
The Association of Godparents for Csángós, the Foundation for Hungarian Education in Moldova and the Village Clubs took also part in the Camp. They discussed the experiences of 'Godparentship' and talked about the Village Clubs, future school- and town-twinnings and Religional education. They also appraised the twenty-five camps organized for Csángó children this year.
Attendees chilled out by playing table tennis, chess, football (the result of the match between the locals and teachers is 6:3), dancing or singing.
The week-long camp was successful; the Inspectorate of Bákó organizes a competition to decide about the teaching posts in a few days. New colleagues will start in Magyarfalu, Külsőrekecsin, Pusztina, Somoska, Klézse and Bákó. New villages will join to the Hungarian-Project in the Fall as well: Diószeg and Nagypatak.

 

Photos

17.09.2007

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Elindultam szép hazámbul (I left my beautiful homeland)

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