A baszk kérdés
A Basque example of an "ethical social contract": the Mondragon Co-operative Group
This study makes an attempt to analyse a particular aspect of the Basque issue and Basque autonomy, i.e. those specific business/economic ethics and management strategies which Mondragon, internationally the most noted enterprise group of the Basque region, has utilised such that not only have researchers into social and economic issues summarised their observations but its special business ethical principles and management/organisational values and innovations have been applied in several parts of the world.
A magyar autonóm tartomány
A connecting border?
In July-September 1952 new internal borders were drawn up in Romania, about which the press of the time wrote in connectionwith the Hungarian Autonomous Region: "the border is not a dividing line, but a sign of brotherhood and trust, which connects". As a definition, a border separates two entities. The function of the paradoxical 'connecting' border, as a result of the changing nationality policy of the communist party, was to divide and ruleRomanian Hungarian society in the following years.
Territorial-administrative reorganisation in Romania copied the Soviet model, it established the Soviet, precisely the Stalinist reality (i.e. worked out and implanted in practice by Stalin, as the commissar of nationality issues) of analysing and dealing with the nationality issue. Adopting the Soviet model in this respect was unique in the so-called People's Democracies, i.e. an autonomous region on nationality groundswas born.This essay examines the development, the conditions and the position of a society under new administrative circumstances, i.e. the Hungarian Autonomous Region, as well as the reactions generated in the process of its formation.
Oktatáskutatás
The institutional environment of minority education in Hungary
In a unique way in Europe, our 1999 research series simultaneously examined all the participants of minority education, partly employing the same questionnaires developed in a standardised way. We took as our starting point 255 localities with concentrated minority populations (in 160 of these gypsies constituted the largest minority). Those involved in minority education from the selected settlements formed the following five sub-samples: elected local authority representatives responsible for education in the given locality; minority representatives of the local authority; headmasters of primary schools teaching pupils from minorities; head teachers of senior forms (years 5 to 8) where pupils from minorities were present in significant numbers; and finally the pupils in these classes.
One tenth of the 225 elected political decision makers responsible for education did not knowwhat percentage of their budgetwas spent on education, and more than one fifth did not knowthe total of education expenditure. Twenty-eight per cent could not differentiate among the various sources of expenditure (state per capita quota, local authority contribution, supplementary state per capita quota, funds from abroad).
Primarily those in larger settlements are satisfied with school facilities and the educational level. Schools providing the best opportunities to continue education are regarded as the best. The proportion of out of school classes and special schools was markedly high among institutions attended bymost of the gypsy pupils. Schools considered the worst correspond to 80% of those involving most gypsy pupils. At the same time, the majority of local authority representatives responsible for education are satisfied with the educational level of gypsy pupils in their own locality. They think that the relationship between the Roma and non-Roma population is worse nationally than in their locality. Many think that the Roma are responsible for their disadvantaged position in education and also feel that pupils of minorities should primarily learn in Hungarian. Although they disagree with segregating Roma children in schools, they do not stand very much against it. Twenty-six per cent of the settlements have a school where the majority of pupils are Roma. They can mainly be seen in large towns (in 37% of the districts in Budapest, and 55% of county and similarly large provincial centres).
Based on information received from local authority representatives, 281 head teachers of schools including minorities were interviewed.Our experience shows that the opinions of local authorities and head teachers did not always tally when judging the minority profile of a particular school.Heads of 13% of schools think that their school is not attended by pupils from minorities. According to the head teachers, gypsy pupils represent minorities in 47% of schools, pupils from other and Roma minorities are present in 25%.None of the head teachers of schools with gypsy pupils consider the encouragement of talented pupils as the school's main task.
Twenty-six per cent of schools have classes where the majority of pupils are gypsy. In particular, there are many gypsy classes in schools (45%) where there are no other minorities. Six per cent of the head teachers who said their schools had gypsy classes thought their schools did not have pupils from minorities. There is a close connection between gypsy classes and remedial programmes. Such remedial programmes reflect the main professional ideology for starting such classes; however, segregated classes do not solve anything. The heads of these schools value the standard of their schools as worse from all aspects than their colleagues whose schools do not have special gypsy classes. These are the schoolswhere the fewest pupils continue their education. Most repeat years and become unemployed.
519 class head teachers were interviewed in the 281 examined schools. Head teachers in schools which have pupils from national minorities estimated the ratio of pupils who belong to a minority to be 35-73%, and a further 25% gypsy. Their estimate of the ratio of gypsy pupils in schools, where a significant number of pupils was gypsy, was 32% on average. They assessed these schools worse than others. Thirty-seven per cent of teachers thought their schools had gypsy classes. They regarded the performance of non-gypsy classes better than that of gypsy classes. Remedial education was considered their primary aim in the latter and not the support for talented pupils. They considered the main source of inter-ethnic conflicts as deriving from the gypsies' behaviour andway of life, which they themselves felt unable to manage in schools. They did not regard the behaviour of nationalminorities as problematic.
Half the schools do not offer minority studies, either separately or in an integrated way. Schools with classes of gypsies offer fewer extracurricular choirs, dance groups or tradition-preserving clubs than other schools do. Head teachers teaching gypsy pupils do not consider inter-cultural and gypsy remedial programmes highly desirable. They consider mixed schools and specialminority programmes as good for the education of gypsy pupils. Fifteen per cent favour separate classes for national minorities, while 13% are for separate classes for gypsies. However, many did not express an opinion concerning these issues. They are not really informed about minority and alternative educational programmes and methods. Many were not familiar with theminority programmes of the National Curriculum, or whether there are inter-cultural programmes or remedial projects for gypsies in their school or class.
Pupils in national minority education
Data sampling by questionnaires was conducted among minority local authorities and educational institutions in autumn 1999. In the survey of educational institutions minority and other local authority representatives, headmasters, teachers, primary and secondary school pupils were contacted with questionnaires in a total of 264 localities. The article analyses the data of primary school pupils in their senior years (years 5 to 8), 2250 pupils in all, primarily from the aspect of the opportunities for national survival. First of all, we wanted to know to what extent pupils participating in nationality education speak their nationality's language, identify with their nationality and what opportunities they have to continue learning or maintain their language and identity in the long term. A separate group of questionswas connected to the education of gypsy pupils, since in their case different social and socialising issues can be identified.
Institutions which are determining from the aspect of survival of nationality existence, family and school, did not really prove effective in our analysis. The family in itself will provide a chance for preserving nationality culture and language if both parents are of the same nationality and/or three generations live together.Concerning this issue, a temporary situation can be seen today: with regard to national origins, a significant part of pupils from a nationality background grows up in a mixed family, they haven't learnt the language of the nationality as their mother tongue and do not speak it on a native level.With regard to nationality identity the connection with the nationality is weak and even among those who regard themselves as belonging to a nationality insecurity is high.
The school is the institution which, in the case of nationality groups, can play an important role in cultural reproduction, moreover, may make up for the seemingly disappearing function of the family in nationality socialisation. However, our analysis showed that there was also a rather slim chance for that, since the majority of pupils attend a nationality school where only the language is taught, while a minority attend a mainstream primary school, thus supposedly they do not often comeacross their nationality's language and culture in the basic educational institution. Pupils can choose what language they want to learn in half of the schools, however, many do not learn their nationality's language but a foreign one as their first choice. This is primarily due to the parents' decision, and secondly due to the pupils' decision.
The pupils' plans and values favour existential aims rather than issues connected to nationality existence.The gap is increasing, which shows that nationality education in itself is not able to compensate the missing functions and prepare pupils, who have advanced in their nationality's language and identity, for further education and life.
The above conclusions are only valid in general, since there can be significant differences among groups. Similarly to Croatian pupils, Romanians have the best chance in terms of both family and school socialisation, still they seem to have aweaker bond. The position of Serbian pupils is specific: many, who adhere to the nationality, have parents ofHungarian origin; however, the language of the nationality is often used as themother tongue in the family and they have a strong bond to the nationality. Another group which differs even more from the average is represented by pupils in theGypsy sub-sample.They are the least characterised by the use of their language and religion. Their ratio, with regard to attending mainstream schools, is the highest. Belonging to the nationality is least expressed as an important value. In their case, schools should have an even higher significance as compared to the other groups. However, pupils of the Gypsy sub-sample in senior years of education not only exhibit a distancing from the dimension of minority existence but (while further education and learning a skill are also evaluated higher among them) they seem to distance themselves from school itself. They devote less time to study and their school performance becomes weaker.
Interjú
Műhely
Complaints concerning the education of minorities directed to the Office of the Ombudsman of Education Rights
The Office of the Ombudsman of Education Rights began its work as a unique institution in the Hungarian legal system on 1December 1999.Onthe basis of itsmore than three years of existence, this article aims to present a comprehensive overview of the complaints concerning the field of minority education with regard to national and ethnic minorities, and Hungarians living outside the borders and studying in the educational institutions of the kin-state. The problems and violations of law in this special field ofHungarian education are reflected in the complaints received by the Office.
Könyvismertetések