The current issues of education, the economic situation of southern regions, and minority cultural grants came to the fore at the annual conference of the Roundtable of Hungarians in Slovakia (a civil society umbrella organisation of ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia) held in Nové Zámky (in Hungarian: Érsekújvár). The current issues of education were discussed on the first day of the two-day conference.
István Szőköl, Head of the Methodology and Pedagogy Centre in Komárno (in Hungarian: Révkomárom), gave a presentation on practical problems related to the novel method of Slovak language teaching. The State Pedagogical Institute is testing the novel Slovak methodology in four grades of three elementary schools.
Szabolcs Mózes spoke on the topic of the Hungarian College for Advanced Studies of Bratislava and the role of these kind of colleges. The national survey conducted by Tandem civil society organisation examined what a modern school should be like in the 21st century according to parents, students, and teachers.
Out of economic issues, grants for small entrepreneurs, and regional differences in unemployment and remuneration were also discussed, and there was a lively debate about how to retain young people in the labour market.
Géza Tokár, the spokesman of the Roundtable, said in his summary that the Roundtable has been more successful as a professional organisation than as a society-mobilising force over the last period, and this presents a major challenge to the organisation for the future.
The powers, virtues and potential pitfalls of the Minority Cultural Fund, the newly established body for minority cultural funding were also addressed.
(www.ujszo.com, 14 Nov 2017)
