FUEN`s Education Working Group discussed the current state of minority education in Europe

17 minorities from 14 countries were represented at the second annual meeting of FUEN’s Education Working Group in Brussels. The meeting took place on 6-8 May 2019, and it also included the participation of the group in the European Regional Forum on Education, Language and the Human Rights of Minorities at the European Parliament.

The working meeting itself took place at the European Committee of the Regions building, where FUEN Vice President Olga Martens welcomed the group, highlighting the importance of continually sharing best-practices as well as reports on the educational situation of minorities within the group, in order to develop an effective longterm strategy.

FUEN Project Coordinator Keike Faltings gave a presentation on the reports the members of the group gave since their last meeting, which took place during the FUEN Congress in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, in 2018. Although the legal framework in the respective countries generally permits minority education, there are considerable problems in the implementation of minority language education. Many problems seem to arise from a lack of communication between the minorities and the government: minorities are often not involved or consulted in educational policy and state education programmes that affect them. “However, some of the minority communities and institutes managed to establish a broad range of extracurricular activities and projects that promote language learning and culture. These best-practices are worth sharing”, Faltings concluded.

In her presentation on the Hungarian-German education system, Krisztina Kemény-Gombkötő stated that although the legal conditions and support by the state are relatively good, there are challenges. The growing influence of the state language leads to the disappearance of the German language, German dialects in Hungary erode, and there are problems regarding the implementation of education programmes, as the interests of the minority are often not the same as the interests of the school administration. Dr. Adelheid Manz, director of the Institute for National and Foreign Languages at the József Eötvös College in Baja, Hungary, then gave a presentation on her research project, which underlined the necessity of minority-pre-kindergarten-programmes for the German minority in Hungary, in order to close a gap in the system.

Dr. Zora Popova presented the Erasmus+ Project “Teach-D – Teaching in Diversity” ran by ECMI with partners from 9 different EU states. The project focuses on one significant gap, identified in the teachers' training: how to teach diversity, how to teach in diversity and how to manage diversity.

The Minority SafePack Initiative and its role in promoting language diversity in the EU was also discussed during the meeting. Péter Varga, a member of the Expert Group working on recommendations for the European Commission based on the MSPI, presented their proposed Regulation on establishing a European Centre for Cultural and Linguistic Diversity and highlighted the chance for the Education Working Group to work together with such a centre in the future. The Centre, among others, shall contribute to and strengthen the promotion of the rights of national minorities, provide technical assistance to the Union institutions and the authorities of the Member States, and to raise EU citizens' awareness.

As a conclusion to the meeting, the members decided to focus more on sharing best practices, and expressed their will to continue monitoring their situation regarding aducation and share their reports. The group also wants to reach out to even more organisations and communities to become members and to broaden the network and intensify communication. The idea of a mentoring programme and study visits was also discussed.

 The Education Working Group got an invitation to IVDK’ education conference, held on 1-3 November 2019 in Moscow, so the group’s next meeting will also take place there.