The national self-governments of Hungary’s German minority have taken over a great deal of tasks over the past ten years which has brought about significant changes in the minority’s cultural life and education, a state secretary of the prime minister’s office said in Sopron on Sunday, where he inaugurated the upgraded local German primary school building. While the German community in Hungary operated only a few schools in 2010, they today operate 67, Miklós Soltész, state secretary for church and minority relations, said at the ceremony. He noted that German self-government run nurseries, primary and secondary schools today educate 13,200 children. The refurbished school in Sopron has 800 pupils, he said. For the renovation the government has provided 190 million forints (EUR 540,000) which has been matched with 80 million by the German national self-government, he said.
Imre Ritter, the speaker representing the German minority in the Hungarian parliament, said at the ceremony that several billion forints worth of upgrades of institutions operated by minority self-governments are under way in Hungary. “A priority in minority public education is to ensure that we can preserve our cultural identity in the future,” he said.