Bilingual elementary schools in Prekmurje and students from Hungary

The first students from Hungary enrolled in bilingual elementary schools in Slovenia during the 2015–2016 school year. Over the past nine school years, their numbers have gradually increased; in the current school year (2023/24), 79 students from the neighboring country are attending schools in Prekmurje. Of the three bilingual elementary schools that children from Hungary attend daily, two smaller schools stand out in particular: DOŠ Prosenjakovci and DOŠ Genterovci. At the former, the proportion of students from Hungary is slightly more than one-third, while at the latter it is slightly less than one-third of all enrolled students. Although interviews with parents of students from Hungary revealed that the reasons or motives for enrollment were multifaceted, two reasons dominate: the child-friendly nature of the Slovenian school system (compared to the Hungarian one) and the multilingualism of the schools. Although some parents believed at the time of enrollment that their child would learn Slovenian in a year or two, practice has shown that, on average, they need somewhere between four and five years to master the Slovenian language.

According to the interviewees, both parents and children from Hungary have integrated well into the Slovenian school system and have also managed to establish good relationships with “locals from the ethnically mixed area of Prekmurje.”

Based on school statistics for this and the next two school years, a larger number of students from Hungary will complete bilingual elementary education: three in the 2023/24 school year, seven in the 2024/25 school year, and eight in the 2025/26 school year.