Pupils Reject Ethnic Divisions
By Mirko Atanackovic, Romania




Pupils in the ethnically-mixed Bolaj Farkasz high school, from the Romanian town of Trgu Mures, gave a veritable lecture urging the school authorities and their parents to be tolerant: they refused to accept a decision to have classes held exclusively in Hungarian this school year, meaning that the pupils of Romanian ethnicity should move to other schools.

"I don't want to feel like a foreigner in my own country," says Ioan Pop, 16, a Romanian, whereas his classmate, Verestoy Erica, 17, a Hungarian, believes that the right to an education in one's maternal tongue can be provided "under a single roof, within the existing sections."
"Nobody can tell me why my friends have to move out of the school simply because they are Romanian. We have not had a single incident in this school, nor have we ever paid attention to whether someone is Romanian or Hungarian. And what will we achieve by having the school turned into a Hungarian language high school? Will we know and learn more?" Erica asks.

Both Romanian and Hungarian pupils are against the decision to turn their school into an exclusively Hungarian-language facility and protested for days, forcing the authorities to delay changes until the end of the year. The protests caused reactions and divisions country-wide, even provoking a dispute between the ruling Social Democratic Party and its only political ally in the Parliament-the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania.

It all began when a protocol on cooperation between the two parties was concluded at the local level in Trgu Mures. The agreement, which was immediately accepted by the local education authorities, envisaged that the ethnically-mixed Bolaj Farkasz high school would start the new school year as a Hungarian-language educational facility. Also planned was the dislocation of the Romanian-language classes to two other high schools that will be exclusively Romanian. Since the two other schools are also mixed, the Hungarian-language classes from them were to be transferred to the Bolaj Farkasz school.

The decision was first rejected by Romanian pupils. Soon, however, they were joined by their Hungarian colleagues, who were also unable to understand why their friends from the same school were now supposed to move to another building. Thus, the pupils of the Trgu Mures high school together refused to be the victims of an inter-party agreement.
The protests alarmed the local school and political authorities.

Politicians initially tried to explain the reasons for their decision. But the pupils rejected all of the explanations, and firmly opposed the planned ethnic segregation.

The problem spread out of the school and caught on to the Romanian public, and even the president, Ion Illiescu, and the prime minister, Adrian Nastasse, had to make statements on the matter. President Illiescu said the pupils were right and that a democratic, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society could not be successfully built by segregating people in ethnic ghettos. The Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania, however, insisted that the protocol on the division of schools and pupils ought to be respected.

A compromise was reached envisaging that all students enrolled in the ethnically-mixed schools would finish school where they started, amid great pressure by the pupils and the public. After the protest, the public was more inclined to think that the right to an education in one's maternal language does not imply the ethnic division of schools and pupils.

Despite this, there have been no changes in the enrollment policy. The pupils of Romanian and Hungarian ethnicity will be directed to schools in which classes will be held in either of the two languages. In Romania, in accordance with EU regulations, there are already schools in which courses are organized only in minority languages. Thus, 55 schools now exist in which the classes are given in Hungarian, German, Serbian, and other minority languages.

Jula Ilona, 18, a Hungarian, asks how is it possible that grown-ups can fiercely advocate a single "European roof" for all countries and peoples on the continent, while at the same time opposing a "common roof" in the Bolaj Farkasz high school. Contradictions like this, according to her classmate, Aurel Neamtu, 18, a Romanian, will last until the younger generations take over in their respective countries, across a united Europe. The protest has also shown that young people are strong enough to oppose harmful and nonsensical decisions by politicians.

(BETA)