New bilingual unit of Lendava Kindergarten inaugurated

The kindergarten will operate in the building that housed a school until its closure in 2005. It has been renovated with the help of a Hungarian fund for Hungarians in Slovenia through the Pomurje Hungarian Self-governing Ethnic Community.

Petra Gal, the acting director of the Lendava Kindergarten, said on the occasion that the new bilingual unit will be able to accommodate around 50 children. In the first week of September, it will accept 13 children from the combined department.

The unit in Čentiba, southeast of Lendava, is the seventh unit of the Lendava Kindergarten, where a total of 328 children are currently enrolled, and the sixth Slovenian-Hungarian bilingual unit.

The other bilingual units operate in Lendava, Genterovci, Dolga Vas and Gaber, while the Slovenian, monolingual unit operates in Hotiza, Gal said.

Lendava Mayor Janez Magyar noted that the new unit cost EUR 877,000, of which the Lendava Municipality has chipped in EUR 361,000, and the Hungarian fund EUR 516,000.

Magyar, who cut the ribbon together with Hungarian Secretary of State for National Policy Árpád János Potápi, said that the investment was important as it keeps young people in border areas.

"Not everything needs to be centralised," he said, adding that important facilities should also be brought to border areas.

Potápi said that Hungary is building and renovating facilities in bilingual areas as they find it important that children are raised in their mother tongue, and praised Slovenia for treating ethnic minorities well.