Commission urges ministry to promote training for teaching in Italian

The commission proposed that the Education Ministry facilitate the training of teachers teaching courses in Italian and consider the possibility of translating the results of past high-school leaving exams.

The ministry was also urged to consider providing additional funding for the translation of textbooks and materials related to the high-school leaving exams in Italian and Hungarian.

Nicola Štule from the Coastal High School Student Community said that the translations of the exams should be revised by professors who master the expert terminology of both Slovenian and Italian, and the exam questions and solutions. He also said students should have the option of choosing to take the tests in more subjects in Italian.

Iraja Živa Kelenc, the head of the student community of the Slovenian-Hungarian high school in Lendava, said they did not have problems with the translations of the exams, which are bilingual as are the textbooks. "The lessons are bilingual as well and teachers take care of that," she said.

Education Ministry State Secretary Janja Zupančič said that students should have a wide range of subjects that they could take the test in available. In 2025, Italian students will also be able to pick psychology, she said.

She said the proposal of the Coastal High School Student Community regarding the translating of the exam results in Italian would be considered.

While MP for the opposition Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) Alenka Helbl said she was happy to hear young people speaking up and bringing this issue to the National Assembly, Mirjam Bon Klanjšček from the Freedom Movement, who has been grading high-school leaving exams for years, said that in 30 years translations into Italian had never been a problem.

She believes that the exam results do not need to be translated into Italian in all of the subjects, for example in maths. As for discussing this now that the state budget is to be adopted in a couple of days she said it was unhygienic. The commission chair Ferenc Horvat replied that the timing of the debate accidentally coincided with the passing of the budget.

The commission tasked the ministry to report about activities in this field by the end of the school year.

It also discussed the issues related to the systemic funding of the umbrella youth organisations of the Hungarian and Italian minorities, which is crucial for their work.

Head of the Pomurje-Hungarian youth association Patrik Bogar said that due to notable cuts in the funding the association was struggling and would have to fire the only person it employed. He said the Office for Youth had cut its funding by 80% compared to 2021.

The issue triggered a heated debate. While the opposition called for systemic funding, the coalition said funding was available through various tenders and the Office for Youth. Sara Žibrat (Freedom Movement) said umbrella organisations could also fund the youth organisations.

The proposal to set up systemic funding of the umbrella organisations of the Italian and Hungarian youth as of 1 January 2025 was thus voted down as was the proposal for the government to continue funding a model farm in Banuta in the Lendava municipality.