Education in the mother tongue is the most important guarantee of advancement in the native land, and they are now trying to take this away from Hungarians in Transcarpathia, Árpád János Potápi, Minister of State for Nation Policy at the Prime Minister’s Office stated on Thursday in Révkomárom in Upper-Hungary, at the opening ceremony of the new academic year of the Selye János University where he urged Hungarian communities to stand up for Hungarians in Transcarpathia.

Great dreams can only be made to come true with combined strength and a unified will, Mr Potápi pointed out in his speech, highlighting: the Selye János University, Slovakia’s first and only Hungarian university, is an outstanding example of such united action.

The Minister of State told his audience: there is only one thing more difficult than achieving results such as this, and that is retaining them. That is something that has been successfully achieved in the case of the Révkomárom institution. He said: the Selye János University, which has become a steady point of reference for the Hungarian community in Slovakia in the past ten years, has recently succeeded in meeting the expectations that are necessary for recognition as a university. He added: the institution has almost doubled its number of students since its establishment, and has multiplied its training programmes, thereby proving its viability which is also testified to by the fact that the University now has more and more students from the motherland.

The enthusiasm, professional expertise and joint action of its teaching staff have kept the Selye János University alive, and have made it competitive, the Minister of State pointed out, adding: we need such joint action for retaining our most important results as well.

“Education in the mother tongue, including higher education, is one of the most important guarantees of advancement in the native land”, Mr Potápi stressed, highlighting: the amendment of the education legislation in Transcarpathia now seeks to take this guarantee away from the Hungarians living there, and we must all stand up against this effort and for the Hungarians in Transcarpathia.

The new Rector of the Selye János University appointed by the head of state in February, György Juhász, and the new Deans of the Economics Faculty and the Reformed Theology Faculty, Péter Csiba and Attila Lévai, respectively, were also inaugurated at the opening ceremony.

The Selye János University is one of Slovakia’s youngest universities and the only Hungarian-language university. Its foundation was approved by the Slovak legislature in 2003. The main purpose of its establishment was to provide education to high standards in Hungarian for the training of elementary and secondary school teachers and theologians, as well as to train experts in areas such as finance, IT and marketing. The University offers undergraduate and master’s training courses at its teacher training, economics and Reformed theology faculties as well as doctoral training, and has more than two thousand students.

(Prime Minister's Office/MTI)