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eu/minority-languages/Language-Factsheets/minoritylanguages-in-slovenian-education

Minority Languages in Slovenian Education

Introduction In Slovenia, almost 88 per cent of the inhabitants (1,727,018 people) speak the state language, Slovene, as their mother tongue. However, as many as nine other (minority) languages are also spoken in the Republic of Slovenia. Slovenia signed (1995), ratified (1995) and implemented (1998) the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. Slovenia also signed (1997), ratified (2000) and implemented (2001) the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages. The Framework Convention for National Minorities of the Council of Europe was signed (1995), ratified (1995) and implemented (1998) as well. On-the-spot-service from the Committee of Experts of the Council of Europe took place in February 2003. The Council of Europe's Committee of Experts delivered the first monitoring report on the implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Slovenia in June 2003. In June 2004, the Committee of Experts produced a report on the application of the Charter in Slovenia . The Charter and the languages In its policies, Slovenia incorporated the most important European Charter paragraphs on the field of education. Still, education in a regional or a minority language is not financed in higher education or at university level, and will not be made available by the Slovenian government, although Slovenia does stimulate it. Slovenia has signed the Charter for Hungarian and Italian. The Italian and the Hungarian communities are considered autochthonous. Minority languages such as German, Macedonian, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Czech and Albanian are not considered to be minority languages in terms of the Charter; they do not have any political or legal status.[1]Therefore, these language minorities cannot benefit from the Charter and their speakers do not receive education in their own language. In their report, the experts of the Council of Europe encourage the Slovenian government to evaluate the situation of the other minority languages in Slovenia, especially with respect to Croatian (the largest minority language in Slovenia), Serbian (the second largest minority language in Slovenia), Bosnian and German.[2] According to the 2004 report of the Committee of Experts, the Slovene legal framework offers a high standard of protection for Italian and Hungarian. This was already the case in the days that Slovenia was still part of Yugoslavia. Moreover, Slovenia applied the more specific and legally binding Part III of the Charter for Regional and Minority Languages to the Italian and Hungarian communities. However, the Hungarian and Italian language communities in Slovenia are quite small. The Hungarian minority According to the first census after the independence, held in 1991, 9,240 people claimed to have Hungarian as their mother tongue: 8,000 people stated that they belonged to the Hungarian minority in Slovenia. The results of the latest census, held in 2002, show a decline: this time, 6,243 people claimed to belong to the Hungarian minority. Unfortunately, the latest

figure for mother-tongue speakers of Hungarian is not known. A relatively small Hungarian community lives in the area of the Slovenian-Hungarian border. In this border region, all schools are bilingual: Slovenian and Hungarian are both used as the language of instruction. Teachers are expected to speak both languages fluently. There are 11 bilingual pre-primary schools (505 children), 11 bilingual primary schools (1,160 children), and one bilingual secondary school (338 pupils). Teaching materials used in these schools are also mostly bilingual. Pupils who leave these schools often continue their educational careers at secondary schools or universities in Hungary. In co-operation with the Hungarian state, many events in the field of culture and sports are organized in the border villages and towns. In the Committee of Experts' monitoring report, a lot of credit was given to the education concepts of the bilingual educational model for Hungarian-speaking children in the Prekmurje region, where bilingual classes are also mandatory for the mother-tongue Slovenes. This model was introduced as early as 1959 and is seen by the community as more successful than monolingual schools.[3] The Italian minority The Italian minority is even smaller than the Hungarian minority. In the 1991 census, 2,959 people claimed to belong to the Italian minority, while 3,882 people stated Italian as their mother tongue. The number of people speaking Italian in Slovenia is declining as well: according to the 2002 census, 3,762 people in Slovenia mentioned Italian as their mother tongue, with 2,258 people saying they belonged to the Italian minority. Moreover, the Committee of Experts observed in its 2004 report that the average age of the Italian-speaking population is increasing.[4] Italian is spoken in three coastal municipalities in the western part of Slovenia, close to the Italian and Croatian borders. Education in Italian is offered at pre-primary level (179 children), primary level (nine schools, 526 children) and secondary level (three schools, 319 pupils). Italian is the instruction language in these schools, and Slovene is a compulsory subject. In all the other schools in the region, where Slovene is the medium of instruction, Italian is a compulsory subject. Teachers in the Italian schools have been educated mostly at universities in Italy or Croatia. The teaching materials used in the Italian schools are published in Italy as well as in Slovenia. In Croatia, Italian teaching materials are published adapted to the Slovenian situation. In its report, the Committee of Experts expresses its positive opinion about the Italian schools in Slovenia. Although Italian is the only medium of instruction, the Italian schools are also open to those who do not belong to the Italianspeaking community. The Roma minority Slovenia signed Part II of the Charter for Regional and Minority Languages for Romany, granting the language linguistic rights and expressing recognition of the language. According to the 1991 census, 2,847 people speak the Romany language; 2,293 consider themselves members of the Roma community in Slovenia. However, according to a 2001 report on minority languages in the new member states, attempts to codify Romany have not succeeded. The true figure of native speakers of Romany could very well range between 7,000 and 10,000.[5] The results of the 2002 census are not known. There are no schools in Slovenia where the Romany language is the medium of instruction, although many Roma children speak only Romany when they enter the school building for the very first time. In practice, the Slovene government tries to integrate Roma children into the general education system. To that end, Slovene schools with Roma pupils, have smaller classes, in order to be able to teach Roma children in smaller groups. However, the main problem is a lack of staff who are able to speak the Romany language. So far, attempts to find

people within the Roma community interested in teacher training have not succeeded.[6] In its report, the Committee of Experts sees it as a very important task on the part of the Slovenian government to raise Roma self-esteem. Raising the prestige of the Romany language could be an important tool in achieving this. Therefore, the Committee feels that the Romany language should play a more prominent role in the education system. The Committee realizes at the same time that there are practical problems to overcome in the case of the Romany language, such as the lack of standardisation and the dialectal fragmentation of the language. However, these arguments offer no reason to prevent teaching the language (at least at a lower level), according to the Committee.In the eyes of the Committee, the government should also initiate a standardisation process of Romany (of course in cooperation with the Roma community).[7] The Croatian minority According to the 1991 census, there were 54,000 ethnic Croats living in Slovenia. Today's number of ethnic Croats living in Slovenia is not known. However, according to the 2002 census, 2.8 per cent of the Slovenian population claimed to have Croatian as their mother tongue. Croatian is the minority language with the largest number of speakers in Slovenia. Still, there does not seem to be any provision for Croatian in education. The Slovenian government considers Croatian a migrant language rather than autochthonous. Croatian is considered to be one of the languages spoken by members of nations of the former Yugoslav Federation. This is only however partly true, because the presence of the Croatian language in Slovenia is ancient, as is pointed out by the Committee of Experts in their 2004 report; Croats have been living in the region Bela Krajina since the sixteenth century.[8] Other minority languages in Slovenia Other minority languages spoken in Slovenia are German, Albanian, Macedonian, Czech, Bosnian and Serbian. Most of these languages are spoken by very small groups of people in small communities, except for Serbian (47,000 speakers) and Bosnian (26,800 speakers). As is the case with Croatian, these languages do not have the status of autochthonous minority languages. As a result, the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages does not protect these languages. In addition, there is no legal framework for these languages within Slovenian law. We do not know if there are any educational provisions for these languages. According to Mekina (2001), there was a school in Slovenia that offered Serbo-Croatian language courses. This school, the Prezihov Voranc Elementary School gradually eliminated the courses taught in this language, according to Mekina acting on decision of the municipal assembly. In 1998, the last courses in Serbo-Croatian were given. According to Mekina, the situation of the German and Croat communities is more or less the same.[9] We can conclude that Slovenia offers good legal protection for its Hungarian and Italian communities. Although these communities are rather small, education through the mother tongue is available for the ethnic Hungarians and Italians in Slovenia. The Slovene government tries to improve the situation for the Roma community. So far, attempts have not been successful. Still, the other language groups in Slovenia do not have any rights. It is striking that Slovenia has not recognized its largest minority language groups, namely the Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian communities. The Council of Europe's Committee of Experts also concluded this in its report on the application of the Charter. For that reason, the experts encouraged the Slovenian government to evaluate the situation of especially Croatian, Serbian and Bosnian in terms of traditional presence in Slovenia. In addition, the Committee advised the Slovenian

government to include autochthonous speakers of German under Part II of the Charter.[10] Minority languages and dominant language in Slovenia[11] Languages Number Percentage Albanian 7,580 Croatian 54,000 2.8 % of the population Czech 322 German 1,500 2,000 Hungarian 6,243 Italian 1,059 Macedonian 4,412 Romany 2,293 Serbian 47,000 1.6 % of the population 2002 census Bosnian 26,800 1.6 % of the population 2002 census Slovenian 1,727,018 (88 %)

Bibliography Klinge, S. 2004 Council of Europe language experts report on Slovenia (www.eurolang.com; 30/06/04). Mekina, I. 2001. Slovenia and Minorities Some are more equal than others. Alternativna Informativna Mrena [AIM] Office Paris (http://www.aimpress.ch). Pan, C & B.S. Pfeil. 2002. Ethnos. Minderheitenrechte in Europa. Handbuch der europaschen Volksgruppen. Vienna: Braumller. Winther, P (ed.). 2001. Lesser-used languages in states applying for EU Membership. European Parliament. Directorate-General for Research. Education and Culture Series. Working Paper. Abridged edition. Council of Europe. 2004. European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages Application

of the Charter in Slovenia: Report of the Committee of Experts on the Charter and recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the application of the Charter by Slovenia. ECMRL (2004) 3. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------[1]Pan, C & B.S. Pfeil. 2002. Ethnos. Minderheitenrechte in Europa. Handbuch der europaschen Volksgruppen, s. 430. [2]Klinge, S. 2004 Council of Europe language experts report on Slovenia (www.eurolang.com; 30/06/04). [3]Klinge, S. 2004 Council of Europe language experts report on Slovenia (www.eurolang.com; 30/06/04). [4]Council of Europe. 2004. European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages Application of the Charter in Slovenia: Report of the Committee of Experts on the Charter and recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the application of the Charter by Slovenia, s. 5 - 8. [5]Winther, P (ed.). 2001. Lesser-used languages in states applying for EU Membership. European Parliament. Directorate-General for Research. Education and Culture Series. Working Paper. Abridged edition, p. 22. [6]Pan, C & B.S. Pfeil. 2002. Ethnos. Minderheitenrechte in Europa. Handbuch der europaschen Volksgruppen, s. 434. [7]Klinge, S. 2004 Council of Europe language experts report on Slovenia (www.eurolang.com; 30/06/04). [8]Council of Europe. 2004. European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages Application of the Charter in Slovenia: Report of the Committee of Experts on the Charter and recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the application of the Charter by Slovenia, s. 7-9. [9]Mekina, I. 2001. Slovenia and Minorities Some are more equal than others. Alternativna Informativna Mrena [AIM] Office Paris (http://www.aimpress.ch). [10]Klinge, S. 2004 Council of Europe language experts report on Slovenia (www.eurolang.net; 30/06/04). [11]The numbers of speakers mentioned in the table for Albanian, Czech, German and Macedonian are taken from the ethnologue report of Slovenia, www.ethnologue.com. The numbers of speakers of the other languages mentioned in the table are taken from the report of the Committee of Experts on the application of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages in Slovenia (2004).