The Hungarian Government has tripled the funding it provides within the framework of its “Without Borders” program for Hungarian students to visit their counterparts living in minority in neighbouring countries and reciprocal visits to Hungary, Minister for Human Resources Zoltán Balog said on Thursday in Budapest.
Mr. Balog attended the meeting between students of the Saint Benedict School in Budapest and 35 of their counterparts from Transcarpathia, Ukraine. He said that in the past three years 40,000 Hungarian schoolchildren had visited their counterparts in neighbouring countries, but the Government has now tripled funding for “Without Borders”, meaning that in the 2014-15 school year it will provide 1.5 billion forints (EUR 4.8 million) for this purpose.
The Minister said that this decision will allow almost one in two students from the 7th or 8th grade to visit a Hungarian school in a neighbouring country, because the Government considers this goal important and is ready to foot the bill. He said there are two tender categories, one for excursions and another for professional and cultural programs abroad, each of which provides 35,000 forints (EUR 112) per student.
Mr. Balog said the Government’s aim was that every student graduating from grade school should have had the opportunity to visit minority counterparts in a neighbouring country and vice versa. He also said making children aware that there are Hungarian-speaking people across the country's borders is not just a goal, it is a mission.
The peace treaty that officially ended World War I, the Treaty of Trianon, signed in 1920, placed the majority of the former Kingdom of Hungary under the control of neighbouring countries, leaving Hungary with only 28 percent of its previous territory and barely 36 percent of its former population.
(Ministry of Human Resources)
