Hungarian-Language Education: Legal Framework, Institutional Structure and Assessment of School Performances

This chapter presents the legal framework and the main structures of the Hungarian-language educational system in Romania, provides statistics about the evolution of enrollment in Hungarian-language educational programs, and assesses its performance compared to that of the Romanian-language educational system. The Hungarian-language educational system is indeed one of the most important pluralistic elements of the Romanian minority policy regime. Yet, no forms of educational autonomy exist, and it is doubtful whether the totality of educational institutions teaching (also) in Hungarian can be considered a specific subsystem within Romania’s broader educational system. The chapter also analyzes some consequences of this ambivalent institutional setting, and it evaluates the results of official graduation examinations and of PISA competence tests according to the language of education.