First Hungarian-Ukrainian School Opens in Budapest

The first Hungarian-Ukrainian bilingual primary and secondary school was ceremonially opened in Budapest on Saturday.

After the Hungarian and Ukrainian national anthems were sung, Liliána Grexa, the Ukrainian nationalities’ parliamentary speaker, welcomed the audience and described the opening of the school as a historic moment. She also thanked the leaders of the House of Ukrainian Traditions for founding the school.

She noted that, among others, Levente Magyar, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, had helped to raise bilateral relations between Ukraine and Hungary to a level where they could now open this school in Budapest.

Liliána Grexatold MTI that

350 children have already enrolled in the Hungarian-Ukrainian bilingual school, but she believes that this number will further increase this year.

Viktor Mykyta, the governor of Transcarpathia, said that the newly opened school will offer children the opportunity to learn both Ukrainian and Hungarian. This will help integrate the children, while preserving their mother tongue and culture.

He stressed that the opening of the school is in line with the agreement between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to open a Ukrainian school in Budapest.

As the Facebook post of the Embassy of Ukraine reads, this is the first state-funded bilingual school for Ukrainian children. Education will be provided in Ukrainian from grades 1 to 12, with Hungarian and English as foreign languages included in the curriculum.