Tarján M. Tamás: Generózus alku vagy ravasz zsarolás? A lex Apponyi és a kései dualizmus kori oktatáspolitika értékelése
Publikálva: KISEBBSÉGI SZEMLE, IX. ÉVFOLYAM, 2024. 2. SZÁM
RESUME
Generous Deal or Cunning Blackmail? Evaluation of the Lex Apponyi and the Educational Policy of the Late Dualist Era
In this paper, I introduce and analyze the Hungarian Educational Act for Non-State Financed Elementary Schools enacted in 1907, also referred to as Lex Apponyi. The law, named after the then-Minister of Education, Albert Apponyi, marked a new stage in the protracted struggle between the Hungarian ruling elite and the national minorities
which strove for cultural equality and wider political opportunities in Hungary. In enacting Lex Apponyi, the originators applied a double-barreled strategy. The Hungarian state gave extraordinary financial support to the elementary school system maintained mostly by the churches and local communities. However, this positive measure came for schools with the requirement to give up their autonomy. It soon became obvious that the government’s financial help was a ‘bait’ for the national minorities’ school to enforce‘patriotic education’ and the compulsory teaching of the Hungarian language. Several sections of Lex Apponyi reduced the non-state financed schools’ autonomy in effect since 1868. In the aftermath of the Treaty of Versailles, Lex Apponyi became vigorously debated. Due to its assimilationist aims, the historians of the successor states of prewar Hungary (e. g., Romania and Czechoslovakia) criticized it intensely. Similarly, some Hungarian historiographers condemned the law on political or moral basis, while others argued that it provided a relatively flexible environment for the education of national
minorities—in comparison to the educational environments existent in the surrounding European nation-states. Applying a careful analysis of the law and its consequences on the educational system, in this paper I reevaluate the various historiographical narratives surrounding Lex Apponyi and I present new arguments in the century-long historical debate.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.62153/ksz.2024.2.tmt
A tanulmány letöltése:
SZERZŐ:
TARJÁN Tamás
Doktorjelölt, ELTE BTK Történelemtudományi Doktori Iskola; egyetemi tanársegéd, Pázmány Péter Katolikus Egyetem Nemzetközi és Politikatudományi Intézet
