Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has again categorically rejected any revision of new textbooks for Slovakia's ethnic-Hungarian pupils.
Hungarian elementary and secondary schools were recently sent new history and geography textbooks with Slovak place names inserted in the Hungarian text
Speaking after a cabinet meeting on October 22, the prime minister said the problem lies not in the textbooks, but rather in the fact that Hungarians living in Slovakia do not master the Slovak language. He also remarked that perfect mastery of the state language should be the aim of coexistence between Slovak and ethnic Hungarian citizens. Fico added that he does not think that the new textbooks, which Hungarian schools are returning to the Education Ministry in protest, interfere with minority rights.
Fico also responded to Hungarian Foreign Minister Kinga Göncz, who had asked the Slovak government for an explanation of the new textbooks, by saying that noone was nobody interested in her. SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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