Razprave in gradivo, Ljubljana, March 1986, No.18 
Radomir Babin UDC 376.744(497.113) 
Educational-Pedagogic 
Institute 
Subotica, Yugoslavia 
PRINCIPLES AND PROBLEMS OF BILINGUAL EDUCATION IN NORTHERN BACKA* 
The area of Northern Baëka with Subotica as its economic, 
cultural and educational centre, is known for its being 
inhabited, in approximately equal numbers, by members of the 
Yugoslav nationalities and of the Hungarian ethnic group. 
Accordingly, Serbo-Croatian and Hungarian appear equally to be 
the standard languages of the social environment concerned. This 
can be observed in the streets, squares, shops, public offices, 
cultural and educational institutions. A roughly equal number of 
the inhabitants speak as their mother tongues the Serbo-Croatian 
and Hungarian languages, respectively, along with the traditional 
natural bilingualism of a number of individuals; this has made 
possible in the educational organizations of this area a simpler, 
faster and fuller realization of the principles of the Yugoslav 
policy of education, the constitutional and statutory provisions 
concerning the implementation of the national equality of rights 
in the sphere of education and instruction than in other parts of 
SAP Vojvodina. 
The national map of this area is supplemented also by the data 
showing that, along with the Yugoslav nations and the Hungarian 
ethnic group, whose languages are also officially the languages 
of communication in all the communes of this area, members of the 
Macedonian nation also live here (0.44% out of the total number 
of pupils) as well as Slovenes (0.08%), those belonging to the 
Albanian ethnic group (0.07%), and a very small number of members 
of the other nationalities. An ever-greater number of the pupils 
or their parents declare themselves to be Yugoslavs (11.88% of 
pupils in the school year of 1982/83). Besides other developments 
in inter-nationality relations (i.e. the number of ethnically 
mixed marriages has been increasing steadily), all this 
demonstrates that the area of Northern Backa is interesting for 
the observation of the developments in inter-nationality 
relations, particularly so in the field of education. 
Therefore, in this paper, we shall try to illustrate, in a brief 
outline, the development of education in this area from the end 
of the Second World War up to the present, so as to explain the 
fundamental principles formed and endorsed in bilingual 
pedagogical work as being generally valid, and to point out some 
problems arising in the actual pedagogical practice that tries 
not only to accept and implement, but also to enrich creatively 
the theoretical assumptions underlying the policy of national 
equality and of the bilingual pedagogical activity. 
  
* Original: Serbo-Croatian 
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In the search for adequate pedagogical solutions in the schools 
with two languages of instruction, experiments were made in this 
field using a completely bilingual teaching, when the teaching in 
the same class was carried out, with different variants, in two 
languages, discussing technical terms in the language of the 
social environment while teaching in the pupils’ native language, 
and applying bilingual teaching on the principle of divergence. 
Of all these experiments the best results were obtained by the 
teaching method that was also longest in use, viz., that on the 
principle of divergence, broadly known as "the practice of 
Subotica." While the other experiments have been virtually 
forgotten, "the practice of Subotica," among its educational 
workers, still has its advocates, who underscore its value in 
securing the proficiency in the Serbo-Croatian language attained 
by the pupils of the Hungarian nationality. Though it is not our 
purpose here to offer a detailed description of the "practice of 
Subotica," we shall mention its main characteristic: the pupils 
of the Hungarian nationality who had completed their elementary 
schooling in their own language, were taught, after the 
enrollment in the first year of secondary school, again entirely 
in their own language, but in the second, third and fourth years, 
the number of the subjects taught in Serbo-Croatian was gradually 
increased, so that the final examination was taken in the Serbo- 
Croatian language. However, all these forms of bilingual teaching 
have been gradually abandoned with the dwindling of the 
democratization process in the society, when the society was also 
creating more and more favourable conditions for education in its 
mother tongue, thus increasing the ensurance of national equality 
of rights in the field of education. In this way, the development 
of education was such that it has attained the above-described 
Organization of the schools - that is, two languages of 
instruction wherever possible. This means that, in the 
realization of the principle of the equality of rights, the 
pupils have, first of all, the possibility of being educated in 
their native language, and that through the certain teaching 
contents and forms of common work the paths are sought towards 
the integration of children into the multinational community. 
As many as 67.34% of the elementary schools and all the secondary 
schools conduct the teaching in either language, in separate 
classes. In such schools, unless well thought-out and well- 
programmed work has been organized, the phenomenon of national 
isolationism may occur. This phenomenon is, therefore, prevented 
in various ways. Pedagogical practice is in the forefront in this 
respect, whereas the theory does not succeed in forming and 
giving meaning to all the results obtained in practice. We are 
going to enumerate some ways of preventing the emergence of 
national isolationism: 
- all the professional, self-management and managing bodies at 
school are homogenous (in the commune of Subotica, for instance, 
66.67% of the school principals are bilingual and hence able to 
communicate in the two languages with the parents, pupils and the 
public; 
- the Pioneers' and youth organizations, all socio-political and 
social organizations at the school are uniform; 
— one annual programme of schoolwork is adopted; 
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- the language of the social environment is learned actively; 
- there are common sections of free (out-of-classroom) activities 
and pupils' interest groups, cultural-artistic and school sports 
societies; 
- socially beneficial and production work is performed jointly. 
In practice, however, some dilemmas have been raised, the 
solution to which the pedagogical theory should contribute more 
significantly. We shall dwell upon some of these issues. 
1. There are divergent views of the work of the literary and 
other sections dealing with the cultivation of the language and 
of the national culture: some are of the opinion that these 
sections, too, should comprise the pupils belonging to different 
nationalities and hence speaking different languages, while 
others maintain that these sections should work separately, 
according to the languages of instruction. There are also people 
advocating a third, compromise solution - that the sections 
should be common, with a common managing body, but within the 
sections the work should be performed separately, according to 
the languages. At the schools of Northern Backa, this third 
solution has generally prevailed: within the literary section, 
for instance, work is done, as a rule, in the Serbo-Croatian and 
Hungarian languages separately, but when the members of the 
section are preparing a performance or a literary evening, ata 
number of schools the work is performed jointly on bilingual 
recitals and the like. Yet the practice prevails of preparing 
separate recitations or recitals that are always performed at a 
common bilingual performance. 
2. Among the dilemmas there is also the question of the status of 
the teaching subject, the language of the social environment.” In 
SAP. Vojvodina it is taught as an optional subject of instruction, 
the pupil is graded, but the marks do not influence his/her 
overall achievement. Opinions are divided on this matter too: 
some think that the existing solution is genuinely democratic and 
the best one;“ others, however, particularly the educational 
workers and teachers of the language of the social environment, 
want this subject to be compulsory and believe that the marks 
should be taken into consideration in establishing the pupil's 
overall achievement.” If the theory offered a many-sided 
consideration of this question, it could without doubt greatly 
assist the pedagogical practice. 
It should be emphasized that no one denies the need for learning 
the language of the social environment. On the contrary, 
everybody does his/her best to raise the efficiency of this 
instruction to a higher level, for there is widespread awareness 
that knowledge of the language and culture of the people one 
lives with represents a very important condition for a successful 
integration of every individual into the production work and 
social life. Ever since the abandonment of the "practice of 
Subotica," which was such that members of the Hungarian 
nationality were not on an equal footing with others, for they 
completed their secondary education in the Serbo-Croatian 
language, the learning of the language of the social environment 
is practically the most important element of the preparation of 
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children for their integration into various forms of common 
school and extracurricular activities whereby the learning of the 
language of the social environment is expanded, deepened and 
knowledge of it reinforced and put into practice, so that, among 
other things, the great functional value of this knowledge might 
also be recognized. 
The significance of the learning of the language of the social 
environment is even greater at a school operating in a nationally 
homogeneous environment or at a school where the teaching is 
conducted in only one language. It is natural that under such 
circumstances is less fully mastered in everday situations and 
that the language of the social environment as a subject of 
instruction is not in a position to compensate for this handicap 
by securing better knowledge of the language of the other nation 
or nationality. Such schools, therefore, organize a series of 
activities, events and performances aiming at the learning of the 
language of the social environment and closeness of the members 
of different nations and nationalities. Most frequently, these 
take the form of meetings of twin schools belonging to different 
environments, joint camping trips and holidays, joint publication 
ef school journals (for instance, Ada-Sabac), exchange of visits 
and sojourns of classes or groups of pupils, mutual 
correspondence of individual pupils or classes. A number of the 
schools from this area with Hungarian as the language of 
instruction, for instance, cherish brotherly relations with those 
from Serbia. The same aims are evident from sports events, the 
cycle race on the track of the Petôfi Brigade, etc. 
Notwithstanding all the efforts made, the efficiency of the 
learning of the language of the social environment, in particular 
at monolingual schools, is not satisfactory. According to the 
research carried out by the experts of the Educational- 
Pedagogical Institute of Subotica, the percentage of the positive 
answers in the nationally homogeneous environments was 36.55 per 
cent in the fourth grade of the elementary school and 33.93 per 
cent in the eighth grade, while at the bilingual schools from the 
nationally mixed environments the result was somewhat better: 
44.55 per cen£ in the fourth grade and 50.14 per cent in the 
eighth grade.* The theory and practice are faced with the 
exacting task of improving this performance, which is important, 
for poor knowledge of the language of the social environment 
leads to the isolation of the “language collective," which 
prevents the attainment of the desired educational effects. 
The language of the social environment in this area begins to be 
learnt in the pre-school institutions, more precisely, from the 
child's fifth year onwards; nowhere in this country, according to 
our knowledge, does this process start earlier. There have been a 
lot of expert discussions about the beginning of the learning of 
a second language. The experts have considered, investigated and 
tested the impact of second-language learning mother-tongue 
acquisition, and whether it negatively affects the mastering of 
the general educational contents, the stuttering of children, 
whether and to what extent it puts a strain on the children, and 
the like. It has been established that the age of 4 to 5 years is 
the best for starting to learn the second-language. “Accordingly, 
the learning of the Serbo-Croatian language should start already 
at the kindergarten level. This is important, given that the 
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children of this age acquire very easily and quickly the correct 
pronunciation and stress, a patural intonation and the idiomatic 
expressions of the language."” Thus, in this area, the dilemma of 
an early start of the learning of a second language was 
eliminated. The validity of such a solution has been confirmed by 
the practice, 
3. One of the problems is in a direct connection with the 
efficiency of learning the language of the social environment; it 
refers to the phenomenon of language parallelism at all public 
meetings held in bilingual environments. The question emerges 
here of the justification of the practice at some schools, and 
also outside them, to hold, for instance at various performances 
and mettings, identical speeches or - more rarely - recitals and 
recitations, in two languages, or to publish in school journal 
identical articles in both languages. In our opinion, such 
practice is suitable in the schools having two separate 
collectives, but it is harmful, in many ways, to the realization 
of the educational goals, and also to the learning of the 
language of the social environment at schools with two languages 
of instruction. The variety of content in speech, recitals, 
recitations or written articles, on the contrary, stimulates and 
increases the pupils’ motivation for learning, enriching their 
aesthetic experiences, increasing information they receive and 
gives meaning to the efforts they make to master the language of 
the social environment. Even more senseless is the language 
parallelism sometimes resorted to by some self-managing and 
professional bodies in order to satisfy the formality in language 
use. The nature use of one's own native language in communicating 
one's own thought rather than in repeating what has already been 
said by someone else, is most appropriate in a bilingual 
environment. 
4. While the cultivation of one's own language for the pupils of 
the ethnic groups attending instruction in the Serbo-Croatian 
language is organized in various parts of Vojvodina, in this 
area, where this form of work had been started, after the 
creation of conditions necessary for complete secondary and 
partially for higher and university education in one's Own 
language, the interest on the part of the pupils and parents in 
this aspect of the cultivation of one's native language, culture 
and tradition, has completely dwindled away. In a broader social 
framework of this environment, it is considered that this 
function should be performed by the language of the social 
environment, while the experts believe that, in view of the fact 
that, besides all the conditions for mother-tongue education, 13 
per cent of the children of the Hungarian ethnic group and 4 per 
cent of the children of the Yugoslav nations and nationalities do 
not attend instruction in their native languages, there exists 4 
real need for the cultivation of one's native language, since the 
teaching of the language of the social environment cannot, either 
in terms of the curriculum or with respect to its objectives and 
tasks, and in particular in regard to the actual possibilities, 
entirely compensate for the deficiencies in the knowledge of 
one's own language and one's own national culture. However, the 
subject motives of these pupils and of their parents are very 
complex and difficult to explain, especially concerning, first, 
their decision not to attend instruction in their own language, 
even though it is available, and secondly, their relatively 
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slight interest in the deepening of the knowledge of their own 
native language and culture. 
5. The working language used at the meetings of professional and 
self-management bodies at the schools with two languages of 
instruction can be, according to normative provisions, each of 
the two languages of instruction, or both at the same time. In 
practice, the Serbo-Croatian language is more frequently used, 
but there are schools where the working language is either 
Hungarian or both the languages alternately. 
6. One of the dilemmas relates to the common Yugoslav programme 
core covering language and literature for the children of the 
Hungarian nationality. While the idea for the introduction of 
these common-core contents into the other curricular subjects has 
been accepted without reserve, in relation to the language and 
literature core some fear has been expressed that Hungarian as 
the mother tongue will not be sufficiently learned from the 
original works, but mostly from translations into Hungarian. The 
application of new curricula and educational programmes in school 
year 1985/86 will actually show whether and to what extent such 
fear is justified. So far, the educational programme in the 
Hungarian language has already contained 21 per cent of the texts 
to be analyzed from the Yugoslav and world literatures. We must 
add that the Hungarian children were able to acquaint themselves 
with the works of the most significant Yugoslav writers, 
especially in the secondary schools, during the lessons or by 
reading selected books in Serbo-Croatian as the language of the 
social environment. Thus, the content from the literatures of the 
Yugoslav nations and nationalities has already been well 
represented so far - and from now on this content appears ina 
somewhat different function and with a different arrangement, 
because from now on the language of the social environment as a 
subject by itself will focus on a functional training of the 
pupils for communication much more than on familiarizing them 
with the literary works. 
7. Although there are within our community such institutions as 
are liable to follow the implementation of the curricula and of 
educational programmes, the appropriateness of textbooks and 
manuals, teaching aids, methods and procedures, and to help the 
teachers promote their teaching practice, we cannot be satisfied 
with the overall situation in this area. There is but little 
research work done whose wide-ranging effects might secure such 
an insight into the highly ramified bilingual pedagogical 
practice as enabled a theoretical synthesis of all the 
experiences gained, so that the theory would stimulate the 
practice to be infused with a new vigour, reaching new heights 
and conquering new areas. Without such a combination of theory 
and practice, which could enrich the practice with an integrated 
teaching methodology of the language of the social environment, 
and provide it with a series of instructions and suggestions for 
organizing the work in a bilingual environment, not forgetting 
the provision of contemporary teaching aids for the language of 
the environment, it will be impossible to enhance the quality 
level of this work. 
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Notes 
l. Formerly, this subject was labelled the non-mother tongue. 
Later, the name was changed because it was - and still is - 
considered that the language spoken by the pupil in an ethnically 
mixed family often is not the native language of his/her mother, 
and that the denomination "the language of the social 
environment” is therefore more appropriate. 
2. This opinion is supported by the fact that almost all the 
pupils and the youth in the communes of this area learn the 
language of the social environment: members of the Yugoslav 
peoples learn the Hungarian language and members of the Hungarian 
ethnic group the Serbo-Croatian language. 
3. Their reasons are of a practical nature: they think that 
thereby the pupils' motivation for schoolwork could be increased 
(particularly in the case of the nations), which could in turn 
enhance the efficiency of work. As one of the reasons they point 
out that in five Yugoslav republics the learning of this subject 
is compulsory. 
4. See: Mijana Burzan, Josip Buljovcié and Ferenc Kuéera, "The 
Results of the Testing of Knowledge of the Serbo-Croatian 
Language in the Fourth and Eighth Grades of the Elementary School 
in the Nationally Homogeneous Environments (With an Analysis of 
the Most Frequent Mistakes)," in Oktatas és Nevelés, No. 40 and 
No. 55, Szabadka, 1981 and 1984, pp. 37-50 and 57-67. 
5. Plemer Brunet, 1981, "Learning of the Serbo-Croatian Language 
in the First and Second Grades of the Elementary Schools with 
Hungarian as the Language of Instruction - An Experiment," in 
Pedagoëska stvarnost, No. 8, pp. 547-48. 
194