Few Hungarian pupils learn a second foreign language

Budapest (MTI) – Almost all Hungarian lower secondary school pupils learnt a foreign language in 2015 but only a few studied two, data compiled by Eurostat shows.

Fully 90.5 percent of the 385,300 lower secondary school pupils in Hungary learnt one foreign language while 6 percent studied two or more.

The percentage of pupils learning two foreign languages was the lowest in the European Union. In neighbouring Slovakia, the percentage stood at 78 percent while it was 65 percent in the Czech Republic and 94 percent in Poland.

The percentage of Hungarians who learn a second foreign language improves in upper secondary education, where the figure reached 37.6 percent in 2015, Eurostat data show. Still, the percentage was lower than that in Slovakia (67 percent), the Czech Republic (50.5 percent) and Poland (69.8 percent).

English is the most commonly studied language at lower secondary level in Hungary. German is runner-up.

Source: MTI