Among the prize recipients is a retired teacher, former principal of the Vancaga Elementary School, and president of the Federation of Croatians in Hungary Joso Ostrogonac.
On the occasion of National Minorities Day in neighbouring Hungary, celebrated on 18 December, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán presented deserving individuals and organisations with the National Minorities Prize. This top Hungarian prize was received in 2020 by eleven people and two civil organisations, including the president of the Federation of Croatians in Hungary Joso Ostrogonac, a retired teacher and former principal of the Vancaga Elementary School. The formal presentation of the prize will be staged at the first available opportunity.
Joso Ostrogonac was born to a family of Bunjevo Croats. After earning a diploma to teach the Croatian and Serbian languages, literatures and histories in elementary school, he continued his education to earn the status of a secondary school teacher of the Croatian and Serbian languages and histories. From 1977 to his retirement he taught at the Vancaga Elementary School. In 1988 he was appointed to the post of deputy to the principal for national minorities, and in 1994 to the post of school principal. He has held the post of president of the Federation of Croatians in Hungary since 1993 and has been a member of the ethnic Croatian self-administration organisation in Baja since 1994, now also holding the post of vice president of the Croatian national self-administration in Hungary, where he has served as the chairman of the committee on education and upbringing since 2012. He is a member of a Hungarian-Croatian committee on the protection of minorities and of a working group on national minority affairs under the Hungarian justice ministry.
(Kristina Goher / Hrvatski glasnik / MCC )