The National Council of the Bunjevci, which gathers members of this national minority who deny their Croat background, has drawn up a curriculum for the course called "The Language of the Bunjevci with Elements of the National Culture". The programme is expected to be introduced in elementary schools at of the start of the next school year.
The Democratic Alliance of Vojvodina Croats said that the programme was "a repeated attempt by the state authorities to assimilate Croats in the north of the Backa region".
The alliance said that the programme threatened the survival of the Croat minority in the north of Backa.
According to the 2002 census, there are 16,254 members of the Bunjevci minority in Subotica (10.96 percent of the town population) and 16,688 Croats (11.25 percent).