The paper focuses on education language policy in Slovene Istria and of Slovenia in Italy. On both sides of the Slovene-Italian border there is an ethnically mixed population of Italians and Slovenes, an Italian minority in Slovenia, and a Slovene minority in Italy. On both sides of the border apparently similar systems of bilingual education have been developed: schools with the minority language as the language of instruction. The authors discuss some data from a study performed in the period from 2006-2008 among eighth-grade pupils of primary schools along the Slovene-Italian border where the two different socio-ethnic groups are in close contact. Pupils on both sides of the border were tested to establish their levels of knowledge of the Slovene language (as L1 and L2), and of Italian (as L1 and L2). The conclusion includes suggestions regarding the extent of the need to upgrade bilingual educational models applied in these mixed border areas in accordance with the goals of minority preservation, protection and development as an added value of bilingual environments. (Contains 1 figure and 2 notes.)