1. The Hungarian Education System at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century – an Overview

1.1. Major Reforms and Initiatives in the Hungarian Education System

1.1.1. Legislation on Education

The principles that govern the Hungarian education system are stipulated by the constitution of the republic. These include the provision of free and compulsory access to general education (ISCED 1+2) for all citizens as well as access to secondary and tertiary education based on individual abilities and needs.

Thus, one may state that education is a public service, in which the state ensures the maintenance of the framework through legislation and the running of the institutional network at all levels. The Act on Public Education regulates the levels of specific educational services, determines assessment and evaluation, stipulates the rights and duties and sets the framework for funding etc. The law is expanded by a number of decrees issued partly by the government partly by the Minister of Education.

In the period after 1999 there were considerable changes in the legal provisions of education. In 1999, 2002 and 2003 there were significant amendments to the Act on Public Education 1993, and each of these carried changes for the executive regulations as well.  Furthermore, various newly established Acts had direct effects on the system of public education: regulations on the textbook market; on adult training; on the payment of compulsory vocational training contribution and on the development of the training system. Various governmental and ministerial decrees were issued in this period, concerning the introduction of frame curricula, the school-leaving exam concluding secondary education and the quality assurance and quality improvement system of public education.

The legislative documents on the operation of educational institutions have been amended and the regulatory function of the annual ministerial decrees gained greater importance. For instance these regulate the admission date for secondary education, the comprehensive surveys and assessments as well as pupils' performance evaluations at all grades.

The last comprehensive amendment to the Act on Public Education took place in the summer of 2003 and this reflected the shifts in the priorities and tools effecting educational governance.

Many of the newly introduced provisions may have a significant effect on the future organization of school-level education, therefore in the course of the legislative process, the regulations attracted great professional and public attention.

These include the strict prohibition of all forms of discrimination, the expansion of parental and pupils' rights, the restriction of class repetitions at the primary level of education, as well as the expansion of timeframe for the teaching of foreign languages and basic competences (for instance by determining the compulsory number of teaching hours) (Report 2003)

1.1.2. The Structure and Administration of the Education System

Over the last few years the main pillars of educational administration have not changed fundamentally – although the active role of co-ordinating the activities of the educational sector through the state has improved to some extent. The main actors in charge of the administrative control over the Hungarian education and training system include the central educational administration, the local governments (as the dominant maintainers) and the educational institutions. In this tri-polar model, the administrative control is decentralised and the managing responsibility is shared among various levels.

Horizontally, the administrative responsibilities are shared between the Ministry of Education and other ministries (primarily the Ministry of Employment and Labour, the Ministry of Finance and the Interior Ministry ). Vertically, the administrative control is shared between the central (national) local (regional) and institutional levels.

The basic characteristics of the administration of public education that evolved during the early nineties can be summarized in the following: At the regional (county) and local levels, the educational administration is integrated into the general system of public administration; in other words there is no organizationally separate educational administration. The local and regional level of public administration (including educational administration) is based on the system of local municipalities, thus it is under the control of politically autonomous, elected bodies, and the government cannot issue direct orders to the local municipalities. The role of the regional level is quite weak, while the scope of responsibilities at the local level is fairly wide. The number of local authorities (local municipalities) is very high, while their average size is small.

The basic framework of administration remained unchanged in the period in question (1999–2003), however, the active role and direct involvement of the state increased. New regulatory instruments (e.g. quality assurance, frame curricula) were introduced to ensure better adjustment of administration to the decentralized context. The state continued to develop the system of assessment and evaluation for the monitoring of local and in-school processes, and established new programmes. The state was also fairly active in the field of educational legislation and organizational development. In the first half of the period in question (from 1999 to 2002) the priorities of the educational policy concerning the system of administration were quality, stability, transparency, and the strengthening of welfare and compensatory functions, while less emphasis was placed on financial efficiency, institutional autonomy, improving adaptivity and incentives for innovation. In 2002, the new government rearranged these priorities. The Mid-Term Strategy for Public Education identified the improvement of educational management and the cost-effectiveness of public education, the enhancement of equal chances and the development of basic competences as top priorities, which will inevitably affect the system of administration. (Report 2003.)

In the advanced countries it is typical that one fines finds longer basic educational phases that are supplemented by a diversified upper secondary educational provision, which meets a great variety of social expectations. There are several different European models but they are common in that that their upper levels are quite diversified and their programmes are constructed from modules and this enables pupils to leave any stage of training with some kind of qualification.

The change of Hungarian school structure was a spontaneous process in the 1990s, when the evolution of the system was decisively affected by the factors of decentralization and relative autonomy for decision-making at local level, and by demographic changes. The nineties were mostly characterized by the efforts of institutions to stabilise the number of students despite the decreasing birth rates, which brought about an expansion in the variety of programmes both vertically (new, longer than four-year secondary programmes) and horizontally (an increase in the number of mixed type secondary institutions). In the period under review, the basic features of the school structure remained unchanged. The 2003 Amendment to the Act on Public Education seems to have ended the earlier debate on school structure. The Amendment reinforced the 8+4-year model as opposed to the 6+6-year structure, and adjusted educational cycles according to the former model and it also allowed the strengthening of basic competences in grades 5 and 6. Accomplishing basic education is documented by a certificate issued at the end of the eighth year of general school. The certificate issued after the successful completion of the 10th grade entitles students to apply for the non-obligatory basic examination. Secondary education begins in the 9th grade. In vocational secondary education the 9th and 10th grades are devoted to the mastery of the basics of general knowledge, with the addition of practical skills and vocational orientation elements required for facilitating the progression to vocational education and training. On-the-job practical training conducted in the 9th and 10th grades was also abolished, as well as the option for lengthening  education in general schools for more than eight years. (Report 2003.)

The International Standard Classification of Education – ISCED was elaborated by three international organisations (UNESCO, OECD and EU) and has been introduced in all EU member and associated states. This statistical and classification system makes it possible to compare the different education systems of the various countries based on its two principal categories: programme and level of education. ISCED applies five levels in public education:

• (0) pre-school
• (1) primary education
• (2) lower secondary
• (3) upper secondary
• (4) post-secondary vocational

In the international statistical information exchange Hungary regards the first four grades of general schooling as level 1, grades 4-8 as level 2 and all further grades as level 3. This means that Hungary draws different statistical classification lines between the various levels from a number of other countries and this must be taken into consideration in the comparative analyses of progression and of the education systems.

Table 1
Description of Hungarian education and training programmes according to ISCED-97 classification

Notes: Destination for which the programmes have been designed to prepare students: A=access to further general education, B=access to further vocational education, C=access to the labour market.
Orientation category is based on the degree to which content of programme has been specifically designed:
G=general, P=pre-vocational, V=vocational.
Source: Statistical Yearbook of Education 2002/2003, Ministry of Education, 2003.

1.1.3. The Contents of Education – Teaching and Learning Strategies

According to an OECD survey covering 22 countries Hungary was a typical country for delegating curricular decisions to school level in the mid-1990s. (Education at a Glance, 2000; Report, 2000). Teaching staffs are entitled to make crucial decisions concerning the content of education including the choice of textbooks, the formulation of school subjects, the design of educational programmes and curricula. Similarly to other countries that have the centralised educational administration, Hungary also introduced a two-level curricular regulation system, which was designed in 1995.

In Hungary, the two-level curriculum regulation was developed in the middle of the 1990s. At central level the content of education is regulated by the National Core Curriculum (NCC) published by the government in 1995 and the frame-curricula issued by the Minister of Education in 2000, 2002 and 2004.In 2002 the frame curricula were obligatory for all schools, while in 2004 they were optional.  The central regulatory system of the content of public education was completed by the National Core Programme of Pre-school Education, and the Guidelines, published between 1997 and 1998, which are focused on the orientation of the educational activities of various segments of the public education subsystems (special needs education, education of ethnic and minority groups, bilingual education, primary art education). At the local level it is regulated by the local educational programme of schools including local curricula. Schools developed their NCC-compatible local curricula between 1995 and 1998. These had to be adjusted to the frame curricula by September 2001. Following the change of government in 2002, the new Minister of Education ordered the review of the NCC, and consequently together with the NCC the local curricula are expected to be modified. Teaching staffs are authorized to make key decisions at their schools concerning the content of education from the selection of textbooks through the organization of the cultural domains of the NCC into actual school subjects as well as developing the school educational programme (the latter requires consultation with the maintainer).

The implementation of the National Core Curriculum was the most influential event of the 1990s. Not only did the NCC transform the content of education, the role of teachers, and the inner world of schools, it also affected the process of educational policy-making and administration. The introduction and acceptance of the central core curriculum in the highly decentralized Hungarian education system required policy-makers to adopt new strategies and tools. The development of local curricula on the basis of the NCC was a completely new challenge for Hungarian schools.

NCC underwent a comprehensive review in 2002 and, as a result, a less regulatory real core curriculum was born with no teaching material specifications, which are being transferred to schools by accredited frame curricula and educational programmes issued and countersigned by the Minister of Education. The 2003 edition of NCC does not contain any detailed teaching content or criteria – there are only development guidelines and objectives. It follows from this that it is necessary to elaborate unique transmitting tools that offer the teachers practical forms and tools as reflections of the general message of NCC. Content regulation has therefore been transformed into a three-tier system where the central transmitting level provides new documents, alternative curricular solutions and directly adaptable teaching programmes.

The new curriculum subscribes significantly greater importance to the conscious development of skills and competences rather than simple knowledge transfer.

This is emphasized in the priorities of the Ministry of Education's Mid-term Strategy of Public Education.

The pupils' future chance to get employment in the labour market is enhanced by a series of new initiatives for foreign language learning, e.g the introduction of an intensive language year. The secondary school leaving examination system is under profound revision as well. In 2005 with the introduction of the two-level secondary school leaving examination system the separate university entrance examinations will disappear and university entrance will be based on the results achieved at secondary school leaving exams with uniform standards.

There are certain reforms in the field of output regulations as well. Over the last decades there have been a number of representative surveys in mathematics, reading literacy, ICT, cognitive abilities, etc. in the framework of IEA, PISA, PIRLS, TIMSS and since 2001 every year there has been a reading literacy and comprehensive mathematics survey in two different grades.

1.1.4. The Objectives of Educational Reforms and Initiatives

It is Hungary's strategic objective to become a successful member in the community of developed market economy and democratic states, especially within the EU, of which the country is a member since May 2004. The Ministry of Education intends to launch new programmes that support the fulfilment of effectiveness in education. Its basic objective is to create a democratic state based on the respect of law, the protection of environment, the improvement of citizens' living conditions and health as well as the maintenance of public demand for cultural benefits.

The principal objective of education is to adapt flexibly to the constantly changing demands of the labour market and to ensure the necessary, renewable human resources in order to maintain economic competitiveness. Education must ensure the prevalence of solidarity, justice and strengthen the cohesion of Hungarian society with a view to provide freedom of choice for all children and young people regardless of gender, origin or religious affiliation.

The managers of the education system constantly renew the educational objectives reflecting the current social demands. Education administration must be open to all clients and stakeholders interested in the sustainable effectiveness of educational services. The clients of education services must access continuous learning opportunities and schools and their staff must be eligible for development support services. Educational institutions require stable working conditions and employees need safe career paths. Efficient education systems must provide the conditions for accountability, economic resource management, transparency and democratic decision making patterns.

The Ministry of Education published the Mid-term Strategy for Public Education in 2003. Its priorities are the following.