2.3. Education and Social Competences

2.3.1. Changing the Paradigm of Hungarian Public Education in the 21^st Century

The position of Hungarian public education is influenced by several factors that can be regarded as globally present in all economically advanced countries. Due to the unfavourable Hungarian demographic trends the number of 1–14-year old children is decreasing, while the timeframe and length of public education is growing and the expansion of secondary and tertiary education is boosted.

The changing social environment has brought significant changes to citizens in the labour market as well in that they are forced to make frequent and quick changes and adapt constantly, which is a great challenge to public education. It must develop such key competences, which enable the individual learners to adapt to the labour market and participate in LLL. ICT skills are increasingly recognised as invaluable. (Report 2003)

Since the 90s public education reforms in Hungary have taken a new momentum, which has been determined by several social expectations. This process was strengthened by weakening performances in the field of key competences in various international and national assessment projects. Over the last 15 years there have been significant reforms in the field of curricular regulations and secondary school leaving examinations. There is a shift from traditional academic knowledge transfer to the establishment of competences. There are several new national competence surveys to serve the overall development of public education and establish a new culture of educational monitoring and assessment. The Ministry of Education launched a mid-term strategy on public education and its key element is the establishment of core competences to serve LLL. New measures have been launched to improve ICT and foreign language skills.

The following chapter focuses on curricular reform, the reshaping of secondary school leaving examination and national competence surveys and provides a brief overview of the performance of Hungarian pupils.

2.3.2. The International Trends and the Challenges of Secondary Education

2.3.2.1. Curricular reforms in quest for competence development

In Hungary, the two-level curriculum regulation was developed in the middle of the 1990s, following the dominant international educational trends.

The first level is represented by central curricular regulations, whereas the second level is constituted by the local curricula, which reflect the local educational programmes of the schools. As there was no consensus between the various political parties on central curricular regulations, there have been constant reforms in this field.

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. 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 for 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 plan of school educational programme (the latter requires consultation with the maintainer).(Report… 2000, 2003)

The National Core Curriculum has been the product of long evolution and serves as a basic reference document that determines the objectives of public education, the main areas of cultural domains, the cycles of content transfer and the main development objectives. It highlights the key competences (including for instance communicative, narrative, decision-making, co-operative, critical literacy skills etc.). The NCC supports the integrated and cross-curricular approach to education as it defines cultural domains.

It divides compulsory education into four training cycles at grades 1-4., 5-6., 7-8. and 9-12. School subject objectives are defined in relation to these educational cycles instead of at every single grade. The allocated time frame for learning is also divided according to cultural domains, roughly estimating the minimum and maximum values. (Table 12).

Table 12.
Recommended distribution of cultural domains for the coverage of NCC

Cultural domains	1–4.	5–6.	7–8.	9–10.	11–12.
Hungarian language and literature	32–42	17–24	10–15	10–15	10
Modern foreign language	2–6	12–20	12–20	12–20	13
Mathematics	17–23	15–20	10–15	10–15	10
Man and Society	4–8	4–8	10–15	10–15	9
Man in Nature	4–8	7–11	15–20	15–20	10
Earth and Environment	–	4–8	4–8	4–8	–
Arts	10–18	12–16	8–15	9–15	5
ICT	2–5	4–8	6–10	6–10	5
Life management	4–8	4–9	5–10	5–10	–
Physical education and sports	15–20	11–15	10–15	9–15	8

Source: National Core Curriculum

The above figures relate to 80% of total working hours in grades 9-10 and to 60% in grades 11-12. This means that schools enjoy a certain degree of freedom to elaborate their own timetables. NCC has greatly contributed to the reforms in Hungarian public education.

2.3.2.2. The Reform of Secondary School Leaving Examination – Serving Equal Opportunities and Quality

The reform initiatives outlined in curricula and development strategies are greatly strengthened by the re-shaping of the secondary school leaving examination procedures, which have great tradition in Hungary.

The basic change compared to the earlier procedures is that the new examination framework has two levels. The reform initiative for the secondary school leaving examination started in 1996 and the original plan was to follow the classical, cyclical  model of examination reform first determining content and criteria, subsequently  testing the examination model for the individual school subjects and finally rendering the test questions and other necessary supplementing documentation to elaborate the comprehensive model. (Fig.2 next page)

While elaborating the model the principles have frequently changed and examination criteria have been repeatedly reshuffled due to educational political considerations. The curricular changes have also lead to necessary readjustments in the examination criteria, their management as well as the estimated time of their introduction. In setting the new examination criteria for the individual subjects, the relevant experts have been invited to reach a consensus over the curricular content but for some time there has been a certain resistance perceptible. Based on vagueness  over the actual date of its introduction and a bunch of related unfavourable experience a great number of teachers began to wonder whether the comprehensive reform would ever take place.

The reformed, new secondary school leaving examination shall first be passed by the pupils of the school year 2004/5. All pupils are required to pass an exam in Hungarian language and literature, history, mathematics a modern foreign language and in an optional subject (e.g. physics, chemistry, physical education, ICT, second foreign language or in a professional basic subject in vocational secondary schools etc.)

Schools may offer such schools subjects for examination, to which there is no available central set of examination guidelines and tests. These examinations are subjected to accreditation procedures.

Pupils may choose freely between the two levels of examination in each subject. According to the original plans pupils could have entered tertiary education only through higher-level examination results in certain subjects, but except foreign language teaching tertiary education institutions, no universities or colleges require this level of qualification. As higher-level exam results mean more scores at the tertiary entry, it is expected that an increasing number of pupils shall opt for this examination form. Schools are required to offer higher-level tuition in all compulsory school subjects at grades 11-12.

Figure 2.
Modelling the Reform Procedures of Secondary School Leaving Examination

DEVELOPMENT PHASE		RESULT
PLANNING
Needs Status quo	Surveys, stocktaking
Objectives Contents Requirements	Definitions		Drafting curricular requirements
DEVELOPING A MODEL
Hypothesis on modelling Deciding on relevance Testing exercises and evaluation guidelines Analysing results Restructuring the model and the related set of criteria Transforming and testing the hypothesis (in cycles)			Exam description
ORGANISATION
Elaborating exam questions, tests Training examiners Compiling background information Setting up administration Analysing test results Changing examination regulations			Model tests, support materials and tests,

Source: Ágnes Einhorn (ed.) (2004): Az érettségiről tanároknak (On the secondary school leaving examination for teachers) 2005. Német nyelv. (German as a foreign language) Budapest, Országos Közoktatási Intézet. (National Insitute of Public Education), www.om.hu

The examination consists of written and oral parts and there are certain school subjects, which require practical and project-based assessment as well. The two levels are different from a management point of view, as well. At the lower level examination there is a central written test, which is corrected locally based on a central correction guideline. Oral exams at lower level are prepared by the examiner and they are conducted at the schools in such a way that a mixed examination board tests the pupils in each subject. Test questions for the oral examination are also prepared centrally, the examination itself is done before a 3-member examination board, which is set up by the regional examination centre.

The school subjects have detailed examination guidelines, which contain the description of all parts of the exam (40/2002 Ministerial decree).

In drafting and determining the examination guidelines the underlying principle was that the main objective of school-based teaching should be the development of competences and therefore examinations should reflect this. There are several types of tests at the examinations, in which pupils are required to argue, analyse, and discuss certain concepts and issues in writing and speech. These open-ended tasks bring great challenges to the whole of the assessment procedures. Several school subjects apply analytical assessment scales, which relate certain quality level indicators to the performance of the pupils. It means extremely difficult challenges and a great number or new assessment methods to the oral examiner.

The examination therefore is a challenge to both the pupils and the examining teachers therefore new training materials are prepared for each school subject to provide suitable in-service teacher training programmes and multiplicator-training schemes. Although participation is not compulsory for the teachers, this is the pre-condition of qualification to conduct higher-level oral examinations, therefore a great number of teachers attend these courses. The in-service training schemes are run by pedagogical institutes and educational establishments, their content is strictly regulated and participation fees are funded from public subsidies. The training courses relate to both examination levels and participants do exercises on real examination papers and video recordings help their preparation for the assessment of oral examinations. These training courses normally last for 30 teaching hours, in the case of foreign languages they comprise 45 teaching lessons.

For the most frequently chosen school subjects teaching manuals have also been elaborated, which contain good practice guides and background studies, teaching aids, which support teachers' work.

In the process of developing the new examination framework the introduction of two pilot exams in 2003 and 2004 was very significant. Whereas in 2004 only 42 schools tried and tested the new examination framework, in 2004 all grade 11 pupils took part because they will graduate their secondary schools according to the new regulations in 2005. The most important objective of the pilot exams was dissemination as all schools received the examination papers for information. The logistical testing of the new examination framework was also important and it led to the introduction of a number of executive and administrative changes (for instance the listening comprehension part of foreign language oral examination). The detailed analysis of examination results was also integrated into the development process.

The reform of secondary school leaving examination is a very important element of transforming public education. The new content of various subject examinations is expected to have a quick and radical impact on the teaching and methodological resources of traditional school subjects. There are a number of risks and problems emerging in the course of introducing the new measures: a number of schools followed the “strategy” of moving candidate students to other schools which organise given preparatory courses and their preparation was started with certain delay. Despite the widespread Internet-access at schools it cannot be fully expected that teachers and pupils to collect information exclusively on-line. It was observable that despite the electronic publication of the exam materials teachers had no information about them three years after their accessibility. Further difficulties arose from the late launching of in-service teacher training programmes and the lack of comprehensive textbook development measures.

In the future further challenges are expected concerning the substantial time demand of the routine inclusion of the assessment and research results into the work of the examination centres. On the whole however, this process shall provide a significant new challenge to the entire domain of Hungarian public education and this shall have further impacts on the contents, methods, and assessment of all subject areas.

2.3.2.3. National competence surveys in quest of quality and effectiveness

The new diagnostic assessment system was first tested in Hungary in the academic year 2001/2002. This system is in use every year focusing on a particular grade's knowledge and skills and competences. The introduction of this new system serves two objectives. On the one hand the assessment focuses on how pupils are able to make use of their knowledge to solve problems in the fields of literacy and numeracy. This survey reflects a shift in content management and focuses on the needs of public education. This annual survey focuses on the pupils' skills to apply knowledge rather than on their ability to recall academic knowledge derived from the learning process. On the other hand, this project aims to develop a new assessment and monitoring culture at school level. A number of new assessment tools, data and analytical software help the schools to conduct local level assessment projects. These assessments are not aimed at analysing and evaluating the schools' own performance. (Report 2003)

The first survey was conducted at the beginning of the 2001/2002 school year among 5- and 9-grade students in the fields of reading literacy and mathematics. In 2003 the same fields were tested in grades 6 and 8 and in 2004 grades 6, 8 and 10 followed. The surveys were always fully comprehensive i.e. the entire age groups participated in test writing and the results of a systematically chosen control group were analysed centrally, based on 20 pupils' work per school. The central analysis of the results was sent out to all schools accompanied by a software and a detailed guideline to interpret system-level and individual school results. This report was an attempt to estimate the performance capacity of the institutions. (Figure 3)

Figure 3.
Explanatory notes to the School reports of the 2001 National Competence Assessment Survey

Source: National Competence Assessment Survey, 2001, OKÉV, School Reports,. In: report 2003. p. 543.

Since the 2003 surveys tested the same school population at the end of the school year as at the beginning of the previous one, the Hungarian researchers could develop to the school based added value indicator and a valuable database for the first time ever. In the course of the 2003 competence-survey schools effectiveness was tested with a new method targeting a new definition of pedagogical added value. This concept highlights the difference between the estimated implicit value embodied by the pupils and the actual achievement produced by the school. The implicit value embodied by pupils has the most decisive impact on the pupils' performance and it is an index based on socio-cultural and socio-economic factors. It is obvious that the various estimations about the effectiveness of the schools vary greatly based on assumptions as to wither the pupils' output is improved through schoolwork or is it based on the fact that the privileged pupils enter more effective schools. For the first time this survey gave an insight into the issue of the pupils' actual progress in two school years.

2.3.2.4. Effectiveness of public education from the aspect of basic competences

The above measures and reforms all aimed to improve basic competences. This process was supported by data arising from various types of surveys which all show that Hungarian pupils are frequently behind their counterparts in other countries.

Surveys in Hungary related to pupils' success have a long history. Since the beginning of IEA surveys in the early 1970s, Hungary has participated in a great number of international comparative research initiatives. There are a few important ones to mention: TIMSS-R 1999., for 8-grade pupils; TIMSS TREND 2003., for 4. and 8-grade pupils) on reading literacy PIRLS 2001., for 4-grade pupils and PISA for 15-year-old pupils on basic competences (2000., 2003., reading literacy, mathematics and sciences).

In 1986, a new national monitoring system was established to survey the basic competences of various age groups. Since 1991 these surveys have been conducted every two years for grades 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10, which enable researchers to follow on the same school population every two years.

These surveys usually test the pupils' so-called cultural tool handling skills including reading literacy, mathematics, ICT. Based on international experience research surveys now include natural sciences, civic knowledge and attitudes. In the following we shall briefly tackle basic competences in four areas: reading literacy, mathematics, ICT, and foreign languages.

Hungarian pupils' reading literacy skills are well documented in the national and international surveys. While the earlier surveys highlighted changing patterns with no serious problems, the 2000 PISA survey highlighted serious handicaps based on a completely different research philosophy. The PISA surveys apply five levels of reading literacy categories, where those, who reach level 5 possess a high level of capacity to work with information and complex texts. All other levels highlight insufficient capacity to obtain further knowledge and new information. Only 10% of all OECD pupils qualified to level 5 and only 5% of Hungarian pupils reached the same quality. 52% of Hungarian pupils performed above level 3, which means that nearly half of all pupils fail to reach the minimum reading literacy level to enter the labour market. (Figure 4)

Figure 4.
Reading literacy of 15-year-olds, PISA 2000 Survey, by country (%)

Source: Knowledge and Skills for Life, 2001. Cited: Report… 2003 p. 315.

In the OECD countries 12% of the pupils qualified for level 1 or weaker, the equivalent proportion of Hungarian pupils was 23%. (Report 2003, Vári 2003.)

In the field of natural sciences it is obvious that in tests compiled with the new evaluation methodology applying pragmatic criteria, Hungarian pupils performed weaker than previously despite their outstanding traditional record, based on international IEA surveys. One has to point out that IEA surveys basically measured the academic knowledge of 8-grade pupils, whereas the OECD PISA survey aimed to test the labour market chances of the 15-year-olds. It is clear therefore that the applied exercises were completely new to the Hungarian practitioners since the written tests projected real life problems and challenged the pupils to offer solutions based on their knowledge and understanding of natural sciences. In PISA 2000 survey the testing of mathematical and scientific knowledge only played a secondary role in comparison to the testing of reading literacy. Nevertheless, one could conclude that Hungarian pupils again performed worse than the international average in the tests related to independent empirical experiments and observations. At the same time it is true, that based on the TIMMS surveys, which reflect more the traditional values of Hungarian education, the Hungarian pupils' results had improved between 1995 and 1999. (Fig. 5.)

Figure 5.
Natural science average performance indicators at grade 8 general school pupils, TIMSS- and TIMSS-R-assessment survey, 1995, 1999 (standard scores)

Forrás: Education at a Glance, 2001 Report 2003. p. 322

In the field of mathematical knowledge in the framework of previous TIMMS surveys Hungarian pupils had always performed better than the international average, whereas in the 2000 PISA survey they qualified far below the international average. (Fig. 6.)

Figure 6.
Deviations from international average in mathematics based on the  1999 TIMMS-R (8 grade pupils) and the  PISA 2000surveys (15 old pupils) in various countries, (standard scores)

Source: Péter Vári et al. (2001), Iskolakultúra: Adult literacy survey, Quote: Report… 2003. p. 320.

Competences related to ICT greatly influence the social and labour market chance of individuals. In this field the OECD PISA survey database highlights that although Hungarian pupils use PCs more at school than their counterparts in the OECD countries, their access to ICT from home lags behind. Based on various ICT related surveys testing user attitudes it is clear that the Hungarian pupils' ICT skills are fairly good: they are aware of basic searching techniques on the Internet, they know the main features of office software and are familiar with basic rules of using PCs. Nevertheless, few Hungarian schools use the Internet for school links and out of school activities. Hungarian pupils perform well in the surveys testing their knowledge, but they lack a number of skills essential in the labour market. (Report 2003)

The development of foreign language competences is another important priority for educational policies. The related Hungarian surveys show an improving tendency in the skills of Hungarian pupils. The surveys related to the development of the new framework of secondary school leaving examination show that the graduates of secondary schools have very diverse sets of skills in the field of foreign languages. It is our assumption that the Hungarian secondary school leavers possess a language at the level of A2-B1-B2-C1 of the Council of Europe standards. It is therefore important to note that the examination requirements of levels A2-B1 need to be redefined, because the Hungarian secondary school leavers' majority is not able to surpass the level of A2 in any foreign language.

This situation is expected to improve through the so-called World-Language Programme, which is designed to offer eligible funding for the schools' foreign language teaching programmes in the framework of competitive calls for proposals. There is an outstanding project entitled “Preparatory language grade”, which offers every secondary grammar and vocational school the possibility to launch a preparatory year for language teaching at grade 9. Pupils are allowed to dedicate 40% of their timeframe (cc.12 lessons/week) to acquire one or two foreign languages. An additional 25% of all classes can be dedicated to ICT skills in the same school year. On completion of this one-year programme pupils are allowed to proceed further according to the normal curriculum. A great number of schools have already applied for this programme (407 secondary schools i.e. 55% of the total). The effectiveness of this programme will be evaluated through questionnaires and the language competences of the pupils will also be surveyed.

2.3.3. Ensuring Basic Human Values in Public Education Through Curricula

In Hungary the “PISA-shock”, which in many countries led to basic new initiatives, had stirred perhaps less storm than elsewhere, but still rose some basic questions. It is evident that the traditional Hungarian educational values, for instance the academically comprehensive training objectives had brought international recognition to the country. However, Hungarian pupils perform rather weakly in those areas of competences that require basic and secure knowledge application tools in international tests. The challenge thus arises that one has to merge national teaching traditions with up-to-date educational requirements. The collected data reflect that the performance of Hungarian pupils strongly depends on their cultural, economic and social background and, furthermore, there are significant differences according to school types as well. One must apply a new approach that weakens social differences through the diminishing of social gaps of opportunity and apply new strategies to strengthen equal opportunities.

There is a quest for content innovation at all levels of public education and this results in a kind of instability and constant inherent movement in the system. The National Core Curriculum (NCC) specifies the main development objectives for education: to develop

• Self-image
• Self-knowledge
• National heritage skills
• European awareness
• Global awareness
• Environmental education
• ICT
• Active learning
• Physical education and mental hygiene
• Preparation for adulthood.

These indicate cross-curricular areas that cannot be easily integrated into traditional school subjects. The following cultural domains constitute the NCC:

• Hungarian language and literature
• Modern foreign language
• Mathematics
• Man and Society
• Man in Nature
• Earth and Environment
• Arts
• ICT
• Life management
• Physical education and sports

The individual cultural domains define the principals and objectives for all development tasks first for grades 1-4 and then by two grades. The internal structure of development tasks focuses on the elaboration of basic competences and the application of every set of skills related to each cultural domain.

NCC is a basic document in the process of the Hungarian public educational reform as its introduction improved

• Curricular developments
• Reshaping the secondary school leaving examination
• Developing a new culture of assessment and evaluation
• Initiating projects for ICT and foreign language learning