2.4. Quality Education and the Key Position of Teachers

The UNESCO-ICE declaration points out that pupils' performance depends first of all on the quality of the teacher. It follows from this that it is an elementary interest of every education system to recruit the best teachers and to keep them in the profession. The following chapters give an overview about the available tools for the Hungarian educational administration to support quality education for all pupils through managing the assets embodied by the teaching community.

2.4.1. The Position and Role of Teachers

The expansion of secondary schooling in Hungary posed a great challenge for teachers. A great number of pupils appeared in secondary grammar and especially vocational training schools, the education of whom required radically new methods of teaching. Quality education depends to a large extent on teachers' capacity to adapt to the changing requirements. In the following, this paper describes the conditions, which are necessary to ensure suitably qualified teachers for all pupils and the related optional and necessary administrative tools.

Working conditions. The individual education systems of the various countries may vary according to the demand for suitably qualified teachers.Hungary's education system requires a high number of teachers. Its reasons include the 18-year limit of compulsory education since 1996, the relatively low compulsory teaching hours and the extensive out-of-school educational services. (Table 13.) This high level of teacher supply is ensured for the time being and since the last few years have witnessed a decline in the school-going population and a fall in births, the ratio of pupils and teachers have improved.

Table 13.
Annual Teaching Hours* in OECD-countries, 2000

Country	ISCED 1	ISCED 2	ISCED 3
Australia	882	811	803
Austria	684	658	623
Czech Republic	650	650	621
Denmark	640	640	560
United States	1139	1127	1121
Finland	656	570	527
Greece	780	629	629
Holland	930	867	867
Ireland	915	735	735
Iceland	629	629	464
Japan	635	557	478
Korea	829	565	545
Hungary	583	555	555
Germany	783	732	690
Spain	880	564	548
Switzerland	884	859	674
Turkey	639	n.a.	504
New Zealand	985	968	950
Average	792	720	648

* calculated as 60 minutes
Source: Education at a Glance, 2002

Due to low birth rates, the school-age population per teacher has been decreasing since the mid-1990s. While the number of teachers basically remained the same between 1990 and 2001, the number of students dropped by more than 10%. (Report 2003…)

It is a pre-condition for successful education that classrooms, schools must not be overcrowded. In small classes teachers are able to provide individually diversified tuition, which is indispensable to combat school failure. This is essential for the socially disadvantaged pupils and those with learning difficulties. Nevertheless, one also must bear in mind that small class-sizes may undermine the financial efficiency of the school system, thereby potentially weakening quality as well.

The fact that there has been very little change in the number of teachers does not necessarily mean stability: some significant changes have taken place at various levels of the education system reflecting the fluctuations in the number of pupils. General schools and technical schools have lost considerable number of pupils, while secondary grammar and vocational schools have expanded significantly. (Fig. 7.)

Figure 7.
Changes in the number of teachers and pupils according to types of institutions, 1990/91-2001/02 (1990/91=100%)

Source: Report… 2003.

The current high number of teachers may indicate patchy ?over-employment, nevertheless Hungary does not yet face the typical Western European phenomenon –  the lack of teaching work force.

There are certain regions (e.g. disadvantaged areas, small settlements) and specific domains of teaching (e.g. foreign languages), where there is a shortage of qualified teachers. (Imre 2004). The market for the teaching profession is relatively full, the average age of teachers is increasing and fresh graduates have difficulties to find vacancies. (Table 14.).

Compared to other professions, there is a high percentage of active teachers over 60, which hinders access to newcomers. Nevertheless, ageing is not an issue to the Western European extent. (Report… 2003)

Table 14.
Average age of qualified teachers, 1989-2001

Year	Primary education	Secondary education	Public education total
1989	37.2	40.5	38.1
1992	38.7	41.9	39.6
1994	38.4	40.8	39.0
1995	38.6	41.4	39.4
1996	38.7	41.7	39.6
1997	39.5	41.9	39.9
1998	39.2	41.7	39.8
1999	40.2	42.5	40.7
2000	40.4	43.1	41.0
2001	41.0	43.1	41.5

Source: Report 2003.

Wages. Most public educational institutions went under the maintenance of local government in 1989 and this meant the creation of civil servant status for all teachers. This basically defines the wages and working conditions of teachers.

In 1990s Hungary had to face radical cuts in the field of public expenditure, which resulted in massive waves of dismissals and the stagnation of wages. Wages are determined by the regulations of public employment and therefore for a long time they did not reach the level of Hungarian average income. This was strengthened by the trend that teachers were not dismissed to the extent as other public employees were and the number of teachers remained high, whereas the real income level dropped significantly. This became a sensitive issue in the entire education system because no high quality work can be expected for low payment and a strong level of contraselection was also noticeable in the teaching profession. Opinion polls reveal that those who think that teachers are underpaid also think that the level of education is deteriorating. (Report 2003)

The situation was somewhat improved by a 50% pay rise in the autumn of 2002, that still does not attract well qualified young graduates to the teaching profession. (Report 2003)

Human-resource management is carried out in the Hungarian public education primarily at school level: headmasters and maintainers frequently find alternative solutions to increase their teachers' wages, especially if they are satisfied with their performance. For instance, if there is an unfilled position at the school and there is no opening published, wages can be raised as extra delivery charge, delegating further income to well-performing teachers. The amendment of the Act on Public Education in 2003 legitimises these procedures.

Training: The development of teachers' performance is inconceivable without appropriate in-service training. Quality education requires well-qualified teachers. Social demand for teachers is constantly growing, which is due to the needs of mass education and the challenge of a number of new tasks in teaching. The transformation and decentralisation of public education means the growth of autonomy, which puts new burden on teachers. They have to learn to adopt new pedagogical programmes, to develop new curricula, quality assurance systems, etc. These activities must be learnt in the framework of continuous training.

Public regulations also require financial subsidies. School headmasters must elaborate five-year in-service training plan for the staff, approved by the teaching staff and supplemented by an annual schooling plan. The annual in-service training plan ensures that all members of the teaching staff are enrolled in a 120-hour training programme in the period of seven years. The compulsory in-service training can also be done in separate blocks. These trainings serve the renewal of pedagogical skills and competences in order to develop the professional quality of teachers.

In 1997, a new, coherent system of in-service training was introduced. Besides passing the necessary regulations and developing the financial support scheme, an institution responsible for providing professional support was established (Methodology and Information Centre for In-service Teacher Training), along with a professional body responsible for quality assurance (Accreditation Board of In-Service Training). The educational administration became responsible for the continuous monitoring of the system of in-service teacher training required by the law.

In-service teacher training has been profoundly reformed in terms of institutional, legislative and human resource aspects. The 1990s witnessed the expansion of tertiary education including teacher training. Between 1990-1998 the number of trainees rose but their proportional weight fell. (Fig. 8)

Beyond these structural changes one can observe new stresses within the number of university-based teacher training courses: the number of college-based teacher trainees falls constantly. Hungary is characterised by the paradox that the majority of teacher trainees do not want to work as teachers and even if they wanted there is no vacancies for them. (Report 2003)

Evaluating teachers In Hungarian public education, the assessment of teachers' performance is the task of headmasters. Since the destruction of the inspectorate in 1985, there is no external control in this field. If the director wants to use expert support it must be bought as a service. Therefore, institutional level responsibility in the assessment of teachers is high. The regulation of local teacher performance assessment is a compulsory element of the local pedagogical programme, but its contents are not regulated. The range of tools and resources to recognise quality work is very limited with the exception of quality performance payment. The budget allocation for this was doubled in 2004 but its real value is still symbolic.

Figure 8.
Proportion of enrolled students in mainstream (full-time) initial teacher training, 1990/91-2002/03 (in 1000s)

Source: Report… 2003

2.4.2. Regulating Quality in Education

In Hungary, the school as an organisation is responsible for the quality of education and it receives considerable support from the educational administration. The following chapters shall give an overview of the range of tools that support the quality work of teachers.

2.4.2.1. Regulating Educational Content

Quality in education is first of all established by the content regulation framework. Curricular requirements are set by the National Core Curriculum, which has been revised in 2003 and the amended version took effect as of 1^st September 2004. The most important new element is that compulsory schooling has been expanded up to age 18 and common content regulation is now in force for all 12 grades. It is important to note that the new regulations define pupil development as a key objective for education, which diminishes the importance of pure lexical knowledge-transfer. NCC is a strategic document, published and approved by the government and forms the basis of the emerging three-level content regulation framework.

The second level of content regulation offers curricular and methodological support as well. A wide range of optional frame curricula and various educational programmes provide continuous supply for alternative curricular resources and ensure that the NCC principles and objectives may be integrated into the third level of content management – the local curricula.

The Ministry of Education has established a new background institution to elaborate the above set of content regulation documents. The overview of the NCC goes together with the revision of local curricula in order to help schools to re-consider their development strategies in line with the demand of their local environment with a view to improving the quality of their services.

Textbooks also have an important function as they transfer the body of knowledge to be learnt to both pupils and teachers. It is therefore very important to ensure the suitable quality of textbooks on the market. In 2001 a new act regulated the textbook-market and it stipulates that textbook provision is a public service, which serves the constitutional right of access to education for all citizens. The minister of education regulates the status of textbooks and the accreditation procedures include monitoring, follow-up tests from practical pedagogical viewpoints. Quality assurance is also guaranteed by law and the minister of education must issue an official annual list of textbooks. Publishers can apply for being on the official textbook list if the meet the official requirements.

Examination criteria also serve the quality of education and they have central significance in determining the effectiveness of public education. Although the primary function of these procedures is the evaluation of pupils' individual learning performance they also provide important feedback about the quality and performance of a given institution or the entire education system. The reformed, new secondary school leaving examination shall first be passed by candidates in 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.)

2.4.2.2. Assessing pupils' performance

Pupils' performance assessments are basically designed to convey important feedback to the educational decision-makers both in Hungary and internationally. It is important to be aware of the effectiveness or lack of effectiveness of education and to possess a reliable set of indicators as they provide invaluable quality assurance tools for the entire education system.

The knowledge of the results of education enhances the capacity to improve the quality of education. The National Competence Assessment Survey contributes to this process by providing a school-based software to interpret the achievements and performance of the pupils. With the aid of this software all results can be analysed at class-level and at individual level as well in comparison to others. This provides great potentials for teachers to improve quality – it is up to individual teachers to make use of this tool.

2.4.2.3. Supporting institutional quality assurance

Another important safeguard to develop and ensure quality is the establishment of supporting institutional-level quality assurance frameworks. The institution-level quality assurance is based on the assumption that the satisfaction of stakeholders is a reliable indicator. The issue of quality assurance became a dominant area of Hungarian public educational policies in the 1990s. Part of the reasons behind it is that decentralisation in the education system required new solutions for quality management, which were entirely new compared to the former centralised system.

Monitoring, assessment and quality assurance all became important concepts of the amended Act on Public Education in 1999. The Ministry of Education launched Comenius 2000, a development programme to meet its objectives targeted in the field of quality assurance. The set-up of a local (institution-level) quality assurance system was heavily subsidised with the aim to provide satisfactory services that would meet local social needs.

The Ministry of Education set up a special task force (Comenius 2000 Programme Office) to supervise, co-ordinate and manage all major activities in the field of quality assurance.

The minister of education has issued a decree on public educational quality assurance covering the entire sector of public educational institutions with the view to determine the related tasks and establishing the Award for Quality in Public Education. The decree stipulates that all public educational institutions must carry out a continuous effort on self-evaluation and quality management. This work is supported by a national centre for assessment and examinations through the provision of professional services (training, methodological tools, the compilation of expert lists etc.)

The decree also stipulates that every school year must focus on certain particular surveys and assessment projects, defined by the annual ministerial decree on the organisation of the school year.

2.4.2.4. Assessing institutions

The external and self-evaluation of schools is an exceptionally important device of assuring quality and effectiveness. In Hungary the task of carrying out regular external evaluations (compliant with the procedural regulations of the operation, management, educational supervision) is the responsibility of the maintainer. The schools and maintainers can choose evaluation specialists from the “National Expert List”. (since 1993). Unfortunately, reliably operating methods and procedures for assuring and continuously monitoring the quality of education in the current decentralised institutional structure have not yet been developed. This is equally true concerning the external evaluation of schools: there is no guarantee that there will be regular institutional evaluations conducted in every school according to professional standards, and that, based on its results, the appropriate measures will be taken at the school or maintainer level. Although since the 2003 amendment of the Act on Public Education it is compulsory to conduct institutional assessment every four years, there is no real institutional supervision over the local governments educational services. It is characteristic of the nature of evaluation and supervision that according to a 1999 survey, 87% of the evaluation of school maintainers focused on the observance of economic and managerial regulations, 78% on the observance of legal provisions, and only 38% evaluated educational work from a professional point of view. Local governments often use the instruments of evaluation and supervision without real commitment to professional development. It seems that some of the school-maintaining local governments conducted evaluations merely to fulfil their legal obligations. According to a 2001-2002 survey, involving 507 general school maintainers, 390 (76.8%) conducted pedagogical assessments between 1996 and 2001 in at least one of their schools.

2.4.3. Teacher training and the ongoing development of the teaching profession

On the threshold of the new millennium the paradigm of lifelong learning means continuous (self)-development, in which graduation from a teacher training institute is not an end but a stage in a life-long-learning process. In this respect, patterns are similar in other professions as well, nevertheless, here one may observe the emergence of new institutional frameworks, new training methods and the emerging alternative professional role-models are shaped at all levels of professional development. There is a great emphasis on feedback and monitoring, which are co-ordinated by the educational administration reflecting the shifts in the definition and practice of the teaching profession. Teachers of 21^st century are expected to develop their own tailor-made career-paths as independently working intellectuals, who have an increased responsibility in the European education systems, which reaches far beyond the traditional classroom management.

Although the paradigm of teachers' in-service training as continuous (self)-development, in a life-long-learning process is still a vision rather than reality in most education systems, it is an objective with great impact on educational reforms everywhere.

170 000 active teachers constitute the largest potential stakeholders of in-service teacher training programmes in the process of LLL. Students in initial teacher training constitute a relatively small group (in 2002/2003: cc. 37 500 full-time students). The number of beginners in the teaching profession stagnates at 0.4-2.6% of the total teaching profession. (Report 2003).

Table 15.
Changes in the number of teachers according to types of institutions, 1990/91, 1997/98–2001/02

School year	Kindergarten	General school	Secondary grammar school	Secondary vocational school	Technical school	Special vocational training school
1990/91	33 635	96 791	10 246	12 656	12 906	127
1997/98	31 848	89 238	13 669	17 096	9 339	476
1998/99	32 235	89 570	14 021	17 831	8 777	462
1999/00	31 653	89 424	14 415	18 430	8 350	468
2000/01	32 000	89 750	15 550	18 950	8 150	575
2001/02	32 327	90 294	16 845	19 450	7 982	801

Source: Report… 2003

One of the advantages of this initiative, is that it requires the co-operation of all stakeholders including teachers, head teachers, maintainers, and in-service training providers. Additionally, this initiative requires continuous self-reflection and correction as well. These reforms are in line with international trends, and teachers are increasingly expected to be able to plan ahead their career paths and their own selection of required new teaching competences. At the same time, the macro-systems of teacher training must be able to offer flexible means of lifelong learning opportunities and monitoring as well as quality assurance solutions. (Report 2003)