8. Changes in the curricula

Up until 1993, a national standard curriculum (syllabus) was in force for basic and secondary education. The application of individual `forms' was first authorised by the Education Act of 1985. As a result, by the early 1990s school education had become diverse: a so-called `two-tier' model, had gradually emerged linking central and local curricular regulation. In order to preserve the advantages of both, it combined the `national', `basic', `core' or `frame' curriculum with the local ones created by school decision.

From the 1980s on, the era of the modernisation of the local curricula was followed by that of individual school experiments and of curricular development. Alternative views gained ground, and had an impact on the first version of the National Core Curriculum, conceptualised from the early 1990s. All this gave birth to changes in two major fields. On the one hand, it broke the centralised, one-sided development and curricular regulation. On the other hand, it stressed local school curricula and considered as its main duty the elaboration of a theoretical framework for them.

The late 1980s saw a mushrooming of experiments on the curriculum. In the early 1990s, the new type of general secondary school of 6 or 8 grades applied a new curriculum, different from the regular one.

Experiments are run in vocational education as well. One of the most promising ones is a World Bank project developed in secondary vocational schools. It harmonises with the spirit of the new Acts, since it introduces the ten-grade basic education by shifting strict vocational education to the eleventh grade and, besides general education, only orientation-giving curriculum is taught in the ninth and tenth grades. In the eleventh and twelfth grades, students in 13 professions are given, in addition to the preparation for the matriculation exam, a broad basic training, and they are specialised in the thirteenth and fourteenth grades only. 61 vocational secondary schools entered the programme initially, and 21 followed later. Now the number of the secondary vocational schools using this model amounts to 150.

The other development programme in vocational education is taking place in the field of handicraftsmen's trades and is managed by the National Association of Artisans and the National Institute of Vocational Education. A curriculum documentation has been made for 8 trades (such as motor mechanic or hairdresser). Today there are more than 80 so-called IPOSZ classes (IPOSZ is the National Union of Self-Employed Handicraftsmen), and an estimated number of 35,000 apprentices are being trained in crafts.

The curricular regulation of the Education Act of 1993 brought about major changes by adjusting regulation to the independence of schools and introducing a two-level curricular regulation. The essence of the latter is that the NCC is not a curriculum in the traditional sense of the word, but a foundation upon which local curricula and educational programmes can be built.

The National Core Curriculum will simultaneously be introduced on all levels of school education from 1 September 1998 at grades 1 and 7 in an upward moving mechanism. The NCC establishes common educational objectives compulsory for grades 1-10 in every school in Hungary. The NCC gives a framework to, and a basis for, the elaboration of detailed curricula and the contents of subject matters. This basic document aims at promoting the indispensable unity of contents as well as at allowing students to transfer to a different type of school. The NCC establishes unified objectives that, under normal circumstances, can be met in 50 to 70 per cent of the time frame allotted to the different levels of school education by the Education Act. It formulates the contents and objectives according to 10 comprehensive study areas instead of the usual school subjects. The areas are:

The document enables schools to choose, establish and group their subject matters individually.

The NCC does not determine objectives for each grade, but lays down the stages of the objectives to be met by the time students finish certain grades. The comprehensive and general objectives of the study areas, in accordance with the age characteristics and the educational stages of the teaching-learning process, will be met in the finishing grades 6 and 10. At the same time, the detailed objectives will be fulfilled on accomplishing grades 4 and 6 as well as 8 and 10.

The most important exam that regulates education is the matriculation examination. The requirements of the NCC concern grades 1-10. The control for the subsequent grades will be the matriculation examination and/or the vocational examination. The system of matriculation examination can have two levels, an advanced one for those who wish to continue their studies in a higher educational institution, and another normal one for those who do not. The advanced matriculation examination should serve as an entrance examination to higher education as well.

According to the Education Act, the schools should have an educational programme of their own that includes the local curriculum as well. The educational programme must be approved by the maintainer.

The textbooks have a tremendous role in transmitting values, skills and contents. By the end of the 1980s, the financing of textbooks from central resources had become unmanageable. The obligation of the state to provide textbooks for the students was abolished, which made the way to the development of a free market in schoolbooks. The prices of the books increased rapidly, although the central subsidy per student was fixed at a small amount (HUF 860) in 1994 and in 1995. This amount can be spent on textbooks featuring on the official list, and can be distributed among students in accordance with their needs. Since the price of the textbooks needed at grade 1 in primary education was HUF 3,000 and in secondary education HUF 4,000 (it sometimes could even amount to HUF 10,000) on average, in spite of the support by the municipalities, the burden of parents has risen sharply. Now 60% of the costs of the schoolbooks are covered by the parents.

More than half of the textbooks are still published by the state-owned National Publishing House of Schoolbooks. The number of private publishing houses producing school books keeps increasing (see Figure 8.1).