Chapter 10
Education and public opinion

10.1. Satisfaction with education

In 2005 the level of satisfaction with education was worse than in 2002: respondents rated the performance of public education to 57 on a scale of 100 as opposed to 64 three years earlier.

Table 10.1. Level of satisfaction of the Hungarian adult population regarding various public services, 1990-2005 (on a 100-grade scale)

Source: Education-related opinion polls between 1990 and 2005
Question: I am going to enumerate different public services. Please rate each of them with the marks used in schools, from 1 to 5, showing how satisfied or dissatisfied you are with these services in Hungary today. 1 means you are highly dissatisfied, and 5 means you are highly satisfied.

In 2005 the rate of respondents who thought the standard of education had improved compared to 2002 was much lower, and the proportion of those who thought it had deteriorated or not changed was much higher.

Table 10.2. Changes in the opinions about education, 1990-2005 (on a 100-grade scale)

Source: Education-related opinion polls between 1990 and 2005
Question: I am going to enumerate different public services. Please rate each of them with the marks used in schools, from 1 to 5, showing how satisfied or dissatisfied you are with these services in Hungary today. 1 means you are highly dissatisfied, and 5 means you are highly satisfied.

Respondents with higher education attainment and those who are better informed about public education tend to be less satisfied. The rate of those who have an opinion on educational issues is significantly higher among respondents who heard about the PISA study, and although their opinion tends to be critical, it shows an increasing consumer awareness and interest in the new educational policy measures even among groups with lower educational attainment. Almost one in every three respondents above 18 heard of the PISA study.

The public continues to see education as one of the most important functions of the state. When asked how they would distribute 1000 forints among different public tasks respondents allocated the second highest amount to education (together with social provisions) after health care.

Asked which stakeholders of education people consider responsible for the quality of education, people predominantly named the central educational administration and seem to be less aware of the importance of the local maintainer and the institutional level, whereas this is where actual decisions are taken. Most respondents thought the number one responsible stakeholder was the Ministry of Education (average of 4.57 on a five-grade scale), followed by teachers (4.33), schools (4.27), local governments (3.93), and other maintaining entities (3.64). At the same time 60% of the respondents were rather satisfied, and 20% were rather dissatisfied with the educational policy of their local government. This indicates that the public tends to underrate local governments' role in public services in general compared to personal experience.

10.2. Satisfaction with schools

Respondents have become critical of teachers' work: in 2005 they tended to rate teachers' preparedness, teacher-student relationship and evaluation of students by teachers more negatively than four years earlier.

Table 10.3. Level of satisfaction of the Hungarian adult population regarding various school characteristics, 1999, 2002 and 2005 (on a 100-grade scale)

Source: Education-related opinion polls 1990, 2002 and 2005
Question: How satisfied are you with the following aspects of Hungarian schools? Please again rate each of them with the marks used in schools, from 1 to 5. 1 means you are highly dissatisfied, and 5 means you are highly satisfied.

The change in public opinion regarding teachers' work is shown by a significant increase in the rate of those who are aware that teaching requires professionalism and can only be done successfully by highly trained teachers (from 61% to 72%). Opinions regarding teachers' salaries have also changed, probably in the wake of the salary increase in the public sector: only 42% consider teachers underpaid as opposed to 53% earlier.

10.3. Enrolment and further studies

There has been a shift in the assessment of free choice of schools. In 2002, 84% of respondents agreed that parents should have the right to enrol their children to the school they considered best; in 2005 only 75% held this view.

In 2005 as in previous years, the majority of people would send their children to secondary school at the age of 14. Since the mid-1990s there has been a steady decrease in the number of those who think secondary school should be started at an early age (10 years, in eight-grade secondary schools), in the same period the number of those who think children should start secondary school at the age of 12 (in six-grade secondary schools) have increased. Apparently 52% of the population share the view that brighter children should be able to start secondary school at an earlier age. Two-thirds of respondents with at least secondary education are of this opinion; the level of acceptance is much lower (36%) among those with lower education attainment.

Surprisingly, vocational training schools were a more popular choice for further studies in 2005 than in 2002. According to the opinion poll at the end of 2005, 20% of the adult population consider this educational programme to be the most promising, the same proportion as those who advocate for the general secondary school. Nevertheless, with 43% vocational secondary schools continue to be the most popular.

Chart 10.1. Public opinion about the most attractive type of secondary school, 1999, 2002 and 2005 (%)

Source: Education-related opinion polls 1990, 2002 and 2005
Question: In which type of school do you think children should continue their studies today?

Differences in the assessment of the various education programmes are apparently due to educational attainment rather than personal involvement. The higher respondents' level of schooling, the more likely they favour general secondary schools and find vocational training schools the least attractive choice. On the other hand, the rate of those who could not choose was exceptionally high among respondents with high educational attainment. While fewer and fewer people think it makes no difference where a child continues to study, people with higher levels of schooling are increasingly aware that it is not necessarily the type of school but the quality of education it provides that is decisive. In terms of respondents' residence, there is no difference as regards preference for vocational secondary schools but city dwellers, including Budapest inhabitants, find the general secondary school a more attractive option, while village people favour vocational training schools.

10.4. Public demands regarding education

The most important expectation from schools has been the teaching of the mother tongue. Foreign language teaching has moved up on the scale of expectations over the years, and development of communication and cooperation skills have also become increasingly important for public opinion. Similarly, providing young people with a trade has become a much more important expectation than before, and traditional values such as education in morality, love of the homeland, familiarization with national traditions and transfer of scientific knowledge have become less important.

Table 10.4. Demands of the public regarding the duties of schools and their changes between 1990 and 2005

Source: Education-related opinion polls 1990 and 2005
Question: “These cards show the tasks and activities of schools. Please sort them in three groups. The first group should contain those you don't think are important, the second group should contain those you think are somewhat important, and the third group should contain those you think are very important.”

10.5. Mainstreaming of Roma children

Public opinion is highly divided over the question of integrated education of Roma and non-Roma children. Only a third of the people consider integration to be advantageous for both the majority and the minority society.

Table 10.5. Opinions about the integrated education of Roma and non-Roma children, 2005 (N=923)

Source: Education-related opinion polls, 2005
Question: If Roma and non-Roma children go to the same class do you think …?

This is a serious obstacle in the way of integration policies. Almost one-third of the population thinks integration is only advantageous for the Roma and more disadvantageous for the non-Roma, and even more think integrated education has disadvantages for everybody. Respondents are probably of the opinion that in schools with a large number of Roma children the quality of education is poorer. An earlier survey underscored this finding, whereby a competitive solution also attractive to the non-Roma population would be to provide better facilities for schools integrating Roma and non-Roma children, thus the education services extended by these integrated schools would be superior compared to average institutions with only sporadic Roma children. If this were the case at least twice as many parents would opt for the integrated school, which means school choice is motivated more by the desired quality of services than the ethnic provenance of pupils.