Mária Nagy – Júlia Varga

Chapter 7
Teachers

Most of the challenges the teaching profession faced with between 2001 and 2005 had occurred earlier, including the drop in the school-age population, the changes in the composition of secondary school pupils, the poor results of pupils' performance measurements and the vast differences in pupils' achievements as a function of their socio-cultural background. The uninterrupted monitoring of the how schools (and teachers) work and the question of accountability for results have gradually become the focal points of professional attention. The onset of nationwide competence measurements, the introduction of the new secondary school final exam with a view to increasing the transparency and comparability of the work schools perform keep underscoring the question how well-prepared the teachers employed in public education are to be effective in teaching pupils whose composition keeps changing. In 2002, the government increased the basic salary of teachers by 50%, which had a major impact on the earning's position of teachers. The transition to the Bologna system of training through multiple cycles and the radical (but so far only legislative) revamp of teacher training in the new Act on Higher Education have also focussed attention on revaluating the teaching profession and rethinking future tasks. Professional circles have given stronger emphasis than in earlier years to answering the question of what sort of competences teachers should have at various levels, grades and institutions of the school system.

7.1. The features of the teaching profession

7.1.1. Numbers and composition

The number of pupils in public education has been declining in Hungary since 1990. The overall decrease, however, conceals major differences. Although the school-age population has been decreasing the number of pupils in secondary schools has been increasing as a consequence of the major structural changes in secondary education. That is to say, the demand for teachers in primary and vocational education plummeted due to demographic reasons and to the structural changes of secondary education, along with a simultaneous increase in demand for teachers in secondary education. The rate of increase in the number of teachers employed in secondary schools leading to secondary school final certificate was faster than the growth rate of the number of pupils. An overall increase of 11 percentage points in the number of secondary school pupils coincided with a 44 percent increase of the number of teachers between 1990/91 and 2005/06.

Chart 7.1. Changes in the number of teaches and pupils, 1990/91-2005/06 (1990/91=100%)

Source: Calculated by Júlia Varga based on MoE Statistics and the 2004/05 Year Book on Education

International comparison reveals that Hungarian public education employs higher number of teachers than the average. The share of public education teachers in employment is over 4%, which exceeds the average of OECD countries (2.7% in 2001) by far. The ratio of students to teaching staff is lower than the OECD average. That, however, is not because the average class size in Hungarian public education falls short of the international average. Indeed, there is hardly any difference between class size in Hungary and the OECD average – the low student-teacher ratio is mostly due to a higher number of teachers per class.

A further reason for the high share of teachers in employment is the extremely low employment level in Hungary, which falls 10 percentage points short of the OECD average. (See also Chapter 3.)

7.1.2. The composition and stratification of the teaching profession

The distribution of teachers by sex continued to shift in favour of women between 1999 and 2005. The ratio of women to fully qualified teachers increased from 76 to 83 percent in general, from 86 to 87 percent in primary education and from 46.9 percent to 63 percent in secondary education, i.e. the bulk of the increase occurred in secondary education. As the number of teachers in secondary education grew substantially during the period under review, the new shift in the ratio between the sexes means that a teaching career in secondary education has lost its appeal among men. The ratio of women teachers fares high also in international comparison. In 2002, 77.6 percent, 64.7 percent and 50.3 percent of the teachers employed in primary, lower secondary and higher secondary education, respectively, were women in the countries of the OECD.

The distribution of teachers by age was more favourable in Hungary in the early 1990s than in most EU or OECD countries. However, the ratio of teachers in the two youngest cohorts had dropped below the OECD average in primary education by the turn of the millennium. The most likely reason for that must have been the failure of schools to fill their vacancies as the number of pupils diminished or to have vacancies at all, whilst teachers belonging to older cohorts failed to abandon primary education. Aging had been even more pronounced among teachers employed in secondary education up to the early 2000s with the ratio of teachers in the 30-39 year old cohort falling below the OECD average (19% vs. 27%) and the ratio of those over 50 years of age surpassing the average typical of OECD countries (33% vs. 27%). That phenomenon is rendered even more noteworthy as it coincided with the increase in demand for teachers in secondary education, which was not, however, followed by a similar increase in the supply of young teachers. In 2004, on the other hand, the ratio of younger teachers employed in secondary education was up slightly by a few percentage points, most probably due to the rise in basic pay.

The ratio of women is above the average among teachers who are below 29 years of age and are career start-ups, which forecasts the continued increase of feminine dominance in the profession. In secondary institutions, less than a third of the teachers below 30 years of age were men in 2004 and hardly more than one out of ten teachers is a man hired by a primary institution. The number of college graduates is higher than the number of university degree holders among the youngest teachers who have just started their careers. Their ratio continued to increase between 2001 and 2004: in 2001 52% of the teachers aged below 25 and hired by schools offering general education held a college degree, as compared to 71% in 2004.

In 2001 47% of the teachers aged between 25 and 29 were college graduates, as compared to 45% in 2004. In the older generation of teachers over 45 years of age, there is a clear dominance of university graduates employed in secondary education. Some of the younger teachers tend to graduate from university as secondary school teachers later on in their careers. The change in the level of qualification suggests, on the one hand, that teaching as a career has little appeal among university graduates entering the labour market despite the rise in basic salary, and on the other hand that institutions are manoeuvring to compensate for the effect of the pay rise on their budgets by hiring staff with inferior qualification who can be classified in lower salary groups.

7.2. Employment and salaries

Teachers' salaries, working conditions, the rules of employment and teachers' job security are fundamental factors determining the supply of teachers. In Hungary, the vast majority of teaching staff are public employees. In 2004, over 97% of all teachers held a public employee status. Except for France, Hungary is the only EU member state where the ratio of teachers working as public employees surpasses 90%. The high ratio of the public employment of teachers in Hungary is also due to the relatively low proportion of teachers working part time: the ratio of part time teachers was below 10% of the total teaching staff in public education in 2004. Teaching part time is the scantiest in general school education (7.9%), and is only slightly higher (12%) among secondary school teachers. In contrast, the average number of part-time teaching staff employed in the member countries of the EU is about twice as high with close to 20% of the teachers employed in public education working part time.

7.2.1. Changes in the salaries of teachers employed in public education

The increase of the basic salary of public employees in 2002 had a major impact on the relative earnings position of teachers.

Chart 7.2. Salaries of fully qualified general and secondary school teachers in proportion to the average salary of employees with a college or university degree, 1989–2004 (%)

Source: Calculations by Júlia Varga from the wage rate studies of the Public Employment Service

The relative income position of teachers kept deteriorating each year between 1992 and 1998, except for a single year. Conditions improved between 1998 and 2000, but the salary of teachers in public employment rose only to half of the national average of the salaries of degree holders despite the improvement. The rise in basic salary in 2002 brought the payment of qualified teachers employed in general education to 80 percent of the average pay of degree holders, whilst the salaries of qualified teachers employed in secondary institutions surpassed the average income of degree holders. By 2004, teachers' salaries as compared to the salaries of degree holders had by and large replicated the levels seen in 1989.

The degree of improvement varied across various teacher groups as a result of the wage regime applicable to public employees, which calls for a steady increase of basic pay with the advancement of age. A comparison of degree holders with identical years of experience and qualification reveals that the difference between the level of income of degree holders employed as qualified teachers in education and elsewhere in the national economy was the largest and shows the steepest increase during the first ten years of their careers. The wage backlog of teachers was substantially larger among university graduates, particularly among men. In 2001, the average salary of a male university degree holder in his first job was more than double that paid to a teacher with a university degree in his first teaching job, but ten years into their career degree holding male employees made three times as much money as teachers with a university degree. The salary gap of employees with 10–20 years of experience was much less pronounced, whilst the difference in the pay of staff with 20–30 years of experience was the smallest, i.e. roughly twofold. Although the basic pay rise has closed some of the wage gap of teachers in their first teaching job or at the beginning of their careers, it has failed to eliminate age specific features of the wage backlog of teachers. Opting to work in public education continued to impose the heaviest financial losses on male degree holders starting their careers even after the rise in basic pay. Although the remuneration of degree holders employed in their first teaching job and other graduates from higher education diminished substantially, degree-holding men employed in jobs other than teaching earn twice as much as teachers with an identical degree by the 10-12th year of service. The basic pay rise was more favourable when judged from the income position of teachers with a college degree, especially women and it managed to minimise the wage loss of college graduate female teachers with 15-20 years of work experience. The uniform increase of basic salary can therefore only exert a moderate effect on the capacity of public education to attract and retain teachers starting a career.

7.3. Teacher training

7.3.1. The number of students in teacher training

The number of teacher trainees started to grow in tandem with higher education after 1990, but the rate of growth was much slower than the speed at which enrolment in higher education expanded in general. The total number of teacher trainees started to drop after 1998.

Chart 7.3. Distribution of day course teacher trainees by level and specialization, 1990/91–2004/05 (thousands)

Source: Calculations by Magdolna S. Faragó based on National Enrolment Office data

7.3.2. Characteristics of teacher training applicants

The changes in the number of teacher training candidates show a reduction in the ratio of secondary school leaving certificate holders attracted by the teaching profession. Starting 1995, when candidates first had the option to seek enrolment in several institutions of higher education, the number of applicants identifying institutions for pre-school, primary and lower secondary school teachers as their first choice plummeted along with a reduction of the number of applicants marking humanities and science faculties as their first choice. The reduction of the number of first choice applications suggests that the number of applicants seeking a teaching career keeps diminishing and the decision to mark teacher training as a potential form of higher education is motivated by the likelihood of entry. As the number of students in higher education as a whole tripled in the same period, potential students are more likely to get enrolled in institutions not engaged in teacher training. Consequently, one may conclude that applicants enrolled as trainee teachers may have different abilities and other characteristics than applicants seeking to study other disciplines.

The results of a survey of the social background, welfare circumstances, educational attainment, labour market expectations and other features of the holders of secondary school leaving certificates indicate that teacher training is an option for secondary school pupils with poorer scores of secondary education and inferior labour market opportunities as holder of a certificate of secondary education. The extremely high proportion of women among applicants applying for a teacher training course suggests that pre-school, general school and secondary school teacher trainees expect to earn less and think their chances to get a job would be limited if they had no qualification other than a secondary school leaving certificate. Men are significantly less likely to choose teacher training courses offering a university degree than women. The differences of ability do not play a role in selecting a university level teacher training course, which tends to be preferred choice of individuals who decide to carry on with their education even if the resulting income is inferior. Those who continue learning most probably conceive their choice as a component of a longer term “learning program”, as they attach a significantly higher likelihood to studying at day course level even after the required term of education. Neither the social nor the societal circumstances of a holder of a certificate of secondary education influences the probability of opting to participate in teacher training at college or university level, provided the effects of all other factors are eliminated.

7.3.3. Factors determining the transition from teacher training to public education

The results of studies of the job placement of young graduates reveal that 38% of the graduates of pre-school and primary education teacher training colleges , 60% of the graduates of lower secondary education teacher training colleges, 63% of the graduates with a degree in education obtained at the science faculty of a university and 60% of those graduating from the humanities faculty of a university find a position other than a teaching job after graduation. Even fewer men with a degree in education tend to choose a teaching job. Studies show that the likelihood of selecting teaching as a career seems to depend on the difference in the potential income of a teaching job versus a non-teaching job and the necessary working hours one associated with a teaching job versus a non-teaching job. The fact that a larger proportion of college graduates end up in teaching jobs does not emanate from the level and direction of training but rather from the inferior income gain that this group can expect in a non-teaching job.

7.3.4. The current structure and institutions of training

Teacher training is now subject to a radical revamp as a result of the transition to the Bologna regime of training in two cycles. The old and the new systems will continue to operate back-to-back simultaneously for some time, as the new structure is rolled out progressively in an ascending manner. The current structure of teacher training is complicated, fragmented and its components often lack coherence. Teacher training is operated in a dualistic structure, with some of the branches offering college level education only without direct downstream access to university training. Both colleges and universities offer training courses for subject teachers. Training in various disciplines and in education mostly runs parallel (concurrent model) and occasionally units are arranged stepwise (consecutive model). Some teacher training courses only offer a degree in teaching, others offer an additional degree other than teaching. Some of the disciplines require students to major in two subjects, others do not. The duration of training is between 3-5 years. A 1997 government decree setting forth the minimum requirements of degrees in teaching aimed at creating uniformity of content in the past decade, but it was not geared to eliminating the anomalies of the structure of disciplines, financing and organization. The supply side of teacher training shows signs of institutional fragmentation. There are 33 higher education institutions with teacher training programs, but neither of them maintains a pure teacher training profile and not one of them covers all the branches of teacher training. Some institutions offer no more than a single teacher training course, whilst others list 25-30. With a single exception, there is no unit of organization responsible for coordinating teacher training within the institutions. Teacher training is normally conducted by a variety of faculties organized around a professional training discipline and is assigned to a department of education operated as part of the faculty.

A study conducted by the OECD confirmed Hungarian surveys and analyses by pointing out that Hungary trains too many teachers most of who are not employed in teaching jobs, training is inflexible and students have to decide whether they choose teacher training very early as soon as they enter their institute of higher education. Teacher training institutions do not follow up the careers of their graduates and how they fare in their chosen profession.

7.3.5. Changes in teacher training

The new structure of teacher training will evolve during the reform of higher education and the transition to the ‘Bologna cycles' of training. The Teacher Training Sub-Committee of the National Bologna Committee played a crucial role in developing the reform and its recommendations have been incorporated into the new Act on Higher Education. The new act departs from the traditions set by earlier legislation in that it includes a definition of teacher training as well as specific provisions focussing exclusively on the training of teachers.

Specific provisions about teacher training in the new Act on Higher Education

• A higher education institution engaged in teacher training may maintain, and cooperate with, a public education institution;
• Students attend practical training at public education institutions,
• Higher education institutions engaged in teacher training cooperate in in-service teacher training and in research into education,
• Relying on the teacher training institutions of higher education, the minister of education sets up and operates a network of regional service providers and research units for modernizing teacher training and organizes the performance of the national duties related to the provision of services and research in the training and professional upgrading of teachers.
• If several units of a higher education institution engage in teacher training, a unit in the organization responsible for coordinating teacher training across the institution must be specified and/or set up.
• A teacher's degree can only be awarded to graduates of a master's course after having completed their uninterrupted teaching practice.

In the future, teachers – with a few exceptions mentioned below – will be uniformly trained within the framework of master courses in education. The first cycle will provide basically professional knowledge associated with the given discipline with only a few orientation courses in teaching. The second cycle will allow undergraduates to elect other master's courses that correspond to the discipline of basic training; i.e. undergraduates not wishing to become teachers may decide against a teaching career at this stage. Three areas, namely primary education and pre-school teacher training, the training of teachers of children with special needs and the training of vocational school instructors will offer basic qualification awarded in the first cycle as well as a teacher's degree. Worth 150 credits, a master's course in teacher training assigns substantially more time to acquiring and practicing teaching competences, and offer more serious training to help trainees master subject methodology. Introducing a single master's course in teaching to replace the former, alternatively structured teacher training courses serves to promote the transparency of training, while keeping the former structure of disciplines. Transparency and unambiguous structure will help do away with the former anomalies of financing and will also help promote planning the number of publicly funded trainees.

Promoting the regulation of special accreditation based on the characteristics of teacher training is one of the ways the new Act intends to improve the quality of training. It envisages the establishment of a Teacher Training Board as part of the National Accreditation Committee of Higher Education with powers to determine the conditions precedent to offering a teacher training course and quality control. To achieve the same end, the Act assigns the responsibility for national and regional service provision and research and the development of the necessary system of institutions to the Minister of Education.

The development of the content of teacher training will be driven first of all by the definition of the outcome requirements of training. Subjecting the development of content and methodology to outcome requirements is mostly alien to the present-day practice of Hungarian teacher training, but Hungary has already taken the first steps by defining the competences that are/can be expected of teachers.

7.4. Continuous development of the teaching profession

The reform of the system of in-service training for teachers preceded the reform of teacher training by almost a decade. The system of in-service training wished to build in-service teacher training on the actual needs of schools and teaching and granted the right to teachers and schools to ‘order' services. This market driven approach, however, neglected quality aspects. As the process is modelled after market logics, it would need reliable information and a system of process evaluation, which are missing components of the system. To ensure that in-service training programmes operate efficiently and effectively, regular and continuous feedback is required from teachers so as to lay the foundations for future professional upgrading.

The introduction of mandatory in-service training in every seventh year has made the system mechanical. According to research data teachers prefer choosing training courses that offer additional qualifications and promise a wage increase even if that is not the wisest way to spend the available training funds from the school's perspective. The regulation also ensures that Hungarian schools have both the time allotment and the funds for in-service training. At the same time, the ratio of participation falls short of the OECD average (30% in Hungary and 48% on average in OECD countries) and there are also differences in training content. The rate of participation of Hungarian teachers in certain types of in-service training (such as conferences, training courses offering a degree and dialogues with each other) exceeds the international average, but the types of training courses that have the heaviest impact on daily practices and motivate teachers to introduce efficient innovations at school or classroom level (such as visiting lessons at other schools, participation in professional network or R&D activity and contancting external partners) are less popular.