Judit Keller – György Mártonfi

Chapter 9
Inequalities and special needs in Education

International literature reviews consider educational inequalities a result of complex social mechanisms displayed by qualitative differences between schools and parents' socio-economic background. To redress educational inequalities, they recommend establishing equity measures in education that encourage pupils to develop their skills according to individual capacities and talent upon their own choices. In Hungary educational inequalities came only gradually in the focus of policy making and public thinking by the late nineties. Although several studies had tried to call the attention of society and the political elite , the topic received little publicity before the results of the PISA survey conducted in 2000 were published. These studies verified that the differences between schools deepen the inequalities of the performance of pupils measured at enrolment due to a set of strong selection mechanisms. By the late nineties, the Hungarian system of education had been burdened with inequalities of a degree that can be attributed to the selection and segregation mechanisms of the education system that further strengthen social polarization through a multiplier effect. These selection and segregation mechanisms influence the access to educational services, the process of teaching and learning within the education system and educational achievement. Overall, educational inequalities comprise problems not only for the educational sector; inequalities in pupils' performance and progress also have a negative impact on the competitiveness of societies and the growth rate of economies.

9.1. Types of inequality in education

9.1.1. Territorial inequalities

The regional and settlement-based divide of socio-economic inequalities in Hungary is manifest in more subtle ways in public education. Public education only reflects certain dimensions of regional and local inequalities in social and economic development. Studies have verified that the local system of public education is not necessarily of poorer quality in regions burdened with economic stagnation or social handicaps. On the other hand, several dimensions of the regional and local inequalities are clearly discernable in the education system. These disparities can be observed first of all in how pupils progress (opportunities to continue education), in the access to various educational services, their quality and the related students' aspirations.

Overall, it is the various management levels of public education that exhibits most of the symptoms of the regional/local distribution of inequalities. As regards the capacity to raise funds and development resources, the human and financial capacity needed to operate a local school system is available to every county town regardless of geographic position. Smaller towns, however, exhibit sharper territorial disparities. Small schools in small settlements show the most marked inequalities. Small settlements suffer from more handicaps than towns both in terms of social structure (demographic erosion, lower level of schooling, unemployment, high proportion of the Roma population, migration) and the conditions of public services (sewage network, special care for out-patients, lack of secondary schools or lower secondary education phase in general schools).

The only school in a village needs all the pupils of the settlement. Families with greater cultural capital, however, send their middle-school aged children to schools in a neighbouring town or larger village. As a result, the pool of pupils of a small school in a village often consists of children of widely different social background, with the ratio of Roma children by far above the national average. In small settlements, segregation between institutions is only present in the relationship of several settlements and there are limitations to separating pupils of different background and diverse performance by assigning them to a different class, as most schools run a single class in each grade. The larger the settlement where the school is located, the greater the chance to sort pupils by family background. Also, the larger the settlement and the more homogeneous the group of pupils, the more typical that schools are attended by the children of higher-status families.

Table 9.1. Average values of family background indices* for the 6th grade of general school in quintiles by background index and settlement type, 2004

Deviation quintiles of the family background index	Budapest	County seat	Town	Village	Total
0–19.9% (homogeneous)	0.96	0.64	0.33	–0.18	0.50
20–39.9%	0.63	0.53	0.19	–0.26	0.19
40–59.9%	0.45	0.33	0.08	–0.26	0.08
60–79.9%	0.35	0.23	–0.01	–0.31	–0.04
80–100% (heterogeneous)	0.24	–0.01	–0.20	–0.42	–0.23
Total	0.66	0.42	0.06	–0.30	0.11

Source: Calculations by Dániel Horn from the database of the National Assessment of Basic Competencies of 2004
* Family background index is an index with a mean of 0 and a deviation of 1 calculated from the schooling, employment status and household goods of pupils' parents. Whenever a pupil's index is negative, the child's socio-economic status is below average. A positive index indicates above average status. About 74% of all pupils are covered by the range between –1 and +1, whilst the bands between 1 to 2 and –1 to –2 both cover 11% percent.

The composition of pupils is a decisive factor in the effectiveness of education as regards territorial inequalities. Assessments of the average reading and mathematical literacy of pupils clearly reveal the presence of a settlement gap: there are vase differences between the capital and the villages on a standard scale with a mean of 500.

Table 9.2. Average performance of 6th and 10th graders by type of settlement, 2004

	Mathematics	Reading
Budapest	508.8	512.0
County seat	498.4	501.3
Town	473.4	479.9
Village	438.3	444.3

Source: Calculations by Dániel Horn from the database of the National Assessment of Basic Competences of 2004

Differences in the effectiveness of education are visible even if we control the data for the direct effects of family background on the performance of pupils. Needless to say the contribution of family background to individual differences in performance is substantially larger than that of a settlement.

For some time, practically all pupils finishing lower secondary education continue their studies at upper secondary level. However, analysis of pupils' progression broken down by school categories shows that the larger the settlement, the more pupil ends up in more valuable upper secondary programmes.

Chart 9.1. Proportions of continuing education at secondary level by school category and settlement type, 2005 (%)

Source: Database of the information system managing applications to upper secondary schools, 2005

9.1.2. Inequalities by institution and programme type

Systemic inequalities manifest themselves most frequently as disparities between institutions or programs. An analysis of small schools in small settlements offers proof that the poorer performance of pupils learning at a small school in a small settlement has closer ties with the poorer than average socio-cultural background of the children studying there than with the below the average quality of teaching in these schools. That is a valid statement about all schools in Hungary, therefore, small schools cannot be prejudged to be less effective than larger ones. Nevertheless extra expenditure is needed to allow smaller schools to provide services of a similar quality to their larger peers.

The gap between the performances of pupils attending different types of institutions indicates that vocational training is one of the most problematic sectors of public education. The labour market integration of graduates is difficult despite the lack of skilled workers in various sectors. The system of examinations is soft. This school type suffers from the largest rate of dropping out. There is a deep and wide gap between the socio-cultural background of pupils attending vocational training schools and secondary schools. Most families of vocational training pupils are poor. A large proportion of the students commute between a village and an urban school and are forced to shoulder the associated financial and other burdens. About half of the students admitted to vocational training schools had repeated at least one year in general school. Many of these students had no other choice but vocational training, and within that a particular class of crafts or trade, The relationship of these students to learning and training as well as the level of their motivation is determined by their limited choices. (See also Chapter 4.) Problems related to vocational training schools are the result of educational- social selection and segregation mechanisms. The school-age population in these schools receives educational services of lower quality, and as a result their integration to society and to the labour market is hindered; they drift to the margins of society already at the beginning of their carriers.

Table 9.3. Highest educational attainment of 9th grade student in vocational training and vocational secondary schools, 2002/2003

		Vocational training	Secondary schools
Mother
	Maximum 8 grades of general school education	34.7	9.6
	Apprenticeship training school	33.6	20.1
	Secondary school final exam	26.7	43.2
	Degree	5.1	27.2
Father
	Maximum 8 grades of general school education	23.2	5.2
	Apprenticeship training school	51.7	35.7
	Secondary school final exam	21.3	36.1
	Degree	3.9	22.9

Source: Mártonfi, 2006b

9.2. The Roma in the education system

We have no statistics of the education of the Roma population. As of 1993, our statistics of education may not contain data concerning Roma pupils, as it is prohibited by the Act on the Protection of Personal Data. Estimates from surveys are available but we lack a detailed overview of the situation.

In 1999, 11% of the children of school age were Roma and their ratio is expected to reach 15% around 2008. More or less ten times as many small Roma children are enrolled in schools with special curricula designed for children with slight mental disabilities than non Roma. The ratio of Roma children in classes with special curricula is estimated to surpass 80% nationally. The high overrepresentation of Roma children among children with slight mental disabilities narrows down their learning opportunities and occupational career options. The classification of such high numbers of Roma children as children with disabilities is the outcome of a complex set of social factors: a strong social demand within the population to separate Roma children from non-Romas; and thus experts operating within this social context often make stereotypical decisions and draw routine-based evaluations on the potential educational progress of Roma children based on their social background. Studies show that the practice of classifying children as mentally disabled cannot be expected to stop merely as a result of amending the regulations, it is also conditional upon changes of policy-makers' and practitioners' thinking as well as changes in social action.

Nowadays, at least 90% of the Roma graduate from general school. About 70% of the general schools in Hungary ensure that all their Roma pupils have general school certificate by 18 years of age. In 30% of the general schools a high proportion of Roma children leave the school before completing general school education. This distribution is independent of the size of the settlement and school and the proportion of Roma attendance. The effectiveness of educating the Roma might also depend on individual decisions of school management and maintainer attitudes,as well as on local traditions and operating mechanisms.

Figures about continuing education at upper secondary level reveal the rapid growth of Roma participation in secondary education. At the same time, more than 40% of the general schools failed to pass a single young Roma on to a form of education offering a secondary school leaving certificate. Nevertheless, the proportion of secondary school admissions is above average among Roma pupils who study under the Roma minority programme. 45.5% of the Roma graduates from general schools in the capital continue their studies in a vocational secondary school, 10.5% go on to a general secondary and only 40% end up in a vocational training school. It seems that the growth of secondary school attendance among the Roma in the capital is first of all due to targeted inventions of the education policy makers of the capital to reduce the ratio of pupils in vocational training schools.

The most important structural barrier to the effectiveness of the Roma education is segregation and the resulting shortcomings in the quality of education services they receive.

Table 9.4. Changes of the Roma continuing their studies after general school by programme type, between 1993/94 and 2002/03, (%) based on surveys

	1993/ 1994	1996/ 1997	1997/ 1998	1998/ 1999	2000/ 2001	2001/ 2002	2002/ 2003
Failed to continue	49.8	16.5	16.1	14.9	9.9	10.2	8.1
Special vocational training school	9.4	8.6	10.4	9.4	5.5	5.4	6.2
Vocational training school	30.2	61.6	57.5	56.5	62.8	63.6	63.8
Vocational secondary	10.0	9.3	12.0	15.4	16.2	16.3	15.9
General secondary	0.6	3.7	3.8	3.6	5.6	4.4	5.9
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
N	166	168	176	182	419	430	452

Source: Havas–Liskó, 2004

9.3. Pupils with special education needs (SEN) in public education

The classification of pupils with special education needs (SEN) mirrors partly what is known as the 3D system of the OECD, differentiating children with Disabilities, with Difficulties in learning and with Disadvantages. In Hungary the first two groups of the aforementioned three categories are used to classify pupils with special needs in education, whilst pupils who are classified uniformly as children to be granted separate support have characteristics that overlap those covered by the OECD categories of children with disabilities and with difficulties in learning. As a result the Hungarian classification system mixes the OECD group of pupils with learning difficulties with the categories of organic disabilities and pupils burdened with disadvantages, thereby providing a loose set of definitions which render the terms disability, difficulty in learning and disadvantage easily interchangeable. This classification also contributes to the anomalies of qualifying a child as a pupil with special education needs, and to the high ratio of the Roma in this category. Besides, the public education of children with disabilities often takes place in isolated special institutions that hinder the social integration of these children. Moreover, the general framework of public educational services does not extend to all categories of disabled children.

School age children with severe and multiple disabilities

The framework of school-based public education is not ensured for children with severe and multiple disabilities. According to the legislation currently in effect these children cannot meet the obligation to attend public education as a result of their disabilities, and therefore the law provides that children with severe and multiple disabilities should participate in conductive education from the first day of the first kindergarten year to the end of compulsory school attendance to ensure their development. The Act provides a separate set of conditions to compliment the obligations of conductive developmental training than that for other disabled or non-disabled groups. Children subject to this obligation must participate in training outside the framework of public education in a social institution set up specifically for the purpose. With this, current legislation deploys school-aged children with severe and multiple disabilities onto the social sector or the responsibility of their families. By placing them in special institutions of the social sector these children are taken out of the environment of their families without receiving regular development, given the fact that these institutions do not offer public education services. As a result of the lack of day-care education and training one parent has to give up her/his job and stay at home to provide full-time care for the child. Consequently, once these children reach school age, the income of their families substantially decreases, two-thirds of them live under the subsistence level. The poverty of these families is demonstrably caused by the additional expenses of compensating for the lack educational day-care services.

Pupils with a mild mental disability

The category of mild mental disability has existed for decades with practical solutions and rules that have allowed blurring the borderlines between children with organic mental disability and pupils with learning disorders emanating from family disadvantages and social circumstances. The European ratio of registered children with (physical and mental) disabilities is 2.5-3% of the general school population, in contrast, 5.9% of general school pupils studied in institutions or classes following special curricula in Hungary in the academic year of 2003/04. The number of children registered as disabled from among the total general school population has been increasing each year for the past 4 academic years.

The OECD has also pointed out in a country study on Hungary that the selection and segregation mechanism of public education manifest themselves through the category of mild mental disabilities. The OECD has recommended the termination of the category of mild mental disabilities altogether and over the review of the procedures of expert committees. Simultaneously, additional efforts are needed to implement integrated education: all children “with slower learning and development” tendencies should be taught in mainstream general schools, except for children with severe mental and physical disabilities.

9.4. Efforts and major measures in educational policy

The treatment of educational inequalities and equity in education received increasing emphasis in public education in the last few years. The efforts of education policy targeted at increasing equity were manisfest in strategic documents, laws, concrete programmes and measures. Unfortunately, it frequently occurs that certain measures have unintended consequences against the declared intentions once distorted by the mechanisms of social mediation. (For instance the head quota originally targeted at eliminating disadvantages unintentionally contributed to the segregation of pupils with disadvantages and poor performance thereby increasing the difference between them and the performance and life opportunities of children performing well.) In order to decrease educational inequalities the Ministry of Education identified the following regulations and development targets in its medium term strategy of developing public education:

1.) Expanding pre-primary education services within the group of the disadvantaged;

2.) Modernising the network of vocational training schools;

3.) Integrating Roma children and children with disadvantages into mainstream classes;

4.) Antidiscrimination program;

5.) Integrating children with special education needs.

The Government has identified “earmarked support for groups with labour market disadvantages” as the first of the seven major development axes of the strategy of lifelong learning and defined the “strengthening the role of education and training in creating opportunities” as the first of the five priorities of the strategy. The document argues that “it is absolutely necessary to strengthen the role and participation of education and training systems in combating social exclusion and marginalization and in improving the individual's life chances so as to mitigate social and territorial disparities. To achieve that end, special educational support must be granted to groups with disadvantages due to social or other reasons.”

The Government's strategy of developing vocational training intends to improve equal opportunities by extending vocational training to disadvantaged social groups and by improving the quality of vocational training with a view to preventing dropping out and reintegrating early school-leavers to training.

The past 3 years have also seen legislative attempts to support equity in education. The Act on Public Education introduced a ban on segregation and aspires to promote the identification of indirect discrimination. The Government has set up the Equal Treatment Authority. The Authority may take action in individual cases and may investigate violations, if any, of the principal of equal treatment under an administrative procedure. The Ministry of Education has developed a nationwide system, called National Network of Integration in Education, for the provision of support especially to promote to the implementation of tasks associated with teaching and upbringing disadvantaged children, particularly the Roma in integrated classes. The network has two objectives: firstly to create a system of basic institutions responsible for integrating mainly the Roma into mainstream education and secondly to improve professional background services on that basis. In autumn 2003, an Integrative System of Pedagogy was introduced in the so called ‘basis schools' of the network. The cumbersome and changing rules of financing created hiccups in the implementation of the program, hence its spread and multiplier effect failed to live up to expectations. There were two new per-capita grants, one for unfolding skills and one for integration, introduced in grades 1, 5 and 9 during 2003, both in a progressive system. The latter is available on condition that the recipient uses the Integrative System of Pedagogy. Announced in 2003, the programme called “From the Backbench…” (“Utolsó Padból…”) aimed at returning Roma children to classes of normal curriculum from classes using special curricula. The number of children participating in integrative pre-school, general school and secondary education programmes increased by over two and a half times between 2001 and 2005 as a response to the political incentives of integrated education. These data, however, do not provide information on the content-related implementation of integration. In this respect it is important to note that “austere integration” that is only formally implemented given the lack of pedagogical, infrastructural and legitimate conditions can cause further conflicts between social groups.

The Government decided to launch a programme called “Studentship for the Road” in 2005. The programme takes the form of earmarked funds provided to support disadvantaged young people with studentship and mentoring so as to ensure that they participate in programmes offering a certificate of secondary education, that they sit for secondary school final exams or master a skill. The programme granted studentship support to 20,045 pupils, who are supported by 7739 mentors in 1675 public education institutions. Supporting gifted children living in difficult social circumstances in small settlements continued under the Arany János Support Programme for the Gifted and 2004 saw the introduction of a programme with similar intent called Arany János Student Hostel Programme.

One of ten Roma children fails to participate in pre-primary education and hence suffers a major handicap before starting a career at school. The administration for education wished to increase the interest in participation by offering free meals to pre-school pupils in need. Banning the practice of having failed pupils repeat school years in the first three grades and the conversion from grades to textual evaluation increases equity for underachievers in their school career.

The most important source of measures designed to mitigate inequalities has been offered by the European Social Fund. “Ensuring equal opportunities in the educational system for pupils with disadvantages” was the first measure taken under the second priority of the Human Resources Development Operational Programme (HRDOP). The objectives of Measure 2.1 called for preventing failure and attrition at school, developing integrative teaching practices suitable for children with disadvantages, especially Roma pupils and pupils with special educational needs as well as eliminating segregation in the public education system coupled with rolling out non-discriminative educational practices. The measure comprises central and grant-scheme programs. Supported activities include the development of the curriculum and methodology of teacher training; professional upgrading for general school teachers and experts in topics related to integrative and intercultural education; training local decision makers and raising awareness; developing new methods for the prevention of leaving school early and for the early identification of attrition risk; exploring and disseminating successful practical solutions in integrative education by establishing professional and thematic networks and a methodological databank; adapting and implementing the models of integrative education at various institutional levels.

Enrolment regulations have granted parents the freedom of choice between schools since the 90s and general schools may also enrol pupils seeking admission from outside the school district, provided they have vacancies after accommodating pupils domiciled in the school district. A large circle of experts believe this practice has largely contributed to increasing inequalities and segregation of Roma pupils within the education system.

Table 9.5. Distribution of classes with different Roma ratios, 2000 and 2004

	2000		2004
	Number of classes	%	Number of classes	%
Homogeneous non-Roma classes	161	5.6	932	10.1
Ratio of Roma pupils between 0.1–25 percent	863	30.0	2,824	30.6
Ratio of Roma pupils between 25.1–50 percent	890	30.9	2,410	26.1
Ratio of Roma pupils between 50,1–75 percent	397	13.8	1,191	12.9
Ratio of Roma pupils between 75,1–99,9 percent	258	9.0	620	6.7
Homogeneous Roma classes	306	10.6	1,253	13.6
Total number of classes	2,875	100.0	9,227	100.0

Source: Havas–Liskó, 2004

The procedure of general school enrolment will be modified in the near future so as to counterbalance segregation. It was in December 2005 that the Act on Public Education was amended with a provision that restricts the right of schools to exercise the same degree of liberty in selecting their pupils from the pool of candidates. The ratio of pupils with disadvantages must be taken into account already during the delineation of school districts. In addition to the preference of the residents of a district, disadvantaged pupils will enjoy priority among the applicants from outside the district. If vacancies still exist after meeting all these needs, the school will have to organize a draw to select the candidates it can admit. The provision, which seeks to help schools become more heterogeneous in terms of social composition, will take effect in 2007. The aim of the amendment is to prevent pupils with disadvantages from concentrating in a set of schools.