Chapter 9
Inequalities and Special Needs in Education

In Hungary, student performance is strongly influenced by the cultural capital of families. In the selective education system social inequalities are reflected in the path of progression as well as in access to the different levels and programmes of education. The range of local educational institutions accurately mirrors the social structure of the communities. According to various researches, if there are sizeable differences in educational attainment and income in the local community, the range of local institutions tends to be characterized by selectivity, the frequent use of entrance exams, and by various forms of segregation. Such differences are noticeable in the access to different educational programmes, and in the access to high quality educational services.

9.1. Differences in student performance

9.1.1. The effects of family background and selectivity on performance

In Hungary, family background and the differences between schools prove to be fairly decisive factors concerning the performance of students. Due to the homogeneous composition of students, the importance of the socio-economic background of families are increased; consequently, instead of the family background factors of the individual students, the socio-economic status of the schools is a more decisive factor in educational performance. While in OECD countries 36% of the differences in reading performance are explained by inequalities among schools, the same rate is 71% in the case of Hungarian students. The findings of the PISA survey suggest that there is a strong correlation between the labour market status of parents and the reading performance of their children. The higher the occupational status of the parent is, the better the reading performance of the student. Hungary belongs to a group of countries defined by the PISA survey in which the differences of performance between children of mothers with high and low socio-economic status are exceptionally large.

Figure 9.1.
Distribution of student performance in reading by level of education completed by mothers in some OECD countries, 2000

Source: Knowledge and Skills for Life, 2001
Note: OECD average = 500

9.1.2. Regional and local inequalities

The regional inequalities in the system of education are particularly striking in terms of educational progression, access to opportunities for further education, and related aspirations. Regional differences may also be evidenced in the human resources and infrastructural conditions of education. There is a strong correlation between the performance of students and the type of settlement they live in. From an international perspective, the range of the variation of performance between students from settlements of different sizes is considerable. The difference between the performance of students attending schools in settlements with fewer than three thousand inhabitants and those studying in Budapest are far above the OECD average.

Table 9.1.
Average performance of 15-year-olds (in reading, mathematical, and scientific literacy) living in villages and larger cities in Hungary and in OECD countries

Source: PISA 2000 database, OECD
Note: OECD average = 500

9.1.3. Gender differences

The gender ratio has reversed in higher education since 1995, since more girls are now enrolled in higher education than boys. We may also notice the differences between the achievements of girls and boys. There is also a significant difference in the average performance in reading literacy to the benefit of girls in Hungary. Boys show a minor advantage over girls in mathematical literacy, while there is virtually no difference in the field of sciences.

9.2. Language and culture differences

9.2.1. Minority education

The model for minority education is based on the notion of providing for the collective right to national minorities to organize their own education. The basic principle of national minority education is to secure the right to formal schooling for nationality groups living within the boundaries of the nation-state in order to preserve their mother tongue and their culture. This practice, however, is less sensitive to closing the cultural gap between the different groups. In the curricular content of mainstream education there is hardly any material on the language, history, and culture of national minorities, ethnic groups and immigrants. In Hungary, ethnic education has three forms: the language of instruction is the language of the minority, bilingual education, and the teaching of minority languages as a subject. The majority of national minorities have no secondary schools, and apprenticeship training is absent from minority education.

9.2.2. Immigrants

Following the transition, the number of permanently and legally settled foreigners increased significantly, yet the majority of schools accessible to foreigners only offered Hungarian language education. In schools maintained by local governments, Hungarian language is taught only as a mother tongue, which due to the level of requirements is an inefficient solution for foreigners. Foreigners are often forced to repeat a school grade due to language difficulties, thus attend classes grades below their age level. Most schools are unable to provide foreigners with education in their mother tongue. The situation is better for students whose mother tongue is an international language or one taught in Hungary. For these students bilingual schools and national minority schools may provide an opportunity for public education.

9.2.3. The education of Roma students

The number of Roma students in secondary schools which prepare students for the school-leaving examination has increased in comparison to earlier years. However, due to the expansion of secondary education, the differences between Roma and non-Roma students have remained virtually unchanged. The increase in student numbers may be explained almost exclusively by the increase of Roma students in vocational education and related training programmes, while the rate of Roma students in general secondary schools has remained insignificant. According to a Roma survey carried out in 2000, the performance levels of Roma students show a nearly 10% decrease on average by the end of the sixth year in comparison to the levels of the first grade. The teachers questioned listed some of the following reasons for the weakening performance: lack of appropriate school equipment, inadequate home environments suitable for learning, restricted study time at home due to the division of labour in the family, a higher rate of absence and lack of parental support. The school results of Roma children living in larger cities, in the outlying parts of the country, in Roma settlements, and of those students whose parents have failed to complete general school education show a greater degree of deterioration than the average.

Table 9.2.
Access to education of the Roma population in Hungary, 1994, 1998/99 (%)

Source: KSH data 1994; Liskó, 2002.

The most obvious form of negative discrimination against Roma students is presented in the form of segregated education, which is mainly a result of local segregation and general demographic trends. Due to these two tendencies, the ongoing concentration of Roma students is a significant factor in the Hungarian educational system. This process is reinforced by the migration of non-Roma students from schools where the number of Roma students exceeds a certain rate. According to a Roma study of 2000, involving 192 schools in which the rate of Roma students was 40% on average, there were 157 classes without any Roma students, and 311 attended only by Roma children. Another form of segregation is the transfer of Roma children to schools or classes for students with special educational needs.

9.2.4. Special needs education

According to the Public Education Act there are two categories of children entitled to additional state grants: (1) students with special educational needs: children with physical, sensory, mental disabilities and speech impediment, or other disabilities such as autism, and pupils with learning disorders such as dyslexia, hyperactivity etc.; (2) students with social, behavioural, and learning difficulties. In the first case the eligibility for additional support is determined by the National Committees for Assessing Learning Abilities and Rehabilitation, whilst in the second, the eligibility is determined by educational counsellors. The Public Education Act specifies additional groups of children who, despite the fact that they remain outside the scope of special educational and rehabilitative provisions, require additional grants. These groups are: (a) 1st to 4th-graders allowed to progress on an individual basis; (b) students over the schooling age in the 9th or 10th grades attending compensatory education; (c) socially disadvantaged students; (d) students who are potential drop-outs; (e) students in need of remedial teaching; (f) students belonging to national or ethnic minorities. These groups of students are not always separable from each other, while in some cases there is more than one reason for justifying the additional support. According to the law, the forms of additional provision must be included in the educational programme of the institutions. These may include the following: differentiation in teaching, the establishment of separate study groups; the use of obligatory and optional class time for special forms of provision; reducing class sizes as regulated by the law; allocating additional state support in a differentiated manner. Students may be divided into three categories according to the above. The first group includes students without any disabilities; they constitute up to 80-85% of all students. The second group includes students supported by additional funds provided for by the law in order to receive more efficient services and forms of provision. Approximately 10-15% of the students belong to this group. The third group, constituting 5-10% of the students, includes those entitled to receive special treatment and rehabilitative training.

The number of children involved in special education is outstandingly high in an international perspective. The international comparative study prepared by the OECD differentiates three major groups of special educational needs. Category A refers to educational needs related to organ disorders, Category B refers to educational needs not attributable to organ disorders, and Category C refers to educational needs primarily due to socio-economic, linguistic or cultural factors. In Hungary the rate of students classified into Category A is exceptionally high. It is also clear from the table below that there is no differentiation in special educational needs in Hungary which are not attributable to organ disorders. This high rate suggests that there is a considerable number of students in Hungary unnecessarily classified into Category A. Hungary belongs to the group of strongly segregating countries concerning the education of students with (Category A) special educational needs. Integration is mainly characteristic in the first cycle of general school education (ISCED 1), and is initiated by the parents in most cases. The curricular requirements of these students are identical to those of non-disabled students, which fail to take into consideration the special curricular requirements of disabled students.

Table 9.3.
Percentage of school children (ISCED 1,2) classified into special educational need categories in some European countries, 1996

Source: Special Needs..., 2000

9.2.5. Support for gifted students

In Hungary, the various forms of support for gifted students in education may be divided into two large groups. These include, firstly, lesson-based organizational forms, such as classes with advancved programmes or groups for exceptionally gifted students, and, secondly, extra-curricular opportunities, such as self-study groups or subject interest groups. Student competitions also play an important role. There is a considerable delay in the application of an individual mentoring system, despite the fact that support for gifted students fails to be successfully employed without intensive individual training. There is an increasing number of institutions establishing special or complex programmes, and since information on how to support the gifted is absent from initial teacher training, the demand for in-service training programmes supporting everyday practical activities has been on the rise. Training of experts in this field began in 2002 at the University of Debrecen.

9.3. Reducing inequalities and the educational policy leverage

9.3.1. Public opinion on differentiation and selection

Public opinion is nearly undivided in the belief that it is important to grant equal opportunities to disabled students, and that the government should provide the necessary support for this. The public believes that through the use of adequate educational methods good results may be achieved with disabled students. The Hungarian society is more divided over the issue of Roma students. Most of those questioned only agreed on the idea that appropriate methods could also prove to be effective in the case of this group. Highly qualified individuals were more likely to accept this view than those less qualified. The population was noticeably less convinced of the importance of state support for special programmes aimed at preventing Roma students from dropping out of school. According to the 2002 educational policy opinion polls, the Hungarian population had a different view on the general school education of disabled and Roma students. More than half of those questioned would choose to educate disabled students in separate schools, and only 15% believe in the need for educational integration. In the case of Roma students, however, 41% of those questioned believed they should be educated together with their non-Roma classmates, with Hungarian students also taking up minority subjects. According to the opinion of every fifth member of the adult population questioned, Roma children should be taught in separate general schools. A similar study revealed the views of parents and teachers on the education of the Roma. These two groups were more reluctant to accept the institutional separation of Roma children as a possibility than the rest of the general public – only 14% of parents and 7% of teachers opted for this solution. 65% of teachers and 42% of parents would support a non-selective but differentiated organizational method of education.

Table 9.4.
Views of parents and teachers on the general school education of Roma children, 2002 (%)

Source: Equal Opportunity Survey, TÁRKI – OM, 2002
Question asked: “In your opinion, what would be the best solution for the general school education of Roma children?”

9.3.2. Programmes and good practices

Several important programmes were launched in the period under review concerning the reduction of inequalities. The ‘Arany János Support Programme for the Gifted’ of the Ministry of Education aims to facilitate the educational progression and provision of gifted but socially disadvantaged students coming from settlements with a population below five thousand. The programme is not merely directed at enhancing the access to education and developing adequate educational practices and methods of their adaptation into local programmes, but at also continuously providing the professional and supplementary support indispensable for its successful implementation as well as the appropriate educational expertise and institutional background. Students participating in the programme receive study grant, while the institutions receive double the amount of the per student capita grant. The programme is concerned with the successful preparation for higher education studies.

The Phare programme for the support of the social integration of disadvantaged youth with particular emphasis on the Roma minority was launched in 1999. The programme aims at handling the problems of inequality that disadvantaged students are faced with in a complex manner, using different methods and tools on the different levels of the educational system. As a continuation of the programme, a new project was launched in 2002, with the intention of establishing Roma community houses in smaller, disadvantaged settlements, where trained regional development experts would help overcome the local difficulties.

The Public Education Act and the Equal Opportunities Act established the legal framework for inclusive education. The implementation and enforcement of these laws, however, requires decades of development and investment. Between 1999 and 2002, the National Public Foundation for the Remedial Education of Disabled Children and Students contributed to these objectives by providing a considerable amount of funds. Some noteworthy programmes supported by the Foundation include: training programmes for developing a supportive attitude for parents and day-care teachers; programmes facilitating early diagnosis and early development; improving the human and material resources of schools accommodating integrative educational programmes; support services, such as the development of a network of travelling special educational needs teachers; information exchange and the promotion of co-operation in the small regions; organizing integrated camps.

In 1999, the Budapest Public Foundation for the Development of Public Education launched its Mentor Programme for the progression of Roma students. The programme was aimed at helping seventh and eighth-grade Roma students to continue their studies in secondary school. In achieving this goal, the individual mentors provide after-school lessons to a maximum of five students. As a reward, teachers receive a monthly grant for each of their students. The Foundation gives support by the number of students taking part in extra-curricular activities, which may be freely used by the teachers.

The aim of the ‘Roma Integration Programme’ of the ‘Ec-Pec Foundation’ is to help disadvantaged Roma students achieve reasonable results in school. To achieve this goal, they have devised a special development programme, allowing students lagging behind in their studies due to their socio-economic disadvantages to provide a better performance in normal schooling conditions, regardless of whether they study in special school types or in the small-sized remedial education groups of normal school programmes. Roma teaching assistants support the work of teachers in the schools participating in the programme. The two-year pilot phase of the programme has proved that at least half of all Roma students attending special schools are able to meet normal curricular requirements if they are given appropriate support and care.

9.3.3. Educational policy spheres

The precondition for educational policy incentives aimed at decreasing the inequalities amongst students, is to have the information necessary for the identification of the student target groups and their educational institutions. The Hungarian educational information system does not allow for this in its present state, therefore the additional resources are not efficiently utilized. At the same time, the regular monitoring of these activities would increase the efficiency of their expenditures and the success of such programmes, including the study of their effects and the feedback on their results. It would be important to develop and operate a system of assessment and evaluation offering feedback on the effectiveness and success of schools. In devising this system, the success of educating disadvantaged students, children at risk, or students with special educational needs must receive special attention. Another key educational policy tool is the systematic adoption of the expertise and knowledge accumulated in the course of pilot programmes and the working models of adaptable innovation. The most important precondition for this is the external evaluation of the different innovation programmes, which includes an assessment of their success and adaptability. The facilitation of horizontal learning between schools and the establishment of institutions which would adapt these programmes into their networks, as well as providing for the simultaneous access to the resources and professional support for such adaptation are not without precedent in Hungary. The next, inherently complex system of policy tools includes various policies for facilitating the transition from education to the labour market, which requires a more extensive use. These may include, for example, career counselling services or the introduction of a modular structure in vocational education. The extension of the range of adult education programmes, as well as an easy access to these programmes and the use of their incentives are closely tied to these activities. Additional social grants related to education should be used more effectively, whilst the concept of means testing should become more widespread, and the ties between educational goals and social objectives should be reinforced.