Foreword

Planning, making and implementing decisions of educational policy-making are set in a differentiated, diverse environment, which is becoming extremely rich in information. The direction of processes within the education system is mainly pinpointed by the motivation of groups with strong professional autonomy. Besides – as much as the education system is becoming more and more open – different groups interested in education’s social benefits or efficiency in the job market have an effect on these processes. Considering these circumstances it is impossible to think about educational policy-making in a traditional way; it is becoming more and more obvious that the interpretation of educational policy-making as a process of realizing central political will through regulations and administration has become invalid.

As a result of the changes in the Hungarian education system initiated in the 80s, the opportunities and responsibilities of all the participants of education have been altered. While it is clear to everybody, how much the roles of students, parents, teachers, educational institutions and maintainers have changed, we tend to forget that the function of central educational administration has undergone similar reforms. The place of a political and administrative governance of education operating before the political changes should be taken by a central governance mainly applying indirect tools for directing the processes of the education system, which is aimed at influencing participants’ behaviour. The renewal of the instrument system of educational policy-making enables the participants of national educational administration to come up to the responsibility of providing quality in public education. One of the key elements of the educational administration following new standards is the usage of well-informed and open professional political discourse as an instrument of the governance of education.

You are now reading the first public political analysis produced by the National Institute for Public Education, Centre for Educational Policy (OPEK). OPEK was founded in the summer of 2003 to create thematic reports analysing the most important issues on the agenda of educational policy-making and to provide other services that support the activities of different – governmental and non-governmental – participants and the dialogue between them. This mission highlights the function of this (and the other forthcoming) public report. The authors of this analysis were not commissioned to work out detailed reforms or to enrich (investigate) our knowledge about the operation of the system, but they were commissioned to work out recommendations for a better operation for a special system regulation function. We hope that this report will provide a rich source for the professional discourse on the issue and it will also present a basis for making decisions which are important regarding the operation of the system of content regulation.