Education in Hungary

 Kindergarten in Hungary vs. Preschool in the USA

One of the most interesting field trips this semester has been to the oldest kindergarten in Szeged. It was established in the late 19th century, a generation before the 1879 flood which destroyed 80% of the city.  We met with the headmaster, who also teaches on of the classes.  She told us many interesting things about this first part of a Hungarian child's education.                                                                                                                                          In Hungary, kindergarten is compulsory for all children from the ages of 3 to 7. If students are not ready for elementary school, they may remain for one more year, graduating at the age of 8. They arrive at school as early as 6:30am and remain as late as 5:00 pm. They have two teachers; one who works the morning shift through naptime and one who comes in before lunch to work the afternoon shift.   They teach social skills. Although there are books for children to look at, kindergartners in Hungary do not learn their ABC's. As in preschools in the US, each class has at least two teachers: a head teacher and an assistant.  The assistant teacher helps students  with toileting and meals as well as performing janitorial duties.  Each class has 21 students. The kindergartner has chores like getting set up or cleaning up after lunch,  which they eat in their room at the oldest kindergarten in Szeged, tidying up the room before naptime,  or being line leader when going to the gym or schoolyard for recess.  Parents pay for the meals. There are subsidies for parents who cannot afford to pay for meals. Breakfast and supper are also served. 

In the bathrooms, each child has a cup and toothbrush. In the classroom, they have a brush. Outside the classroom, they have a cubby hole for extra clothes, coats, and shoes (they change into their indoor shoes when they come to school). Their cubby holes, cups, toothbrushes, brushes, duty roster, and the work that they do at school is  marked with a symbol that the child is assigned with they first come to kindergarten. It could be a cloud, an apple, a rocket, a flower, or a myriad of other symbols that are not so difficult to draw.  

Scholarly Perspective of Education in Hungary

A quick survey of the articles on the Google Scholar database concerning education in Hungary shows that the hot topics are related to economics, language proficiency, and government.  These topics have surfaced in our trips to the kindergarten and high school and to some degree in my teaching at the high school and vocational school, but not in exactly the same way as the literature suggests.  

Economics

In the news, Hungary Today reports the concern of the teachers' own socio-economic well-being. On October 23, many demonstrated for higher wages.  These demonstrations and strikes have continued; I observed this in a previous blog.  In the scholarly literature, Alhendi et al (2020) explore the relationship of economics and English proficiency. They found that "for every unit increase in TOEFL score means per nation, there is a 0.0621% increase in economic growth" (p. 7).  In their research of 99 nations, they found that Hungary has a high proficiency level in English and a gross national income of $11,758.43.  Its neighbor, Austria, has a very high proficiency and a GNI of $ 39,083.18.  According to the World Bank, in 2021, the Hungarian GNI per capita had risen to $17,740. In my experience, a teachers' salary in 2021 was about half of the GNI.

Language Proficiency

Regarding the language proficiency of Hungarians, Alhendi et al. (2020)'s finding that they are highly proficient in English does not surprise me. Although there are merchants who shy away from English and vendors in the market who rely on calculators to communicate numbers with those who cannot understand Hungarian--a condition that makes the market an excellent place to practice the language--and some of the older people at church who struggle with English, I have found fewer Hungarians who are not confident about their English than Chinese or Indonesians. Admittedly, I work in the English Department of the university and teach the cream of the crop of the high school students majoring in English. I did so at the universities in China and Indonesia as well; Hungarian university students are more proficient. It is easy to be lazy about learning Hungarian because English is so widely spoken.

Government

kindergarten classroom

Two of the most recent eight articles in Google Scholar about Hungarian education refer to democracy.  In the interview with the teachers in the high school and kindergarten, the issue is more about bureaucracy.  Teachers must complete a lot of paperwork, some necessary and some of it just busy work.  I think teachers all over the world can relate to this.  The high school teachers in Hungary seem to have the heaviest burden in this respect. At least, this is where I have heard the most vociferous complaints. Not only do teachers have to submit what one would normally expect of a teacher: lesson plans for an entire year at the beginning of the year, a diary of what was actually carried out, marks of students' peformance, and parent-teacher conferences, they also take daily attendance, create supplemental material not covered in the government-issued textbooks, organize field trips and partnerships, report on these trips, collect money for various events, and make sure their classrooms are clean and well-maintained. In addition to these duties, teachers seeking promotions should also do research and put together a portfolio, which will be reviewed by a licensing board.  As near as I can tell, there are no professional development workshops for teachers to complete every semester as in the US, so improving teaching skills rests with the teachers.

Hungarian teachers see a need to reform education, not just their salary scale.  The curriculum needs to be updated and made more relevant for today's student.   I do not know all the little details of changes that need to be made, but in my interaction with teachers, I have noted dissatisfaction and frustration with an inability to bring about change. If I pursue the implementation of an environmental project, I may learn the concerns of the teachers firsthand. 

References

Alhendi, Osama and Lóránt Dénes, Dávid and Gyula, Fodor and Fredrick Collins Adol, Gogo and Balogh, Péter, The Impact of Language and Quality Education on Regional and Economic Development: A Study of 99 Countries (September 29, 2020). Hungarian Central Statistical Office - Ksh, Forthcoming,  Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3702862