Education system in Hungary

Children are enrolled in primary school between the ages of six and seven though they have to attend pre/school programmes in the kindergarten. The primary school consists of two levels, that is, the lower primary level and the upper primary level, both of which are made up by of four grades. The Hungarian secondary education system has three basic types of schools for students: secondary grammar school, secondary vocational school, and vocational school. After the secondary school students can go to further education. That is university in two levels, bachelor and master.

When children start their school years, the curriculum focuses on developing general skills and abilities, while during the second four years, students learn various arts and science subjects. It is also compulsory for children to study a foreign language in primary school.

Secondary grammar school provides a general academic education and prepares students for higher education. Secondary vocational schools offer an opportunity to take a final exam and go on to further education or they can focus on learning a trade.

Arts subjects are history, music, literature, grammar, and foreign languages while science subjects are mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, geography and computer science. The big difference is that arts subjects are easier to cope with without teachers since a lot of information can be learnedfrom books and other sources. Whereas science subjects require more specialised thinking and understanding, which is very difficult without explanation of a good instructor.

The knowledge of foreign languages is very important nowadays both in the home country and abroad. The ability to speak a language gives people the opportunity to explore a different culture and live and also work in the actual country.

Lifelong learning means getting new information and updating knowledge either informally or formally . The learning process stimulates the mind so it helps keep our brain healthy. Also joining courses, workshops, or any kind of group learning events makes a rewarding experience.

When I was at primary school called ................, I was a .................student. I could cope well with difficulties in subjects. I usually studied a lot, which meant I got good grades and marks. When I didnt know the material, I must confess, I used cheat sheets too. In our school we didn't have to to wear a uniform. at that school called cloak (gown). There were not compulsory sports, but we could choose some sports like football in spring, basketball or volleyball in winter or table tennis anytime. Different schools teams competed against each other in championship tournaments. I used to go to a well known grammar school in Szentes, where I spent four years. I took my school-leaving examination here. Our school building lay in the centre of the city. It was a big, white-coloured, two-storey building with a large school yard and some trees around it. Both the library and the school buffet were in the basement where you could buy sandwiches, milk, cocoa, and the basic things needed for school work such as books, notebooks, pens, pencils, rubbers and so on. Most classrooms were on the first and second floors while the headmasters office and the staff room were in a separate corridor on the ground floor. Our school had also got some classrooms such as language, physics, chemistry, arts and craft labs. These labs were quite well equipped. In the language lab e.g. we had a television and cassette players with headphones and all the necessary dictionaries. We had also a computer room, where we could study computer techniques and programming. I liked having my friends. They were all very hard-working and most of them were bright, too. Our class was a good team and there was a good atmosphere. We often helped each other with the homework. Our teachers were satisfied with us and we all respected them. All our teachers were very competent and taught a great deal of knowledge to us. If somebody lagged behind, the others helped him. We didnt want anybody to drop out. Anyway, I had a few teachers who liked some students better than others and had their favourites in each class.We had two-hour-homework every afternoon and sometimes it took even longer. At the age of sixteen in order to concentrate on the subjects that we need for university entrance, additional lessons were offered to us in the subjects that we that we needed for our future career. If you are not in class on a school day, you are marked absent in the attendance register and you will be given a warning later if your absence has not been excused e.g. by a doctors note. My favourite subjects were arts subjects. They came to me easily and I took pleasure in studying some of them. I especially liked history, grammar and perhaps literature, but most of my friends found them very difficult. Because they thought they were useless subjects. Maths was, in fact, the least popular subject in my class. I always hated it, because I have never had got sense of it. Physics was my weak point, too. I dont even like to think of it. Although I tried to do my best in these subjects too, my efforts were not always crowded with success. Chemistry and music werent my cup of tea either.I was fairly energetic so I did a quite a lot of things in the afternoons. To tell you the truth, studying was quite a demanding activity for me. I had to take private lessons a few times each week. And I quite often had my friends over, played with the computer or just watched television. I liked to have time relax. I didnt know what I would have liked to do when I left school. One thing was sure I would have liked to go on my studies. After leaving secondary high school (in the fourth year), I decided to go on with my studies and applied for the nursery teacher faculty at Szent Istvan University. I finished my studies in June this year and want to get a job as a nursery teacher.

School traditions and experiencesI was fond of class outings. We usually went to a trip in every year as usual in Hungary. We often visited famous museums, castles or churches. The annual occasions were the carnival in February or school-balls and you could apply for the summers camp if you wanted to. However, Ive never taken a part in a camp. During the year we commemorate all the public holidays and important events of Hungarian history with some productions prepared and performed by alternate classes. Every year in February or March there is a party organised in honour of the school leaving students. Both humorous skits and some serious programmes are performed by the third-year students and each school leaver is presented a blue ribbon marking the years they have spent in school. Then a big school ball is held, the greatest attraction of which are the ball-opening dances. In May the school leaving ceremonies continue and the fourth-year students wander around the school. The last phase of these ceremonies is the final party or school-leaving feast, which is always held after the final exams. Each form goes out to a nice restaurant with their teachers and they eat and drink to their hearts content to make the end of the school years memorable.In addition to it, on these days a serenade is held by the leaving students, which means they go for visit their teachers in their private flat or detached house and they are singing a kind song to say goodbye to him or her.