The education system of Hungary

Péter BárdyPremonstratensian St.

Norbert Secondary School of Gödöllő

21th October 2010

A tradition of more than 1000 years

The first school: Pannonhalma, A.D. 996

• Pannonhalma, A.D. 996• before the XVIII. Century schools were

maintained only by churches• 1777. Ratio educationis – the first educational

law• compulsory education in the public schools

since 1868• free education since 1908• before 1945: 4+8 (first 4 were compulsory)

• after 1945: 8+4 (first 8 were compulsory)

4 years in secondary school or in technical school

• 1948: soviet occupation church schools (50% of all schools) were socialized

The history in a nutshell

• Hungary is one of the leading countries in Nobel Prize Laureates per capita (12 persons)

A tradition of excellence

János Neumannone of the inventors of the first computer, the

ENIAC

János Keményco-developer the first programming language,

the BASIC

Andrew Grove (Gróf)co-founder and former President of INTEL Corp.

Charles Simonyico-developer of Microsoft Windows, Word and

Excelthe first space tourist in the world

Leó Szilárddiscovered the nuclear chain reaction

Jenő Wigner and Ede Tellerco-developers of the first nuclear reactor

Pál Selényico-inventor of the photocopy machine

Oszkár Asbothinventor of the first helicopter

Albert Szent-GyörgyiNobel Prize for his work on Vitamin C

János HarsányiNobel Prize in Economics (game theory)

shared with John Nash („The beautiful mind”)

György OláhNobel Prize in Chemistry

inventor of ledfree gasoline

Nicolas Sarkozy (Sárközy)President of France

82,3%

6,4%11,3%

state schools church schools foundation schools

Division of students according to the maintaining authority

75,8%

17,6%

6,6%

state schools church schools foundation schools

Division of students in secondary general schools according to the

maintaining authority

34,6%

41,6%

23,8%

secondary general schoolssecondary vocational schoolsvocational schools

Division of students in secondary schools according to the type of the

school

59%25%

16%

4+5-year-programmes6-year-programmes8-year-programmes

Division of students in secondary general schools according to the

educational programmes

• Varied educational programmes• 5 primary schools

o 4 maintained by the municipalityo 1 maintained by the church

• 5 secondary schoolso 2 maintained by the municipality

o1 secondary general and 1 vocational school

o 2 maintained by the churcho1 protestant and 1 catholic

o 1 maintained by a foundation (Waldorf)

Education in Gödöllő

• in the form of per capita norms, based on the number of students

• budget: 50% from the state + 50% other source

• schools maintained by local authorotieso 50% other: from local taxes

• schools maintained by churcheso 50% other: also from the state („church

subsidy”)o because churches have no income on their

own

Financing education

• lots of excellent students with outstanding results in international competitions and student olympics

o e.g.: Bálint Wirnhardt, silver medal, IJSO, South Korea

• students in an aveage school have usually lower performance in an international comparision

o see e.g.: PISA

The present situation

• monitoring-type assessment• performance of 15-year-old students• in OECD countries• in every 3 years• three areas of assessment

o mathematicso scienceso reading

The PISA assessment

The PISA assessment

• PISA 2006: Hungary was below average

• 15-year-old students, assessment area: mathematics

491510

504

459474

548

492513

498

547

495480

400420440460480500520540560

HUNGARY

AVERAGE

• performance of 10 and 14 years old students

• in 59 countries, 425.000 students• according to general curricula• two areas of assessment

o mathematicso sciences

o biologyo physicso chemistryo earth sciences

The TIMSS assessment

The TIMSS assessment

• TIMSS: Hungary was above average• 14-year-old students, assessment area:

science

HUNGARY

AVERAGE

• the most important factor is the family background

• school system is also importanto see: PISA, TIMSS, competence assessments

• expensive solutions within the schools are not that important

o e.g.: informatics, equipment, small groups etc.

personality of the TEACHER that really matters

Influences on the school performance

• the acknowledgement of the states of teachers is to be increased

• the share of education in the state budget needs to be increased

• strengthening school communities and religious set of values

• improving the standards of science education

• offering vocational training • promoting the idea of sustainability —

responsible planning of our future

The challenges we have to meet

Pannonhalma – preparing for our future

Budapest. Get Engaged.video by István Madarász

Thank youfor your kind attentions!