Hungarian education one of big losers in 2019 budget, says Democratic Coalition

Education is one of the big losers in the 2019 budget approved on Friday, the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) said.

The sector will basically get the same amount of funding this year as last year, which means that, in real terms, support for education will drop, deputy group leader Gergely Arató told a press conference on Saturday.

As a result, “the decline and deterioration of education will continue”,

while the number of early school leavers will increase, and every tenth child will leave the education system without proper skills, he added.

The deterioration of the quality of education will also endanger the competitiveness of Hungary, he said. The purpose of the Orbán government is to turn Hungary into an assembly plant and “reserve the opportunity for advancement through education for a privileged few”, he added.

This is also evidenced by the government’s plan to require a language exam for matriculation into colleges or universities, he said.