Public education roundtable meets – UPDATE

Budapest, February 9 (MTI) – The government started a series of consultations on Tuesday, to discuss topical issues of public education with representatives of teachers, national school manager Klik, the scientific and art academies, and other organisations.

The talks were also attended by the national teachers’ corps, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as the association of large families. Of the two largest teacher trade unions, PSZ and PDSZ, PSZ declined to attend the meeting.

After the meeting, human resources minister Zoltán Balog told a press conference that the government would make changes to the budget of Klik, as well as to public procurement procedures. He added that schoolmasters will be ensured cards to finance daily operations.

Balog also promised fast action to settle salary arrears to employees and resolve issues around the employment of those in retirement age. He also confirmed that the process of teachers’ evaluation will be simplified.

Lászlo Mendrey, the head of teachers’ union PDSZ and Péter Madarász, the director of a secondary school in Miskolc, whose teachers have recently staged a protest over unresolved education issues, voiced satisfaction with the talks.

Csaba Molnár, deputy head of the leftist Democratic Coalition, however, called the consultations a “sham” talks between the government and government-associated organisations. Speaking at a press conference, Molnár called on the government to communicate with the teachers’ strike committee, rather than “with itself”. He demanded that Klik should be scrapped altogether. He insisted that “the government has demonstrated that it has no intention to have meaningful talks with teachers and is hesitant to improve education”.