School-year opening in Hungary

Budapest, August 31 (MTI) – The head of the PSZ teachers’ trade union warned on Wednesday that the new school year “will not be smooth”.

Piroska Galló told a news conference that government communications suggesting all the right conditions were in place for schools to start the year successfully were misleading.

Regarding reforms to education, she said the cabinet had declared over the summer the outcome of the public education roundtable successful. As early as December 2015, the PSZ union and the strike committee identified in writing various problems and had proposed solutions, she said, adding, however, that these proposals had been ignored in roundtable negotiations.

Galló complained that the government had failed to provide the proper legal background for the reduction in burdens on students and the changes were superficial.

Further, no progress has been made regarding the number of mandatory teaching hours or the monopoly the government enjoys when it comes to publishing and distributing textbooks, she said.

Among other objections, the union chief also faulted the government for not delivering fully on a promise to abolish the central schools manager.

István Hiller, the opposition Socialist Party’s spokesman, said government measures were “driving the standards of public education into a vortex”. He told a news conference the only reason why schools were able to operate was because teachers were making big sacrifices.

He argued that the establishment of special vocational high-schools had been a mistake since they reduced a student’s chances of carrying on into higher education.

The government has said that the new vocational system would actually help the chances of vocational students who want to carry on into higher education because many will now be able to take standard matriculation exams.

The opposition Együtt party said the constant changes introduced in the education system suggested that the government was “experimenting” with schoolchildren.