Socialists accuse govt of removing democratic control in education

Budapest, April 23 (MTI) – The opposition Socialist Party has accused the government of removing democratic control and the right of self-government in education, effectively making participants in the sector “subjects”.

Party leader Jozsef Tobias told a conference on Thursday that access to knowledge is vitally important. Every European country except for Hungary has realised that reducing poverty and expanding equal opportunities hinges on widening access to education. Hungary has failed to understand that a person’s success relies on the ability to continually develop based on a solid foundation of knowledge, he added.

Hungary’s government in the past five years has deprived schools of their democratic control, he said, adding that ever since schools were taken out of local authority control and put under the aegis of a state body, the Klebersberg Centre, neither teachers, parents nor pupils any longer have the freedom to customise the curriculum to their needs.