Academic guidance

Kindergartens monitor the development of kindergarten children, maintain written records thereof, and inform the parents in writing whether their children’s development reaches the status required for entering the school system when the children reach the age of compulsory education. Kindergartens may request Pedagogical Assistance Services to help with the assessment of the above. Parents may request the opinion of the Pedagogical Assistance Services besides the kindergarten’s information.

In an administrative procedure initiated at the parent’s request, the Educational Authority decides whether the child who has reached compulsory school age can remain in pre-school education for another academic year.

In school education, classes are constituted by groups of 14-34 pupils learning in the same grade. The form master of a school class gives support for pupils in two hours per week, among others in the field of their school progress. The form master also informs the parents on the progress of their child, and on the opportunities of further studies.

Schools’ pedagogical programmes, which are open to the public, are mandatory for the rules of passage within the school or between different programs.

Both primary and secondary schools organise open days to support further studies. Secondary schools communicate the features and framework numbers of the education to be started in the next school year on their own websites and on the online surface operated by the Educational Authority.

Psychological counselling

The aim of the mental hygienic development implemented in educational institutions is to promote balanced psychological development, as well as to prepare and offer solution strategies for the harmful effects coming from the environment. Kindergarten and school psychologists employed by educational institutions organise filtering tests, provide crisis counselling directly to pupils, in individual or group sessions, and support the solution of interpersonal conflicts.

Career guidance

Pupils need help to find and prepare for the career most fitting to them and to the interests of society. The above help should be provided to pupils on the one hand by the school, on the other hand by counselling institutions outside the school in the form of career orientation programmes, and professional services established for career orientation and career guidance.

Under the authority of the National Public Education Act, the Educational Authority has been supporting the successful career choice and further education of primary school eighth-grade students since 2020. The Authority organises the career orientation test (measurement) as it is specified in the schedule of the school year. The measurement aims to provide all eight-grade pupils during the school year with feedback on the most suitable upper secondary school pathways, as well as the main fields of their interests and some of the relevant competences for further education. This is an anonymous, counselling-type measure of 8th-grade students that provides sectoral career guidance recommendations for post-secondary pathways.

The Authority has also developed a Career Orientation Measuring and Support Tool, which is digitally available to anyone.

Several institutions and organisations participate in career orientation counselling. Pedagogical Assistance Services at county level provide career orientation support in individual and group forms, mainly by having pupils write skills level assessment tests and providing individual counselling thereafter.

Schools support, and often organise that pupils can participate in career orientation open days kept by secondary and higher education institutions.

In response to labour market needs, labour departments of the government offices and VET institutions organise career orientation fairs and open days aimed at introducing the different trades. In 2015 the national programme named “The night of trades” was started with a similar objective.

It is the task of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry to harmonise VET and the labour market. It endeavours to make practical, “physical” trades attractive to pupils before career orientation, with emphasis on shortage VET that is demanded in the labour market.

The National Office for Vocational Education and Training and Adult Learning helps young pupils before career orientation and their parents to make decisions on choosing a career. In order to achieve this, the database of vocational qualifications to inform on each trade has been compiled and is regularly updated with the help of the vocational and examination requirements of the vocational qualifications included in the NVQR.