2023

Further increase in the number of nursery places

The Government has announced a new HUF 10 billion tender in the 3rd phase of its day-care centre development programme, as part of the Hungary Recovery and Resilience Plan, which will create around 700 new day-care places in 16 settlements. The competition is open to local authorities, national and local national minority self-governments and churches in municipalities of 3,000 inhabitants or more planning to build a new sursery, mini-nursery or family nursery. This will further increase the number of places available. (palyazat.gov.hu)

Sectoral professional allowance

As of January 1, 2023, all teachers are entitled to a sectoral professional allowance equal to a thirty-two percent of their salary calculated without allowances and salary bonus.

Family-friendly workplaces

The State Secretariat for Families has announced a tender for the 13th time to create family-friendly workplaces. Last year 54 applicants won the Family Friendly Workplace title. This year the tender was published with a budget of HUF 100 million. Small, medium and large -sized enterprises, budgetary entities and church-related legal entities are eligible.

The tender encourages enterprises and institutions to introduce family-friendly initiatives, programs, and create services. In the recent years many good practices have been implemented in the business and public sector. Such examples include the provision of childcare and kindergarten care, the set up of a playroom, the organization of holiday camps, the introduction of certain paid leave for the vacation period of the child, the organization of various lecture series, and financial contributions to family vacations.

„Title-keeper Green Kindergarten” and „Perpetual Green Kindergarten”

Attitude formation starting at a young age is of fundamental importance, and this is also supported by the Green Kindergartens, in which children receive age-appropriate environmental education based on experience. Instititutions can apply for the titles "Green Kindergarten", "Title-keeper Green Kindergarten” and „Perpetual Green Kindergarten in the application process initiated by the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Interior.

The title is a guarantee that children are educated in an eco-school institution, meaning for example that the design of the premises support a healthy lifestyle, in addition, whenever possible, selective waste collection is ensured and a kindergarten garden is created and cared. Kindergartens also pay attention to shaping environmentally conscious attitude of parents and local communities.

The applicant kindergartens prepare a self-evaluation based on the criteria defined in the call, in which they provide an overview of the activities planned on the basis of the prinsiples of sustainabilty and carried out in the kindergarten, the level of environmental education, the characteristics of innovative activities and their operation accordingly. If a kindergarten has been awarded the "Green Kindergarten" title three times, it can apply for the title of "Title-keeper Green Kindergarten" or "Perpetual Green Kindergarten".

Training and increasing kindergarten staff

Childcare assisstant training for kindergartens fits into the five-year technical school system, and as a result of present innovation, the number of support stuff helping preschool teachers is planned to increase. In addition, in order to expand the competencies of kindergarten teachers, the opportunity to obtain an elementary scool teacher diploma within a two-year training will be offered.

The government encourages universities and colleges to set up teacher training centers, in which half of the members of the board responsible for the training content are practitioners, teachers.

2022

The number of nursery school places in Hungary increased significantly, by eighty percent

The number of nursery places increased from 32 thousand to more than 59 thousand between 2010 and 2022. Nursery care is now available in three times more settlements than in 2010. There are almost four times more institutions and services. (In Hungarian: kormany.hu)

“Every child should learn to swim!”  sub-programme started on 1 February 2022

The programme, established by the Hungarian Swimming Association and funded by the Hungarian Government, aims to ensure that all children learn to swim. The goal is to reach more than three hundred thousand children with the involvement of three hundred sport facilities by 2028. As part of this unique programme, swimming education included in the school curriculum as part of the physical education classes is provided free of charge by trained professionals. After completing the curriculum, students will be able to swim one hundred meters in three different swimming strokes continuously, and move safely and confidently in the deep water. The first round of the programme starts with the involvement of about twelve thousand kindergarten and primary school children in twenty cities. The number of cities and participants will expand in further stages. (In Hungarian: kormany.hu)

2021

The Digital Sucsess Programme published a call for proposals, under which 100 institutions (kindergartens and nurseries) have the opportunity to design their website tailored to their needs with the help of the free website creation and consulting service. Furthermore, one person working in the given institution can receive free homepage editor and operator training. 300 institutions have been given the opportunity so far, and the call was reopened again in 2022. (In Hungarian: kormany.hu)

The Government – on the basis of national and international experience – promotes the green education of kindergarten children, itis practice-oriented and tailor made for this age and  is based on kids’ previous experiences. The “Green Kindergarten” Network in Hungary is 15 years old; the number of member institutions endorsing green education and awareness raising of children in the topic is about 1000 including the successful newcomer applicants. In 2022, the programme was expanded to include more institutions than in previous years. (In Hungarian: zoldovoda.hu)