2023

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.

A new career system for teachers

Act LII of 2023 on the new career system of teachers primarily comes into effect in 2024. The law establishes the „public employment relationship in general education”. Among others, it determines the amount of basic leave (50 working days, of which 15 days can be set out by the employer as defined in law). The remuneration is related to career advancement. The exact monthly amount is determined by the the employer within their discretion taking into consideration

• the amount of years spent in profession,

• the qualifications and specialisations of the teacher releavant for the position, foreign language knowledge indicated in the appointment and releavant for work,

• the extent of extra work undertaken voluntarily, and the extent of teaching in more instititutions or sites,

• the recognition awarded by the minister responsible for general education or the maintainer,

• the amount of available funds of the employer as a result of responsible management,

• the number of subjects taught by the teacher,

• the labor market possibilities to fill vacancies, the position of the teacher.

National Talent Program

One of the government's main strategic goals is to support talents. The National Talent Program was established 14 years ago, it helps 300-350 thousand young people every year, so far 19 thousand applications have been awarded with nearly HUF 33 billion in total.

This year, the central budget contributes to the program with the same amount as last year, HUF 4.3 billion, and anyone can also donate 1 % form their tax for this purpose. Over the past 14 years, taxpayers have supported the program with HUF 17.5 billion.

Anyone between the ages of 8 and 35 can apply for support. Individuals can receive direct support through scholarships, but public education institutions, church and civil organizations can also apply. Individuals can apply for the Talent of the Year Award and the Start program, and institutions can win support from which they can support talents in a variety of ways.

PÉNZ7 (“Moneyweek”)

The PÉNZ7 financial and entrepreneurship theme week was organized for the ninth time in schools. The focus of the one-week program was "Modern money management and digital security" and "Think and be entrepreneur!".  The public, the civil and business sectors, teachers and financial organizations cooperated for students and business development. There was a lot of interest in the initiative also this year, nearly 144,000 students from more than a thousand schools applied for the program organized with the participation of 506 volunteers. Registered schools can download the teaching materials developed for different age groups and the preparation workbooks from the website of the theme week free of charge. The students' attention was drawn to the importance of digital security in the experience-oriented lessons, where the knowledge was conveyed playfully, considering the characteristics of each age group.

In 2015, Hungary joined the European Money Week (running in almost 30 European countries) initiative as a founder. This year PÉNZ7 was again connected to the European and to the Global Money Week events involving around 130 countries, and also supported the goals of the government's national strategy adopted in 2017 for promoting national financial awareness. The Pénziránytű Foundation has been preparing the PÉNZ7 teaching materials and sample lessons for nine years. This year 570,000 textbooks and workbooks are available due to the cooperation of the Ministry of Interior. So far, classes have been given in 9,300 schools with the participation of more than 1.4 million students and 12,000 teachers.

The collaborating partners of PÉNZ7 are the Ministry of Interior as the project manager, the Ministry for Economic Development, the Ministry of Finance, the Hungarian Bank Association, the Compass Foundation, and the Junior Achievement Hungary Foundation.

Digital developments

One of the key issues of modern education is digital transition which is also encouraged by the Public Education Strategy for 2021-2030 adopted by the government.  So far, one hundred thousand teachers have participated in in-service training developing digital competences, and the digital culture subject has been launched in schools.

Textbook digitalization has also taken place, all state-developed textbooks are available online, and the traditional paper-based school diary and students’ report book have been replaced with the online Kréta system, which registers 1.5 million accesses per day.

In the past few years, bandwidth expansion has taken place in two thousand schools and secure Wi-Fi networks have been built in four thousand schools. In 2019, schools received 45,000 notebooks, 24,000 student tablets and 3,000 interactive displays. During the period of the coronavirus pandemic, the government decided to purchase an additional 26,000 computers.

In addition, a program was launched last spring; its "first step" was that students in grades 5 and 12 got 120,000 notebooks, and teachers were given 55,000 devices. The next phase will take place this year.

The National Public Education Portal (Okosportált) was opened 137 million times in the last two years, users can find 56,000 tasks in 5,000 sets, 2,600 study groups have been formed, and artificial intelligence helps self-check.

The media library of the National Public Education Portal also includes videos, animations, and interactive maps. For example, 39,000 digital lesson plans support the work of teachers, 224 smart textbooks are available, and the curriculum packages contain 36,000 smart tasks. The idea was not only to make the teaching materials available in pdf format, but to create interactive material that can be developed digitally.

There is also an access to the Digital Museum, the National Audiovisual Archive and the iWitness service through the Okoportál.

In addition, 34,000 tablets were used in the national population census of which 22,000 were given to public education institutions.

The government places special emphasis on environmental education and attitude formation, the important pillars of which are environmental education programmes. The Hungarian Association of Environmental Enterprises, with the support of the Ministry of Energy, in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior and the National Meteorological Service, is launching a new attitude-building programme for elementary school students (ISCED 1-2). Within this framework, by the end of the academic year, thousands of students can gain knowledge about the causes and effects of air pollution and about the possibilities to reduce it in sessions organized in general education institutions.

2022

Klebelsberg Teacher Training Scholarship Programme 2022/2023

The aim of the Klebelsberg Teacher Training Scholarship Programme, established by the Government in 2013, is to provide highly qualified, professionally trained teachers with commitment for the future, as well as to motivate university and college students who choose the teaching career to work long-term in their profession, and at the same time to offer them a job after graduation.

Raised number of measurements in schools

In accordance with the Public Education Act, input measurements of reading literacy, mathematics and natural science competences of students in grades 6, 8 and 10 grades will be organized in all general education institutions; and output measurements in grades 6-11 in the academic year 2022/23. Pilot input and output measurements will be held in grades 4 and 5 to assess the pupils’ reading literacy and mathematics competences. The assessment is digital from 2022.

Scholarships for disadvantaged students

The “Útravaló” (Path) program provides support for disadvantaged and multiply disadvantaged pupils and students from the last year of basic school (ISCED 1-2) until the HE graduation. The scholarship programme has four sub-programmes: Path to upper secondary school, Path to profession, Path to graduation, Path to diploma. Due to the governmental 2.5 billion HUF subsidy, more than ten thousand children and young people can benefit from this performance-based scholarship programme, the amount depends on the academic results of the pupil/student gained at the end of the previous school year. The programme is ongoing also in the school year 2022/23.

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 be expanded in further stages.

After the school year 2021/2022, additional institutions can become members of the Hungarian Eco-School Network with the help of the new calls for the school year 2022/2023. Every third student in Hungary attends an Eco-School, and can learn and experience -through his/her daily activities- how individual responsibility can be translated into action for a fair, liveable and harmonious future with the natural environment.

In 2021, the Hungarian Eco-School Network received a professional recognition of the Global Education Network Europe (GENE). According to the organization's call for proposals, the submitted programme is encouraging and adaptable to other European countries.

In 2023, the eco-school network expanded with 118 new members, another 91 institutions won the certification for the second time, and 102 schools received the permanent title of eco-school after three successful applications. Together with those newly joining the program, a total of 1,402 eco-schools will operate in Hungary from September.

The content reform of the Hungarian public education has been followed by the renewal of the general requirements of upper secondary school leaving exams after that the curricular revisions had completed. The main change -made after comprehensive consultations and in line with the new implications of the framework curricula published in 2020- is that the exams in several subjects require more creativity and individual problem solving (e.g: project work). The new regulation will take effective in a phasing in system, exams remain same until the spring termin school year 2023/24.

Children living with diabetes get help in general schools

The recent modifications of the Public Education Act have stipulated the organisation of appropriate daytime health care provision for children living with diabetes. This may include e.g. that the appointed person assists in testing blood glucose level and giving insulin, also takes special care of the alimentation of children with diabetes. Teachers who voluntarily participate in the task receive an additional allowance,17% of the salary base.  Theoretical and practical trainings are organized for teachers.

Public education and cultural institutions maintained by local ethnic minority governments are supported

1.356 billion HUF is allocated to support public education and cultural institutions maintained by local ethnic minority governments due to a government decision. In 2010 five public education institutions were under the auspices of ethnic minority governments, the number is 66 in 2021. The grant for infrastructure has been given to 60 institutions of 49 maintainers in 13 counties.