Village schools in Hungary

According to the president of the Association of Hungarian Villages, Gellert Szabo, it remains to be seen whether village schools in Hungary can operate securely under the administration of the national government.

60 percent of Hungary’s 2800 villages have elementary schools, three-quarters of which offer grades 1 through 8 (the rest only go up to grade 7). Over 1,000 villages (40 per cent) do not have schools.

By law villages with at least eight children must have a working kindergarten and elementary school. Classes can be combined in elementary schools but not in high school. Schools with less than 150-200 students are considered “small schools”. In the last academic school year, there were a total of 1,252 schools serving villages with populations of less than 3,000.

Szabo told vg.hu a majority of villages were relieved when the national government took over village schools because it meant they no longer had to deal with school issues or how to finance their operations. Nevertheless, Szabo believes it’s important for the villages to have a role in running schools if they so choose, and believes they could do it for 40-50 percent of the cost.

In 2011 the national government gave four villages HUF 300 million with which to reopen and run village schools.  Since then a number of other municipalities expressed a desire to do the same.

According to the State Secretary for Public Education, Rozsa Hoffman, prior to 2010 over 800 schools were unable to provide students with an adequate education due to low attendance.  One reason for low attendance is that parents often enrol their children in schools in nearby towns or cities.  She says the national government took over the administration and operation of public schools to ensure the future of the schools and to assist in the preservation of Hungary’s villages. She also emphasized that one of the main goals of revamping Hungary’s public education system is to create equal opportunity.

Fidesz MP Zoltan Pokorni, who served as Minister of Education under the first Orban government (1998-2002) and currently chairs the parliamentary committee on public education, once said “the biggest problem with Hungary’s public education system is segregation”.  It is difficult to convince middle class parents to keep their children in small village schools. Many parents even change their children’s address to make it possible for them to attend larger schools in nearby towns or cities.  “Within one or two years the government will realize that HUF 150-160 billion (USD 700 million) in additional funds should be appropriated for developing rural school,” says Pokorni.  ”At present we cannot burden well-functioning schools by diverting these funds away from them.”