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Hungary EDUCATION
Before the communist assumption of power in 1947,
religion
was the primary influence on education. The Roman Catholic
Church
sponsored and controlled most schools, although some other
religious denominations (Reformed, Lutheran, and
Unitarian) as
well as the government ran some schools
(see Religion and Religious Organizations
, this ch.). The social and
material
status of students strongly influenced the type and extent
of
schooling they received. Education above the elementary
level was
generally available only to the social elite of the
country. In
secondary and higher-level schools, a mere 5 percent of
the
students came from worker or peasant families. Only about
1 or 2
percent of all students entered higher education.
Before the communist educational reforms, secondary
education
was traditional. The curriculum stressed the humanities,
often at
the expense of the sciences. Technical education received
relatively little attention, despite the existence of
technical
and vocational schools.
In 1946 the government established the principle of
free
education as a right of all citizens, even before the
communist
assumption of power. In 1948 the new communist government
secularized almost all schools and placed them under state
control, giving oversight to the Ministry of Education.
The
churches retained only a few institutions to train their
clergy.
The Marxist-Leninist government made major changes in
the
education system. Its goal was to mold citizens to work
for the
benefit of society. The reforms stressed technical and
vocational
training. Political education also became a high priority.
Young
people were to receive a thoroughly Marxist-Leninist
education
both within and outside the school framework
(see Ideology
, ch.
4). Education also sought to promote a thorough
understanding of
the political system, an understanding fostered also by
youth
organizations functioning outside the formal educational
process.
Russian-language study became compulsory from the upper
levels of
the general school (also known as the elementary school)
through
the university. Many Soviet professors taught at Hungarian
universities, many textbooks were adaptations of the work
of
Soviet authors, and Russian-language clubs were
established.
Marxism-Leninism had become the backbone of the
curriculum by
the early 1950s. A brief period of liberalization followed
the
death of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in 1953
(see Rakosi's Rule
, ch. 1). After the failure of the Revolution of 1956,
authorities reverted to their former emphasis on
Marxist-Leninist
indoctrination. However, they did modify the earlier
policy of
Sovietization in favor of a more Hungarian orientation.
The regime's ideology also dictated the need to
increase the
total number of students enrolled in higher education,
primarily
through recruitment from the working class and the
peasantry.
Whereas in 1939 only 13,000 students were enrolled in
higher
education, by 1970 this number had grown to 86,000. To be
sure,
some of these students were participating in
correspondence or
evening courses rather than regular daytime classwork.
Adults
were encouraged to study through schools at the workplace
and
correspondence courses. Authorities also tried to expand
the
proportion of students from lower social strata by setting
a
worker and peasant quota of about 60 percent at all places
available in higher education. Students seeking admission
to
these institutions were assessed according not only to
their
abilities but also to their social origins; the children
of
families belonging to the formerly privileged classes
rarely were
given the opportunity to study. When students from modest
socioeconomic backgrounds lacked the requisite academic
training,
one-year remedial courses were available to assist them.
In 1963
this class-oriented system of recruitment was abandoned.
Nevertheless, political considerations continued to play a
role
in admissions procedures at secondary schools and
universities.
In 1986 the country had 3,540 elementary schools, 587
secondary schools, 278 apprentice schools, and 54
institutions of
higher education, of which 18 were universities with
several
faculties and programs extending five or more years. Of
the
latter, four were general universities, three were
technical
universities, six were agricultural universities, four
were
medical universities, and one was a university of
economics. The
country had five specialized university-level institutes
for the
arts and physical education.
Attendance at school was mandatory from age six to
sixteen.
All students attended general schools for at least eight
years.
Tuition was free for all students from age six up to the
university level. Most students actually began their
schooling at
five years of age; in 1986 approximately 92 percent of all
children of kindergarten age attended one of the country's
4,804
kindergartens. By 1980 every town and two-thirds of the
villages
had kindergartens. Parents paid a fee for preschool
services that
was based on income, but such institutions were heavily
subsidized by the local councils or enterprises that
sponsored
them.
By 1980 only 29 percent of males aged fifteen years or
older
and 38 percent of females aged fifteen years and older had
not
completed eight years of general school, compared with 78
percent
of such males and 80 percent of such females in 1949.
About half
of the students who completed the general schools
subsequently
completed their education in two years, through vocational
and
technical training. The remaining students continued their
studies in a four-year gymnasium or trade school.
In 1985 about 98,500 undergraduate students attended
the
country's higher educational institutions. Almost 10
percent of
the population aged eighteen to twenty-two was enrolled in
regular daytime courses at institutions of higher
education. In
the 1980s, about 40 percent of regular students came from
worker
or peasant families. Most of these students either were
exempt
from tuition payments or, more often, received financial
assistance. In the 1980s, applicants outnumbered places
available
in the colleges and universities. As a result, many
persons
enrolled in evening and correspondence courses, although
these
courses were not considered to be equal in quality to
regular day
instruction.
In the 1985-86 academic year, about 2,500 foreign
students
studied full time in Hungary. About half were European
students;
the remainder came from developing countries. In the same
year,
about 1,300 Hungarian students were studying in foreign
institutions of higher education, most of them in
neighboring
countries.
In the 1980s, the average educational attainments of
Hungarians ranked in the middle, in comparison with those
of
citizens of other European countries. The quality of
Hungary's
education system was substantially inferior to those of
East
Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Sweden and was somewhat lower
than
those of Austria, Belgium, Finland, Norway, Poland, and
West
Germany. Many Hungarians voiced concerns about the quality
of
their schools. Critics noted, among other things, that
although
Switzerland spent 18.8 percent of its national budget on
education, Brazil 18.4 percent, and Japan 19.2 percent,
Hungary
allotted only 6.6 percent of its state budget to
education. In
the 1980s, the country experienced shortages of both
classrooms
and teachers, so that primary-school classes sometimes
contained
up to forty children. In many areas, schools had alternate
morning and afternoon school shifts in order to stretch
facilities and staff. Moreover, not all teachers received
proper
training.
At the university level, in the late 1980s some
students and
faculty were calling for greater autonomy for institutions
of
higher education and were demanding freedom from
ideological
control by both the government and the party. They decried
the
prominence given to the study of Marxism-Leninism and the
Russian
language in university curricula. The public was also
distressed
over the fact that, despite the government's remedial
measures
during previous decades, in the 1980s children of the
intelligentsia had a far greater chance of entering
institutions
of higher learning than did the children of agricultural
workers
and unskilled industrial workers.
Data as of September 1989
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