Local governments will have to fund only 10-15% of schools’ operating costs in the future, instead of the current 50%, and the central government will finance the rest, she said.

Hoffmann also told an opening ceremony at a high school in Püspökladány, Hajdú county, that the national curriculum will be transformed. Major changes lie ahead, she continued “as national erudition has tilted, with Harry Potter slowly edging out János Vitéz,” referring to the hero of an epic by 19th-century poet Sándor Petőfi.

In other changes, she envisaged a career-for-life model for teachers and a professional supervisory and supporting system.

Teachers are paid about Ft 150,000 a month, half the average of those holding diplomas, and the cabinet aims to enhance this with an improvement in the economy, Hoffmann said.

A new public education bill now being drafted is to be submitted to Parliament next spring."

Source: Hungary Around the Clock.

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