This letter was written by an anonymous principal of a secondary school in Budapest. It is translated and edited for HFP by Steven Kovács.
Organization and Bureaucratization
From 2013 schools lost their independence, beginning with the principals. The authority was transferred to the 56 local districts in the country. These were grouped under the Klebelsberg Center. This resulted in the bureaucratization of schools and instruction. Individual schools no longer had their own bank account. As a result they had to turn to the local school district for every one of their needs, down to small items, such as the purchase of chalks.
For example, I used to be allocated 50,000-100,000 forints ($150-$300) every 2-3 months to purchase basic supplies. Now, for every item I must turn to the school district. And I observed that a great deal of money was taken away from education, since the position of Minister of Education was eliminated. The aim of the centralization was to raise educational standards. But just the opposite happened.
Under the new order, often teachers’ salaries were delayed by weeks, even months because of lack of organization.
The bureaucratization led to problems in every school, in every area. Principals and teachers felt this, but there was nowhere to turn because fear pervaded everyone. The Orbán dictatorship did not tolerate any dissatisfaction and did not allow for complaints.
Even according to the Minister of Human Resources, Balog Zoltán, the new system was not working. He had to oversee health care, education and social welfare–too much for one ministry. The pandemic that struck in 2020 revealed that teachers and students did not have sufficient internet capability to continue their education at a satisfactory level. Even if the schools had the money to bring their information technology up to date, they could not have purchased the needed computers because of the centralized bureaucratic administration.
Textbooks are assigned by the newly created central administration and every school must use them, whether they are top-notch or weak schools. They have no room to buy textbooks appropriate to their needs. As a result, the level of excellent schools has declined and weaker schools have not improved.
It is true that from 2022 textbooks are free, but they are inadequate. Teachers would rather pay for better ones, but they are forced to follow those assigned by the state. Food is frightfully bad. It is expensive. Parents are paying for it. Schools have no say in who is providing the meals. In our district all meals to all schools and kindergartens are supplied by one company. They received their commission by bribing the local government and mayor. As principal of the high school I have nothing to say about this. Parents and students have been forced to accept this.
All teachers had to sign an agreement to abide by the new rules by this October. Many teachers have refused to sign it and they are leaving the teaching profession. The authorities don’t accept this.
At my school six teachers have given notice. They are difficult to replace. But because my school has a good reputation, I have been able to replace three of them.
A new law goes into effect on January 1, 2024. Teachers will be even more dependent on the state. They will have to take a loyalty pledge. It is still not clear what is the purpose of the oath, what the text will be. The fear is that it will be used to dismiss teachers who disagree with the government as a number of teachers have been let go this last year.
To summarize:
- Teachers and students are overly burdened.
- The schools are not preparing students for life.
- Students in high schools spend 7-8 hours in school.
- Teachers have no freedom in the choice of textbooks.
- In contrast, religious schools have no such limitations. Besides, they receive more funding from the state. It appears that it is the plan of the state to force more students from public schools into parochial schools.
The material that is taught is outdated. There are many things that students are taught which have no useful function, yet mastery of them is required in their examinations.
Protests
On October 23, the 67th anniversary of the outbreak of the 1956 Revolution, teachers and students marched from Hősök Tere (Heroes’ Square) to Oktogon in protest. They were addressed and welcomed by Karácsony Gergely, mayor of Budapest and one of the leaders of the opposition. From 2022 demonstrations and strikes have been common in Budapest and larger cities. But most of them have not had sizeable participation. Even in the most prominent ones, there were under ten thousand marchers. Students have joined their teachers, but their demands have not been addressed.
Photo by Steven Kovács
Teachers are afraid of protesting, especially in the countryside where they are even more visible and vulnerable, since it is the local officials of the government or city hall who make the appointments. If a member of the family protested, he would jeopardize his employment. All over the countryside, FIDESZ is in power, everyone is afraid of them and they are justly afraid of consequences of their protest. As a result, in the countryside protesters receive no support.
Salaries of teachers are 60-65% of the national average of intellectual workers. Right now the average teacher is earning 300,000 forints net, which is about 850 US dollars. They have been promised a pay raise for the last three years—the press has written about it 4-5 times a month—but their pay has not increased. As a result, teachers are becoming more and more dissatisfied. But teachers and students are protesting not simply for higher wages. They are demanding the modernization of the entire educational system, that is antiquated and lacking in quality, characteristic of government policies in all other sectors.
There are not enough teachers. Students are leaving the country not only to get better pay after graduation. They are leaving in droves to study in Western universities. I never had students apply to foreign colleges. Now a significant number are leaving for the West.
From every other point of view, people have had enough of Orbán and his regime.
Photo by: Steven Kovács
What is being taught
Orbán’s regime began to rewrite history from the time he was reelected in 2010. In history books the period between the wars has been whitewashed to make it the age of normalcy, prosperity and tolerance. Regent Horthy Miklós is pictured riding in on his white horse, restoring order after the “red terror” of the 1919 Republic of Councils. And he is depicted as doing everything in his power to withstand the force of Hitler’s Germany. Orbán’s attempt to establish the Horthy regime as the ideal good old days of Hungary has pervaded all aspects of Hungarian life—the constitution, naming of streets and official positions, newly created monuments, and textbooks for the youth. By proclaiming Horthy as the model, Orbán has dismissed all other alternatives. He has proudly announced his government as “illiberal,” lumping together the entire opposition—democrats, liberals, socialists, communists.
Orbán himself entered the history textbooks for eighth graders in 2016. In that text his 2015 Brussels speech on immigration is included as is a picture of him with Pope John Paul II. The book identifies his predecessor and main opponent Gyurcsány solely as the beneficiary of privatization when he was elected prime minister in 2004.
A number of authors have been eliminated, replaced by others. For example, we are not teaching the works of Esterházy Péter, nor Ottlik Géza, nor the Nobel Prize winner Kertész Imre . Others have been added, including Szabó Magda, the best known woman writer of the Communist period. Herczeg Ferenc, a promoter of conservative, nationalist points of view from the turn of the century, is another part of required reading. So is Tormay Cecile, right-wing political activist and admirer of Mussolini. And Wass Albert, convicted as a war criminal in Romania for atrocities against Romanians and Jews. The government has decided to feature writers who can clearly be identified as fierce right-wing nationalists.
But it is not simply the subject matter that has changed. On examinations, the reasoning and argumentation in presenting certain ideas has been replaced by tests about the acquaintance with cultural icons. In other words, encyclopedic knowledge has moved to the forefront. The ability to analyze and form critical perspectives is no longer the principal aim. Memorization has become the main objective, which is not only anachronistic but superfluous and redundant in our age when information is instantly available by a click on a computer. Students are required to regurgitate biographical information about the officially sanctioned authors, rather than delve into the form and meaning of their creations.
The disciples of Orbán stress the virtues of patriotism which is hammered into students across the humanistic and social science disciplines. This, too, is characteristic of a dictatorial regime.
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