The Hungarian Government will keep an equal focus on both the smallest villages and largest cities, while in public education it will ensure that even the most underprivileged children are given the same opportunities as their peers born into better circumstances, State Minister for Public Education Rózsa Hoffmann said at a press conference in the northwest Hungarian village of Veszprémvarsány on Friday.

By taking over the financing and running of public education institutions in small settlements, the Hungarian Government has both ensured the future of these schools and contributed to the sustainable future of these settlements, she said.

Hoffmann said that in its recent reform of public education the Hungarian Government had considered among the top priorities that children in all parts of the country should be educated in schools of equal quality, giving them access to all the basic elements of learning and modern knowledge that are indispensable for a successful life in their adulthood.

The country has more than 800 schools that until the year 2010 were in a permanent state of uncertainty due to their small size, thus leaving no room for peaceful learning. When taking over these schools from the municipalities, the Government decided to run elementary education with groups as small as eight pupils, thus making it clear that all children are equally valuable and that the development of even the smallest settlement is important.

The Government’s new public education system brought along unified regulations and safe financing, while at the same time focusing on a promotion system for teachers which allows for better moral and material recognition, leading to a stable and predictable career path for all teachers.

The new promotion system for teachers introduced in September 2013 included an average increase of 30 percent in the salaries of 160,000 teachers. The future increase of their wages is now guaranteed by law until the year 2017. Because the calculation of teachers’ wages is based on the national minimum wage, this makes them the only category that has the real value of their wages guaranteed by law as a result of which teachers’ wages rose by another 7 to 10 percent this month.

Every element of the new public education system is aimed at the betterment of children, families, local communities and ultimately the entire country.

(Ministry of Human Resources)