After several months of specialist and public consultations, at its meeting on Wednesday the Government adopted the National Core Curriculum, which is planned to take effect in 2013. The new Curriculum is the work of 150 specialists, including academics and teachers. Its adoption was announced by the new Minister for Human Resources, Zoltán Balog, and Minister of State for Education, Rózsa Hoffmann.

As a result of thorough work by pedagogical specialists and public consultations, a curriculum has been arrived at which is rich in value, modern and in line with EU trends. It answers an important deficiency felt by teachers, as there has been no regulation of content in education since 2003. The Curriculum is closely linked to the new Act on Public Education and Higher Education, and the aims of that Act.

The new Curriculum aims to guarantee that children receive high-quality education in today’s most relevant areas, with such subjects as economy and finance, food safety, transport safety, information technology and telecommunications, healthy lifestyles and foreign language culture.

A review of educational content was essential, as public education has been unable to meet contemporary needs for decades, and has been unable to reduce or halt the marginalization of disadvantaged groups within society.

(kormany.hu)