Hungarian PM vows to increase spending on education

Education standards are not primarily a matter of money, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány said at the launch of the government's "New Knowledge New School" programme. He announced that an extra Ft 140 billion will be spent annually on education, two-thirds of which will be from EU subsidies. Hungary currently spends around Ft 500 billion on education each year.

Education Minister István Hiller said the five main concerns of education renewal are early child development, equal opportunities, gifted children, developing content and restoring the prestige of the teaching profession.

The government will pay poorer families Ft 20,000 when their child enrols at a kindergarten, and an additional Ft 10,000 twice a year if the child has a 75% attendance rate. The government will give Ft 36 billion towards the integration of segregated communities.

New teachers with a bachelor's degree will receive an extra Ft 25,000 per month while those with a masters degree will get an extra Ft 40,000. From 2009 more than Ft 3 billion will be given annually in performance-related bonuses. School directors will receive Ft 20-40,000 more per month and teachers of children from deprived backgrounds will be paid a Ft 30-50,000 bonus each month. The modernisation of local cultural centres will be supported with an extra Ft 30 billion.

Some 70-75,000 teachers and 80-100,000 pupils will be awarded subsidies to buy laptops, PMO state secretary Bálint Magyar said. All pupils will have access to English-language courses. From 2012 chemistry, physics and biology will be a joint academic subject after a child’s first four years of schooling, he added.

The government has initiated a public dialogue on the proposals.

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