Everything is in place for a successful school year, Minister of Human Resources Zoltán Balog said in Budapest on Tuesday at a teachers’ conference before the beginning of the next school year on 1 September. He added that teachers have displayed great discipline during the restructuring of the public education system, the most expansive in 25 years.
He added that the transformation is a systemic one, and accordingly the results will not be immediately obvious. The goal is the creation of a strong national middle class, which can have an elevating effect on other strata of society. Mr. Balog said the overhaul of the public education system was a strategic mix of tradition and modernity.
The new career path system for teachers is only half completed, but they should already feel the advantages, the Minister said, adding that the Klebelsberg scholarship program is currently providing advanced training for 500 teachers.
Mr. Balog said that the success of the new education strategy requires mutual trust between teachers, school management, the administration and parents.
Minister of State for Public Education Judit Bertalan Czunyiné said that in addition to knowledge the public education system should also provide identity. She added that the career path system for teachers is for the first time offering adequate recognition for the role played by teachers in society as a whole.