The Government supports the studies of some 11 thousand students with aid worth HUF 1.8 billion (EUR 6 million) within the framework of the secondary school and school-leaving examination sub-programme of the “Provisions” (Hungarian: “Útravaló”) scholarship and mentor programme, which aims at promoting the equal opportunities and successful educational advancement of disadvantaged young people.
Government spokesperson Éva Kurucz announced that the sum of the monthly scholarship grant may amount to as much as HUF 15,000, in return for which the Government expects students to do well at school and to improve their performance. In the last school year, 14 thousand students received scholarship grants, and some 7,700 mentors were involved in the operation of the programme. More than one half of the students participating in the programme are young Roma.
Károly Czibere, State Secretary for Social Affairs and Social Inclusion of the Ministry of Human Resources highlighted that these young people are the resources of Hungarian society, and the scholarship is not mere assistance but a valuable investment that will be recovered in the future.
He added that a condition of a sound inclusion policy is that the grants should be supplemented with services, personal assistance and mentoring, and this is the principle they wish to pursue in all aid programmes.
The State Secretary further indicated that HUF 200 million is allocated to the vocational school and university sub-programmes; information on the results of these will be shared with the public in mid-October to mid-November.
The government spokesperson also reiterated that it is the ultimate goal of the Government to create a work-based society, rather than a benefit-based one, and to boost the number of people in employment to 5 million. To this end, young people must have competitive skills upon the completion of their studies. As part of the programme, students are helped to obtain vocational qualifications or even university degrees.