Where the Hungarian elite studies: schooling for millions of forints

As we already reported, the state-financed Hungarian education system struggles with many problems. For example, in January thousands of students protested for a fairer and more modern education system. Therefore, those who can afford it enrol their children in private schools where parents believe they will receive a better education. In fact, Hungary is not short of these schools where mostly the children of the Hungarian elite study. According to penzcentrum.hu, there are Hungarian and international ones, of course, the latter is more expensive. Consequently, the tuition fee goes up from 35 thousand HUF (100 EUR) to 5 million HUF (EUR 16,000).

The state education system does not function well

In fact, if we google ‘Budapest private school’ there will be more than 29 thousand hits. Of course, in Hungary education from kindergarten to university is free for every citizen. However, the Hungarian state-financed education system bleeds from a thousand cuts. For example, there is an

ever-growing shortage of teachers who are overloaded and underpaid.

Furthermore, the Hungarian education system does not have good results. For example, according to the results of the 2017 PISA-study,

Hungarian students perform poorly in Maths, reading comprehension, natural sciences and cooperative problem-solving.

Thus, private schools appear an attractive alternative for those who can afford them. However, finding the best price, pedagogical method, schedule or group number can be challenging since the supply is huge.

The Hungarian private schools are cheaper

In fact, Pénzcentrum was curious how much the tuition fees are in the different schools, how high the number of over applicants is and when the application period ends.

Firstly, the tuition fee in Waldorf Elementary School of Óbuda is 35-40,000 HUF (EUR 120-130), but

they take into consideration the financial status of the family.

Furthermore, altogether 505 students learn in the school, and last year they had 100 applicants for the 50-56 places.