New elite school to open in Budapest

If everything goes according to plan, Budapest School will commence its operation in September with approximately 50 students. They already have their building on Belgrád quay. Their foci are preparing students to get into university, get a great job, or even start their own businesses.

The method

Founders believe that the problem with education in the 21st century is that students need to be prepared for positions that might not exist yet, and they are likely to work with technologies that have not been invented yet. Budapest School aims to prepare its students for this scenario by teaching them how to adapt to ever-changing situations.

Pénzcentrum interviewed Ádám Babocsay, Head of Marketing & Strategy at Budapest School. He talked about the main principles they aim to follow at Budapest School; what their approach to teaching looks like, and how much it costs to get in.

“It is not the quality of education that has been degrading but rather the job market’s expectations changed a lot. What really matters is not what you actually know but how well you can adopt to change … We teach kids how to learn so that they will be able to adapt to new situations easily.”

At Budapest School, students will form a community and learn together. 12 to 14 year-olds will learn together. Founders believe that the different age groups learning together will help everyone’s development. The older ones can always help the younger ones. There might be cases when younger students are faster/better at learning something, and they can support their older classmates.

There will be no homeroom teachers; they will use a mentor system. Teachers will have a number of students whose development they will personally monitor. Quarterly discussions will be held to talk about each student’s personal development: what he/she achieved (or what went wrong if a goal was not reached), what are his/her new goals for the next quarter.

Tuition

Parents who want their children attending Budapest School will need to pay 480 Euros (tuition plus meal costs) per month, which adds up to 34,000 Euros in six years.

However, there are differences in payment between the candidates. The school asks the families how much they could offer for their services; some parents can offer a little bit more than 480 Euros, and the difference automatically goes to a family who can offer just a little bit less. Many families are happy to help each other out.

The application process

Applicants have to fill in a form in which they need to indicate a field or topic they are interested in (e.g. media or art), and they get a project connected to that topic. These projects aim to make the applicants make an effort to get to know the topic better, and it often involves research, critical thinking, and creativity.

Source: www.penzcentrum.hu