Energy crisis: will Hungarian schools be heated with wood?

The Interior Ministry would save money on the heating of schools. The Ministry is instructing educational institutions to immediately assess the feasibility of switching from gas to wood-burning as soon as possible by purchasing stoves.

This is according to the letter received by the school districts, which was obtained by Klubrádió. Tamás Totyik, the vice-president of the Teachers’ Trade Union (Pedagógusok Szakszervezete, PSZ), was stunned by the idea. The conversion is pointless and very expensive, because wood will be as expensive as gas.

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He says this will take us back to a time when children had to carry wood to school. Members of the PSZ suspect that the Ministry may have delayed the publication of the school year order because of a planned carbon break for the winter period.

Switching to wood heating is not only a step backwards compared to gas heating, but also involves costs that the school district cannot afford, said energy expert Attila Holoda, as can be read in the article of Klubrádió. Firewood is already a scarce resource. Using wood will also increase the ecological footprint, Holoda underscored.