Government expects new school term to commence smoothly amidst serious teacher shortage

According to Pénzcentrum, the Hungarian public education system lacks a sufficient number of maths, physics, informatics, and English teachers. The problem is severe, especially in Budapest and Pest County. Meanwhile, the government officials talk about a smooth sail since the textbooks have been successfully distributed.

The teacher shortage has been a serious issue since 2016 in Hungary, Pénzcentrum wrote. The PDSZ teachers’ trade union said the majority of schools do not upload job vacancies on their official website because from January 2024, it is no longer compulsory. Having said that, state secretary Zoltán Maruzsa said that allegations about 16 thousand missing teachers to meet demand are unfounded. However, even the government-close union head, Péter Horváth, acknowledged that the teacher shortage is a country-wide problem.

Most schools look for maths, English, physics, informatics and Hungarian teachers. According to a survey, 10% of the maths teachers do not even have a degree, and that rate is much higher in the villages.

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State secretary expects a smooth sail

The textbooks for the next academic year will be delivered to schools in time to ensure an “orderly start”, Bence Rétvári, state secretary at the interior ministry, said on Monday. Speaking at a press conference, he said deliveries of some 13 million textbooks to 4,200 schools nationwide had started early in August and were completed in a timely manner. Concerning the staffing of schools, Rétvári said there had been “no extraordinary changes” in the number of teachers.

He said the provision of textbooks, free of charge to pupils, would cost the central budget a total 13.5 billion forints (EUR m). If families were to pay for the textbooks, as they had before 2010, they would face expenses of 30,000-40,000 forints (EUR 78.16-104.21) each, he added. The state secretary also said the textbooks were continually updated in cooperation with teachers and students. He noted that each textbook was given a final licence after a three-year trial period and corrections. He added that schools had an opportunity to order their textbooks from 36 publishers including both state-run and private companies.