Governments put all aspects of running public schools under state control

Budapest, May 17 (MTI) – The government will on Tuesday submit a bill to parliament that would put all aspects of running public schools under state control, a government official said.

Deputy state secretary for public education Imre Sipos said after a meeting of the public education roundtable that the delegates at the meeting were in agreement that the current school management system, under which the state and local councils share the running of over half of all public schools, had not lived up to expectations.

Annamária Pölöskei, head of state school manager Klik, noted that the basic upkeep of 55 percent of schools is currently down to local councils, which are expected to ensure supplies such as chalk. Local governments currently see to the basic upkeep of schools with the biggest headcounts, she added

Whereas the state-run schools agency (Klik) is responsible for major aspects such as teachers’ salaries and the curriculum, the state manager also fully runs the remaining 45 percent of schools in terms of basic upkeep. This is now set to change: the state will be responsible for every aspect of running Hungary’s public schools, right down to chalk supplies.

In March, the government announced that Klik in its current form would be scrapped in the summer and replaced by a new, less centralised system.

Pölöskei said the new system would be divided into three levels of management: a so-called “Klebelsberg Centre” at the top, 56 school district centres and then the schools themselves.

The school district centres are set to begin functioning on July 1, she said.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters