Hungarian education crisis – more than 2,000 missing teachers

According to 24.hu’s article about the number of unfilled jobs in education, schools throughout the country are in great trouble. How will schools cope with this kind of difficulty, with more and more leaving teachers? The situation is even worse in small towns and the countryside.

Although according to Bence Rétvári, Parliamentary Secretary of State, the lack of teachers is not a countrywide problem, public administration job posts and statistics say otherwise. In last September, there were more than 180 towns in which there was a lack of workforce in the schools, in both elementary and high schools. In January, there were more than 300 job posts in which schools were looking for teachers. It is not a wonder that many teachers look for other resources and jobs as wages are incredibly low, while the workload is bigger than ever.

By now, at the beginning of July, the picture is even worse: there are almost 600 pages of search entries with almost 2400 actual vacancies.

Although with the end of the school year, in the middle of the holiday it is somewhat expected that the number of vacancies has risen, the current state is at least appalling and shocking. Looking at the numbers, it is clear that the crisis is not specific of large towns such as Budapest, Pécs or Debrecen, but is a problem in the whole country.

An even more disturbing fact is that by the start of the school year, 582 places are to be filled in Budapest, while in total, there are 523 towns and cities lacking schoolteachers.

The total number of missing teachers can be split into two categories: institutions of School District Centers and vocational schools belonging to the Vocational Center. In overall, vocational schools are in a much better situation than high schools. Only 1/8 part of the current vacancies (304) can be found in vocational schools. This means that the need for teachers is especially high in high schools; 7/8 of the total number.

Also, it is hard to define the specific departments in need, as there are a lot of schools which look for teachers teaching „any fields”. Another problem is that the average age of elementary school teachers is 46.6, while high school teachers are similarly 46.9 years old on average. Teachers’ labour shortage and the problems of the education system in Hungary seems to be shown by the latest PISA results, too.