Hungarian high school asks parents for money to help with utility bills

One of Buda’s religious high schools is asking parents for a hefty subsidy for their overheads. Without their help, the school would not be able to pay its utility bills due to the increased overheads.

Due to increased utility bills, the principal of the Kőrösi Csoma Sándor Bilingual Baptist High School in Óbuda sent a questionnaire to parents to find out who could contribute to the electricity and heating bills for the school year starting in a few weeks, Telex reports.

The school is asking parents for financial help

According to a letter obtained by Telex, the school is asking parents for a one-off, lump-sum grant of HUF 101,302 (EUR 248.5). The reason is that the head of the institution believes that the donations from parents would cover the increased overheads and allow them to maintain traditional classroom teaching. Zsolt Berczelédi, the school’s headmaster, confirmed to Telex that a letter had been sent to parents and said they would assess the options without obligation.

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The overheads are expected to be extremely high

“We have made a precise calculation: the school’s annual energy consumption is around 80,000 m3 of gas and 100,000 kWh of electricity. Last year we paid HUF 5.5 million (EUR 13,476) per year for gas and HUF 3.5 million (EUR 8,576) per year for electricity. For the next school year, gas is expected to cost around HUF 58 million (EUR 142,149) at the current tariff and electricity around HUF 6.8 million (EUR 16,665). This is a cost that neither the maintainer nor the institution can afford without external support,” the director explained. “Currently, the government is in talks with the churches to resolve the situation,” added Zsolt Berczelédi.

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They want to avoid having to switch to online teaching

The school director also said that there is no problem if someone cannot pay the HUF 100,000 contribution. “We already have parents who can cover the cost for more than one child, so we have launched a survey to find out which families can support the initiative within their means”. Zsolt Berczelédi said they want to avoid having to switch to digital education, 24.hu reports. “Mentally, isolation is very bad for children, and the effectiveness of online education is far below that of classroom education,” he said.

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Source: Telex, 24.hu