Radio interview – Orbán: Hungary cannot restore pre-2010 education system
Budapest, February 5 (MTI) – Hungary cannot afford to restore the pre-2010 education system and the government’s direction in changing the system has proved to be the right one, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told public Kossuth Radio on Friday.
When coming into power in 2010, the government was faced with a financially bankrupt education system and declining trends in student performance. Asked who or what was responsible for the poor state of the education system, Orban said neither the teachers nor the students were the ones to blame, nor were parents any less effective in fulfilling their duties.
“We cannot go back to where we started … We had to make changes, and I think we set off in the right direction,” Orban said, stressing that students need to be the focus of the debate on education.
The government believes in transparency and is ready to listen to everyone, he said. Orban said he has high hopes for the National Teachers’ Chamber, which was established to ensure non-partisan professional discussions about education. He said he understands teachers’ proposals for changes in the sector, adding that their proposals would be discussed.
Orban said the government put teachers first when it came to pay raises and establishing career models. He said the government recently added 450 billion forints (EUR 1.45bn) to the education budget in the form of upgrades and developments and 230 billion forints in the form of wage increases.
The prime minister also discussed the government’s planned amendments to the constitution to include a “state of terrorist threat” among instances that mandate the domestic deployment of the armed forces. He said Europe is likely to face further terrorist threats in the future, which is why more and more European countries need to provide their governments with the proper means to manage these threats. Hungary, as of today, is not among the countries most threatened by terrorism, which Orban attributed to the government’s tough stance on illegal migration last autumn. “Hungary was successful in defending itself, but that does not mean that it could not face such [terrorist] threats in the future.”
Responding to a question, Orban said the five instances currently listed in the constitution that mandate the use of the armed forces and allow the enforcement of special measures are insufficient for managing terrorist threats.
The prime minister said the government must be cautious with the amendments and must keep civil rights restrictions to a minimum, adding, at the same time, that “the safety of the people must come first”.
He said the leftist opposition does not view the threat of terrorism as real danger, the same way that it did not consider migration to be a real problem.
Regarding Britain’s proposals on EU reform, Orban said one of the most important elements of Europe’s freedoms is the right to free movement. “We should open our doors to those who feel they can take on the challenges of trying to make a living abroad.”
Hungary therefore believes that no EU member state, not even Britain, should be allowed to limit the number of EU citizens they allow to work in their country, Orban said, adding, however, that Britain can apply different rules to their own citizens and EU immigrants. The only difference, Orban said, is the extent to which those rules are different, stressing that Britain should not discriminate against EU immigrants. The UK and other member states are now closer to finding common ground on the matter and the Visegrad Four grouping of Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic are also close to establishing a joint position, Orban said.
The prime minister noted, however, that the UK wants to see a comprehensive reform of the EU, adding that its demands, such as the strengthening of national parliament competencies over EU decision-making, are in line with Hungary’s interests.
On the topic of his visit to Indonesia earlier this week, Orban said his talks there reassured him that Hungary now has 4,000-5,000 SMEs that can be competitive in any part of the world, which he said was key to increasing Hungarians’ standard of living. The prime minister said the government’s goal is therefore to have around 12,000 export-capable SMEs in Hungary.
Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters
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