Budapest (MTI) – Textbooks will be available free of charge to 735,000 children or some two-thirds of all pupils starting school next week, a state secretary at the Human Resources Ministry told MTI on Sunday.

At the same time the price of textbooks has fallen and the government’s spending on children’s meals has been raised to 74 billion forints (EUR 238m), Bence Rétvári said. He added that 90 percent of the youngest children eat free meals at school as the number of eligible children has risen from 92,000 to 318,000 over the past few years.

The government has also raised tax breaks for families and will spend 400 billion forints more on education next year than the leftist government did in 2010.

Source: MTI