The draft of the 2015 budget includes the allocation of more funding for public education than there is available this year, Minister of State for Public Education Judit Czunyiné Bertalan said at a regional forum for teachers in the eastern Hungarian town of Debrecen on Wednesday.

She said that through the Klebelsberg Institute – the central clearing house for public education funding and the administrator of the education system – there will be an additional HUF 50 billion (EUR 161 million) available for the operation of schools and for teachers’ salaries compared to this year.

The Minister of State said next year’s budget will create the basis for continuing this year’s new initiatives, such as free textbooks, which next year will also be available to third graders. Another priority in education is increasing kindergarten capacity, for which HUF one billion (EUR 3.22 million) was available this year, while next year the Ministry plans to increase the number of kindergarten places by 4,000, using EU and domestic public funding.

Secondary education will have a proposed budget of HUF 209 billion compared with this year’s 196 billion, she announced.

(Ministry of Human Capacities)