“School is a place for teaching, not violence, and accordingly strict action must be taken against school violence”, the Ministry of Human Capacities’ Parliamentary State Secretary said on Hungarian M1 television on Wednesday.

Bence Rétvári emphasised with relation to the introduction of the “school guard” system that teachers must look at the tendency with relation to school assaults: “Several videos have been made public in the recent period showing teachers being beaten up or having things thrown at them”.
“This means that conditions are being created in schools in which it is impossible to teach. The way it is possible to teach in a school is if students obey their teachers”, he stated.

He added that it is for this reason that it is important to take strict action against school violence, including at legislative level if necessary.
“School guards will be trained by the police and will be working as police employees. For the moment there will be guards in 500 schools, who teachers can alert with the help of an application on their phones if some kind of violent act occurs”, he explained.

“School guards will have the right to use physical force is necessary, and if they are attacked then they may use their truncheon, or even pepper spray”, Mr. Rétvári said, adding that guards cannot be equipped with firearms.
The State Secretary drew attention to the fact that the government has introduced several preventive measures, for instance increasing the number of school psychologists and making the penalty for violence against teachers stricter, but the problem has continued despite these efforts.

(Ministry of Human Capacities/MTI)