At his hearing before Parliament’s Cultural Committee, Miklós Kásler, ministerial candidate to lead the Ministry of Human Capacities, said his goal was to create a modern educational system which is based on Hungarian traditions, all the way from nursery school to graduation.

He highlighted he would like to place the emphasis on the implementation of fundamental values. Among these he mentioned the survival of the nation, the protection of national sovereignty, the preservation of Christian and value-based culture, the improvement of the demographic situation and its reversal in the long run. He referred to the building of a workfare society as a fundamental value as well.

According to Mr Kásler the goal is to enable experts leaving school to successfully rise to the challenges of the day. Among the most important objectives in the field of public education he mentioned the reduction of the number of early school-leavers and increased efforts to prepare young people for the challenges of the labour market. They would like to strengthen the operation of pedagogical services and would significantly increase the number of special needs teachers, he added. He spoke about the development of educational infrastructure, and described digital changeover in education as a priority.

Among the most significant achievements he mentioned mandatory nursery school attendance from the age of three, along with the facts that some 635,000 children receive free or subsidised meals in school, that students receive textbooks free of charge in the first nine grades of elementary school, and that 40,000 students take part in the Arany János Talent Fostering Programme and in the For The Road programmes. He highlighted that infrastructure developments have been implemented in some 500 schools so far and further developments are being planned for 527 institutions. New classrooms are being built along with swimming pools in each district, and other developments worth HUF 53 billion are also being implemented, Mr Kásler listed.

He indicated that thanks to the takeover of schools by the state, their debt portfolio has been erased. The introduction of the rating system for teachers was an important change which they wish to further develop, he pointed out and also drew attention to the 50 per cent pay rise of teachers.

In higher education, in accordance with Hungarian traditions, they would like to create one of Europe’s most outstanding higher education systems, Mr Kásler said. The renewal of teacher training forms part of this aspiration, he added. He highlighted that high-quality higher education requires high-quality public education, which in turn requires high-quality teacher training. He mentioned the raising of further funds for the enhancement of competitiveness as a goal. He spoke about dual training, the form and content of which they will intend to address. He also mentioned the significant reduction of the debt portfolio of higher education institutions and the doubling of their cash portfolio. He informed the committee that the government had replaced 16 PPP projects with other arrangements, the transformation of the structure of training had begun and a higher education space in the Carpathian Basin had come into being.

The committee supported Mr Kásler’s appointment as minister with 8 government-party votes for and 6 opposition votes against.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)