Budapest-wide live protest for better education in Hungary

Demonstration Budapest
Photo: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd

Demonstrations are taking place across the country over the current state of education. The aim is to improve the dignity of teachers. The most visible demonstration is in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, where teachers, parents and students are forming a chain of demonstrations stretching across the city.

Protests continue

Protests continued with the United Student Front in the front line. Thousands of teachers across the country are on strike Thursday morning, according to union officials. Along the downtown boulevard, the participants are forming a live line, hvg.hu reports.

The United Student Front, which organises the live chain, has four demands:

  • A solution to the teacher shortage!
  • A solution for the shortage of teachers’ teachers!
  • More livable conditions in schools!
  • Attention to education!

Katalin Törley, one of the participants of the Tanítanék movement, said at the press conference before the live demonstration that the protest has been going on for 2 months, but it must continue. People are on the streets in vain, but Prime Minister Viktor Orbán says nothing. “Everybody should put in the strongest possible shape that they can,” Törley said. Törley said more than 10,000 people have already paid into the strike fund, 444.hu reports.

Demonstration Budapest
Read alsoBudapest-wide live protest for better education in Hungary

Zoltán Maruzsa, the state secretary in charge of public education has invited representatives of the strike committee of teachers’ unions for 7 November, a senior official of the union PDSZ said on Thursday.

Erzsébet Nagy spoke at a press conference held prior to a demonstration that began in Budapest. She said that simultaneously with the Budapest event, thousands of teachers rejected holding their classes across the country during the day and demonstrations were planned in front of 33 school district headquarters out of a total 60.

PDSZ has called a general teachers’ strike for 18 November, Nagy said.

The noÁr Movement has called for a general strike in solidarity with teachers. Áron Molnár, its founder, said education was “not an issue for just Left or Right, rural Hungary or the capital, liberals or conservatives, but a common, national cause”. He said “the ever growing crowd is now standing up not only for education, but for health care, welfare, and for all groups in society that this government has left in shallow water”.

Demonstration Budapest
Read alsoBudapest-wide live protest for better education in Hungary

 

Demonstration Budapest
Photo: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd
Demonstration Budapest
Photo: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd
Demonstration Budapest
Photo: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd
Demonstration Budapest
Photo: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd
Demonstration Budapest
Photo: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd
Demonstration Budapest
Photo: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd

Source: hvg.hu, 444.hu, MTI

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