Teachers’ Union Calls For Restoring Compulsory Schooling Age To 18 Years
(MTI) – The Democratic Trade Union of Teachers (PDSZ) calls on the government to restore the upper age limit for compulsory schooling to 18 years, the PDSZ chairman said on Sunday.
Speaking in front of the Ministry of Human Resources on the occasion of Teachers’ Day, Laszlo Mendrey said the union also believes membership of the National Teachers’ Chamber should be made voluntary rather than mandatory.
Mendrey said the “monopoly” of the government’s Klebelsberg School Manager (KLIK) should be rethought, and municipalities that are capable of running their schools should be given the chance to do so.
The Ministry of Human Resources said in a statement on Sunday that the government has proven in the past four years, with actions rather than rhetoric, that it considers the work of teachers to be important. The government has made the career of teaching secure, fair and predictable with the introduction of the career model, it said, adding that the 34 percent wage increase last September was the highest since the change of political system almost 25 years ago.
The radical nationalist Jobbik criticised KLIK in a statement issued on Sunday, arguing that membership in the National Chamber of Teachers should be voluntary. Party spokesperson Dora Duro said the introduction of the career model had not brought any real recognition for teachers.
Green opposition party LMP, also calling for genuine appreciation and respect for teachers, said the education system was over-centralised and the National Chamber of Teachers should be abolished.
The E-PM alliance called on the government to stop “prestige investments’ such as the building of soccer stadiums and ensure the appropriate resources for textbooks. In a statement, the Szabolcs Szabo, an E-PM member of parliament’s education committee, said the school year now drawing to a close had started with the state non-profit company responsible for providing textbooks incapable for months on end of getting the right material to schools, while in the middle of the year the Fidesz government had in practice nationalised the provision of textbooks. Now teachers have a restricted choice of which books to teach from, he insisted.
On behalf of the Socialist party, Borbala Botar Kajtar said to be a good teacher is a vocation, which does not end when a teacher reaches the end of one’s career. Botar Kajtar expressed appreciation and respect for Hungarian teachers and gave thanks for their faith and perseverance shown in the school year soon ending.
Ferenc Gyurcsany, leader of the Democratic Coalition, said the 21st century is the century of knowledge, and the key to competitiveness is the knowledge of participants in the economy, as well as the preservation and renewal of this knowledge.
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Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters