Judit Lannert, Minister for Education and Child Affairs, announced on Facebook that Hungary will finalise a new education strategy by the end of the year and will begin a two-stage pay adjustment for school support staff (NOKS) and technical workers.
The minister stressed that building a child-centred education system is a gradual process and cannot be achieved overnight. She said students, education staff, professional and representative organisations, and parent groups must be involved, and that reform requires majority agreement to remain stable across government cycles. "You cannot yank a large system like education," she wrote.
According to Lannert, the ministry organised several hundred consultations over the past four months and will continue widening these discussions. She added that dismantling centralisation and addressing more readily solvable problems has already begun.
Among the steps taken so far the minister listed:
- expanding the powers of school principals;
- increasing the decision-making and consultative rights of teaching staff;
- giving municipalities a larger future role;
- restoring teachers' right to strike;
- open competitions for the leadership of school districts (tankerületek) and vocational training centres;
- suspending the teachers' performance evaluation system;
- gradually reducing unnecessary burdens on teachers and students;
- a HUF 100,000 school-start allowance for needy families;
- launching the NOKS and technical staff wage adjustments in two stages.
On the performance evaluation system, Lannert said it had been "imported from the law enforcement field." Regarding the district and vocational centre leadership appointments, she insisted there was no mass replacement, arguing that "the era when these decisions were made on political grounds is over." She noted that similar open recruitment procedures had been used previously to reform the supervisory boards and trustees of public asset management foundations that operate universities. Background institutions are undergoing review and transformation, the minister added.
A prominent element of the year-end strategy will be the digital environment. Lannert warned that heavy social media use can displace deep reading, personal conversations and rest, and that unconsidered use of artificial intelligence could reduce opportunities for independent thinking and practice if students routinely rely on machines to solve tasks. Therefore, Hungary's education and training artificial intelligence strategy will be part of the overall plan, and its socialisation will begin soon.
A new National Core Curriculum (NAT) is also in preparation; Lannert said it will be implemented only after thorough preparation and piloting, noting that the curriculum "is not national just because we label it so." In addition, a comprehensive reading-comprehension development programme will start, with particular attention to early identification of difficulties and targeted support. Schools will receive methodological support and professional flexibility to adapt development to their pupils' needs.
Lannert emphasised that the ministry will not decide on the education strategy, the new curriculum, or school structure alone. She wrote that the era of directives characteristic of the past 16 years is over and that the new education system must be built on majority consensus.
Why this matters
The announced measures aim to decentralise pedagogical governance, retain education staff through wage adjustments, and integrate digital and AI considerations into schooling. The strategy and the new NAT due by year-end are expected to provide the framework for Hungary's education policy and school practice going forward.
