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Hungary : Appendix

Last updated: 22-Jun-2005

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Appendix 1

This Appendix provides details of the National Core Curriculum provisions which existed prior to September 2001, when the new provisions of the national framework curriculum began to be introduced in Years 1, 5 and 9. Introduction in other Years is currently underway and the gradual implementation of the framework curricula in all years should be complete by 2004. 

Prior to this, the National Core Curriculum comprised 10 comprehensive cultural domains instead of school subjects. These were:

• Mother tongue and literature: either Hungarian language and literature or minority language (Hungary has 13) and literature.¹⁵ (The education of minorities has been governed by law since September 1993, when the Public Education Act became valid.³ Since then, the 13 minorities in Hungary have had the right to education in their mother tongue. The language of instruction for language and literature, history, geography and culture must be the mother tongue but, at the same time, minority students must have the opportunity to become acquainted with the Hungarian language and culture. Similarly, students who do not belong to the given minority should have the opportunity of acquainting themselves with the culture of the local minority.)¹⁰
• Modern foreign languages.
• Mathematics.
• Man and society: social studies; civics; economics; human studies; history.
• Man and nature: natural studies; physics; chemistry; biology and health studies.
• Our earth and environment.
• Arts: singing and music; dance and drama; visual arts; motion picture and media studies.
• 'Informatics': computing studies; library use.
• Life management and practical studies: technology; home economics; career orientation.
• Physical education and sports.¹⁵

There were also common educational or cross-curricular objectives of the 10 cultural domains. These were the following:

• Homeland. Every student was expected to become acquainted with the characteristics of their national heritage and the historic values of the nation's culture and to appreciate the values and achievements of other nations and ethnic groups both within and outside Hungary.
• Integration into Europe and the world.
• Environmental education.
• Communication culture.
• Physical and mental health.
• Learning.
• Career orientation.¹⁵

The National Core Curriculum set up proportions for the cultural domains and their areas that indicated their 'weight' within the curriculum, in accordance with the characteristics of the pedagogical stages of development. These proportions were also meant to present guidelines for alternative and school-based curricula. Proportions of cultural domains and their areas were not expressed in the number of classroom lessons, only in approximate percentages, because cultural domains and their areas could be transformed into teaching subjects in several ways. Secondly, it was schools themselves that determined the exact proportions of cultural domains and their areas through a consideration of the resource of compulsory and alternative lessons available.¹⁵ In other words, the NCC did not contain strict timetables. It provided only an approximate distribution of teaching time among the various cultural domains/subject areas, as follows:

The subject areas of the National Core Curriculum and the approximate distribution of teaching time, %

Subject area	Years 1-4	Years 5-6	Years 7-8
	ages 6-10	ages 10-12	ages 12-14
Mother tongue and literature	32-40	16-20	11-13
Modern foreign language		11-15	9-12
Mathematics	19-23	16-20	10-14
Man and society	4-7	5-9	10-14
Man and nature	5-9	8-12	16-22
Earth and environment			4-7
Arts	12-16	12-16	9-12
Informatics (IT)		2-4	4-7
Lifestyle and practical skills	4-7	5-9	6-10
Physical education and sport	10-14	9-13	6-10

Source: MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND EDUCATION (1996). National Core Curriculum. Budapest: Ministry of Culture and Education.

 

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