Introduction
During the 1980s, 1990s and the early years of the 21st century, the Hungarian system of curricular regulation has witnessed a complete transformation; a process which has entailed a transitional period of several years.15 Previously, curricular changes occurred extensively on a national scale, essentially once every decade. A major curricular overhaul attempted in 1978 was not universally accepted, primarily because the changes were developed without adequate consultation and were implemented too rapidly without proper financial and professional support. In subsequent years, changes were gradually made to decrease political and administrative involvement and ideological issues in curricular matters.9
The Education Act 1985 6 did not formally change the existing, centrally-directed, curriculum, but
As a result of the above Act, the system of inspection operated by the 20 county authorities was replaced by new advisory centres (county pedagogical institutes) and the focus changed from inspection and external direction to advice and professional counselling.9
The 19905 legislative reforms established a policy basis for curriculum development, namely a National Core Curriculum framework (NCC) within which local schools were to develop their curricula.9
Remodelling the school curriculum began on acceptance of the (Public) Education Act (1993).3 This brought about major changes by abolishing the earlier central curriculum, providing for the preparation of a National Core Curriculum (NCC), adjusting regulation to the independence of schools and introducing two-level curricular regulation.15 That is, the central, national curriculum framework document defined the basic requirements for compulsory education in ten subject areas (then called 'areas of culture' or 'cultural domains'), and detailed local curricula were then developed by each school as school level documents which directly regulated the classroom level work of teachers.21 In other words, the essence of this two-level curricular regulation was that the National Core Curriculum (NCC) was not a curriculum in the traditional sense of the word, but a foundation upon which local curricula and educational programmes were built.15 The NCC was formally adopted by the Government in October 1995 (1995 amendment to the 1993 Public Education Act)2 for implementation from September 1998.21
In September 2000, framework curricula were introduced to all schools in addition. These frameworks provided an interim regulatory level between the National Core Curriculum (NCC) and the local syllabuses drawn up and used by educational institutions. The frameworks were designed to ensure that the education provided in public schools meets national regulations, whilst giving schools as much autonomy as possible. All schools were expected to introduce local syllabuses amended to match the framework curricula for Years 1, 5 and 9 (children aged 6-7, 10-11 and 14-15 respectively) from September 2001.
Further curricular revision has taken place since 2003. It is no longer compulsory for schools to use the central framework curricula. Local curricula need only be based on the overarching NCC framework/guidelines. The framework curricula still exist, but schools only make use of them as guidance documents should they wish to.
Users might be interested to learn that research into the 16 subjects currently taught to students between 10 and 14 years of age was launched by the National Institute for Public Education in the spring of 2001. The main aim of the research was to determine how these subjects had changed and how students had been affected as a result of the modernisation and content regulation which had taken place during the 1990s, and to identify areas in need of further development. 53 The published research reports are available online: http://www.oki.hu/publication.php?kod=Teaching