This information is intended to provide the background context of structure and control, within which the curriculum and assessment frameworks are implemented.
Overall responsibility for education at the national level is shared by several entities in addition to the Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Education also has responsibility for vocational and adult education; the Ministry of the Interior looks after the allocation of state grants in the form of normative financing to local authorities (see 2.1.2 below); and the Ministry of Finance also plays an important indirect role. 9
At school level, structural decisions are made by the local (municipal or county) authority which maintains schools. There are more than 3,000 local authorities which are responsible for providing basic educational services for the local population, either by maintaining a school or by creating access to institutions maintained by other authorities, and more than 95 per cent of primary and secondary schools are owned and run by local government/local authorities. Local authorities are responsible for:
The Ministry of Education has also created the National Centre for Educational Evaluation and Examination (OKEV), which has an overarching role in the management of system-wide quality assurance and evaluation. At the local level, school maintainers (usually local governments or local authorities) evaluate the quality and efficiency of their schools. 51
School education is financed from several sources, the most important being the State budget. The State provides a per capita grant as a lump sum to education providers (local authority and other) who have to complement this from other sources of income. The greatest part of the revenue of local authorities comes from the State budget, a smaller part from local sources/local government revenue and, on a much smaller scale, from the National Fund for Vocational Training. Local authorities have a large degree of freedom in redistributing state grants between the various different services within education and between different institutions and programmes. The contribution of parents and industry to education funding is increasing.21, 16
The main principle of funding is the normative one: a set amount of funding is allocated per student. This varies according to school type, but not between maintainers. In addition to normative funding, the central budget also provides 'targeted and addressed grants' for specific school educational purposes. These sources are allocated to the Ministries concerned and are then channelled both to maintainers and to education providers/ educational institutions. Over the last few years, programmes for the development of small community schooling, classroom and gym building projects, educational competitions, textbook publishing and in-service training have all been funded through such targeted grants.16
All businesses are compelled to contribute to the training costs of vocational/technical training; one to 1.5 per cent of all salary costs are channelled to school education. The business sector can fulfil its obligations in several ways: by means of a deposit paid to the National Fund for Vocational Training; by direct financial support given to one vocational school; or by direct participation in vocational training. 16
One of the crucial indicators of educational funding is the ratio between the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and educational expenses. Hungary has spent increasingly on education over the last decade. The share of total expenditure in the GDP has increased from 4.5 per cent to around 7 per cent. The budget for school education amounts to around 5.6 per cent of GDP, where previously it was 3.4 per cent.16
The role of the private sector in the maintenance of educational institutions is gradually increasing and, since the 1990 amendment4 to the Education Act 19856 made this possible, churches and other (independent/private) foundations have begun reopening their schools.21,11 Municipalities, churches, foundations and private individuals may open private (as opposed to state) schools, provided that these meet the legally-set criteria.7 The highest proportion of private schools is in the secondary school sector (20-25 per cent). In general schools providing basic, general education (which has traditionally been the eight years from age 6 - 14) and kindergarten, private schools account for around 10 per cent of schools. Around 25 per cent of secondary grammar schools are private, mostly maintained by the church. These may only charge fees if there is no agreement on public subsidy with the local government.21,11
Usually, private sector educational establishments, which are set up and run by other authorities, receive over 50 per cent of their subsidies from public authorities.12