Sunshinek, Essay: A Demonstration for Proper Education

Mariann Kovács, Renáta Tavi, László Kovács, Nóra Szlobodnyik
Professor Frank Prescott
Language developement: TNA 1026
21 April 2018

A Demonstration for Proper Education

Education is a topic that affects every person in the universe. The better the education, the brighter the next generation's future will be. This is exactly why the best possible opportunities for learning are set up for students around the world. The youngest generation is our future and they are what the world will depend on in several years, making their education of the uttmost importance. On the contrary, Hungary has been facing many problems recently, resulting in student protests, that will only be of use if changeis actually created. The main issue regarding the Hungarian education system is that the teachers are underpaid and overworked, resulting in fatigue among the instructers as well as the students.

Nowadays, teaching is becoming a very unappealing profession among today's youth.
Students have to spend six years at an accredited university to become teachers, which is a long time to then receive little pay in the working world. A writer for Daily News Hungary, John Woods, states, ""Wages are incredibly low, which is the main reason why teaching is not attractive to the younger generations. Salaries are even lower if we take into consideration the salary increases in the private sector. Consequently, the beginner stock associate in Aldi receives 272,000 forints per month, while a novice teacher gets only 203,000 forints" (Woods 1). Jobs that require little to no educational background result in higher gross pay than teaching, stearing students away. This lowers the number of teachers in the country, increasing the workload of those that decide to stay.

Secondly, the government not only neglects to properly pay the teachers, but there is also a lack of  money placed into Hungarian education. This greatly affects the means of education for Hungarian students. For instance, Woods writes, "Consequently, it happens many times that teachers have to buy colored paper, chalk, or copy paper for the classes" (Woods 1). There are constantly new institutions created to supervise education, but that money would have more of an impact going into the schools themselves. Teachers are not given the proper supplies to educate their students, so they need to take money out of their own pockets, which is not enough based on their low wages, to give their students tools to learn. Many surveys shows that this educational method is clearly not successful. The PISA test prove that every day children have issues with the basic skills: reading, counting, and thinking practically in a logical way. These skills must be acquired at a young age because after a certain time, children cannot pick up on them easily. Lessons on these skills should be compulsory, especially during their first few years of schooling.

Finally, teachers experience burnout because their workdays are long and workload is beyond the capability of most humans. Due to the fact that students are not learning enough in class, they require private lessons to properly educate themselves before their exams, making the teachers have to teach twice as much. If the proper materials and curriculum were provided initially, there would be no need for twice as much teaching, as well as twice as much learning for the students, resulting in a more well-rested community. The current frustration and fatigue leads teachers to have trouble getting through the material they have to teach as well as students to have trouble concentrating in class. To make matters worse, "Inspection introduced by the government creates tension in the staff and decreases collegiality. This is because teachers have to rate each other's work which results in pique and isolation. Moreover, the qualification process by which teachers can advance in their career is very stressful for many" (Woods 1). Their training and meetings are often pointless, adding to the workload, but decreasing their energy to complete their actual jobs.

By raising the salaries of the instructors and giving them less bureaucratic tasks, Hungarian education can be reformed.  

Works Cited

N. Kollár, Katalin and Szabó, Éva Pszichológia pedagógusoknak, Osiris kiadó,

Budapest, 2004

Woods, John. “Hungarian Education: Underpaid and Overworked Teachers.” Daily

News Hungary, 24 Feb. 2018

"PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment).” Ugrás a Főoldalra, 2018