Introduction

Education

General education is compulsory for all children in primary school from the age of 6. After 1990 three kinds of school systems were introduced in the country: (a) 4 years of elementary school + 8 years of secondary school (Gymnasium); (b) 8 years of elementary school + 4 years of secondary school (Gymnasium); (c) 6 years of elementary school + 6 years of secondary school (Gymnasium). After 8 years of schooling it is also possible to go to vocational training schools. If neither the vocational school, nor the Gymnasium is chosen 2 more classes of school (the 9th and 10th forms) have to be attended, because 10 years of schooling are compulsory for everyone.

The state is responsible for public education.

Legal and historical basis of RE

RE is not an ordinary subject in the Hungarian school system. This situation is deeply rooted in the history of the previous half century.

After the takeover of the communist party in 1948 churches were gradually pushed out of the official education. They were forced to give up almost all of their schools. Teachers had to abandon their allegiance to the church. Churches were no longer allowed to employ teachers or religious educators. RE as a part of education at schools (as an ordinary and compulsory subject) was cancelled from the school time tables.

Nevertheless the communist dictatorship in Hungary was never as hard as it was in some other countries related to the former Soviet Union. The so called ‘benign dictatorship’ was undoubtedly due to the 1956 uprising, which claimed many lives and its suppression led to large scale emigration of, mostly, young people, but the communist regime could no longer remain as hard-line as it had been before.

The Hungarian constitution provided the freedom of religion in the socialist era as well. But that freedom remained an empty promise and could never be realized until the political changes.

Despite the constitutional basis for living in a country of freedom and democracy Hungarian people suffered from oppression and a lack of freedom of religion during the socialist regime. In comparison with other countries within the former communist block (e.g. the Baltic States) Hungarian people lived in relative freedom. As a sign of this relative freedom, RE was never totally banned in Hungary. It was “only” opted out of the school system and became entirely a responsibility of the churches. That nominal freedom was realized in optional RE classes held by the pastors in the schools, but RE constantly had to face sharp counter propaganda and the permanent discouragement of both pupils and parents. This way RE was sentenced to slow extinction, which would surely have happened if political change had not come.

The year 1990 brought the liberty of conscience and freedom of religion to everyone. One of the very first laws adopted by the new, democratically elected parliament was the law of freedom of religion. In the same year a law was passed about the cultural, social and medical activities of the churches. This law guarantees for the churches the right to sustain schools, gives a framework for this function and guarantees the right to religious education.

After a controversial debate in the parliament and throughout the society the Hungarian parliament accepted the law on public education in 1993. This law regulates religious education.

Religious Education in the school system

The Subject and the approach to teaching RE

RE is an optional subject in public schools. Hungary is a secular state. Schools have to be neutral in religious and world views issues. But they have to provide space for religious education. Schools are responsible for providing the formal conditions, classroom and basic equipment for RE. Everything beyond these is the task of the churches. They are responsible for the syllabuses, textbooks, content of teaching, training and employment of teachers, supervision, examinations, announcements, registration etc.

RE is taught in a confessional way in public schools. The subject is optional and no alternative is offered. Pupils do not have the choice between religion and, for example, ethics. Studying RE is a matter of choice, pupils decide freely if they want to attend the lessons or not. Although the venue of RE classes is the school, practically they take place either before or after the lessons. No marks are given in RE classes and the subject does not appear in the school report.

Churches may teach RE outside of schools as well. If the number of pupils opting for RE in a class or at a school is too small, parishes can collect pupils and teach RE classes in their own church buildings. This kind of RE is also accepted as official religious education and has the same framework and conditions as if it were in school.

In spite of the fact that only 5% of pupils attend church schools, these schools play an important role in Hungarian education, because they are deeply rooted in Hungarian history. Their secularization after the Second World War was a painful loss for Christian people, and their return to church maintenance had a symbolic significance in the days of the political changes in 1989-90.

Church schools have their own regulation concerning religious education. In those schools RE is an ordinary, compulsory subject with two hours/lessons a week. Its pedagogical approach is confessional. With the exception of some private schools there is only confessional RE in Hungary. Pedagogical committees of the churches are responsible for the syllabuses, textbooks and the pedagogical programme. Each church formulates the purposes of RE on its own, but those purposes have common guidelines, which are the following:

• To make pupils become acquainted with the Christian tradition, its Biblical, dogmatic and ethical contents and its history and present life in order that they get to know their own cultural roots and environment.
• To help pupils to determine their own life stance
• To enlighten pupils about world religions and other world views/ideologies/philosophies of life in order to learn to live in a multicultural world, to understand people ofother faiths and be able for a dialogue with them.
• To provide access to the spiritual resources of pupils’ own religious community to be able to use them in order to enrich life
• To ensure that pupils get experience in their own religious community to become familiar with its values and to benefit from belonging to a faith / religious community. (This purpose has more importance in the RE classes in parishes.)

Teachers

State universities do not have an RE teachers’ training programme. The training of RE teachers is the responsibility of the theological faculties of universities. It has been carried out in co-operation with teacher training faculties since the beginning of the nineties. Students normally have two majors, one of them is religion. The pedagogical part of the studies has to be completed/done with the other subject at the state university and the theological part at the theological faculty. The RE teacher diploma/degree is conditional on passing the pedagogical exams (and getting a diploma/degree) in the other subject.

Due to the Bologna process teacher training is changing now in Hungary. Training in cooperation will be ended with the start of two level training. The bachelor level of the teacher training programme of the theological faculties was accredited in 2005, and the master level accreditation process is to be completed by the beginning of 2006. The Bologna process will bring a two-phase training, as a structure of three plus two years. An emphasis will be put on academic studies in the first phase along with some teaching practice. A diploma can be given after completing the bachelor level studies, but it cannot be a teacher diploma. This is only given after completing master level, which contains further academic studies with a strong emphasis on (reflected) teaching experience.

According to the present regulations churches alone have responsibility for the supply of teachers or religious educators. A teacher diploma is only required in church schools. For all the other RE classes churches are free to provide any vocational religious educators of their choice. This situation is certainly a result of the lack of qualified persons in the days of the political changes. Currently more and more RE teachers are graduates from universities and, as a result, the regulation will change. There is a commitment to complete the change by 2010, but there was no progress at the time of writing towards the new regulation.

Ministers are allowed to teach religion at every school and many of them do so. There is no limit on the number of lessons that they can teach. If this situation continues it could cause tensions within the parish or between pastors and teachers.

Only church schools employ full time teachers of religion. All the other educators – including pastors – are paid a fee per lesson by the state. It is a small amount of money, but it is indispensable for some pastors working for a small congregation.

Public examination

For pupils of church schools religion can be chosen as a subject for examination. Pupils of other schools can do the same, but they have to study religion in a church school as a guest student, before they are allowed to take an examination in religion. This is important for students who want to study theology, as passing such an examination is an entry requirement for the course.

Current developments and challenges

1. What has been achieved in the last 15 years should be mentioned as a development. In 1990 RE in Hungary started from a very poor state, which could be characterized by a lack of curriculum, textbooks, teachers, pedagogical experiences, experts, books etc. Having started from that position people involved in RE somehow have come a long way, but more needs to be done.

2. There needs to be curriculum review in the foreseeable future. In particular the aims and approaches within the subject should be checked in order to ensure that they meet the contextual requirements. The present curriculum has a strong emphasis on the basic knowledge of the Christian tradition. Without reducing this knowledge there is a need for extension toward world religions and the development of pupils’ abilities to participate in dialogue with people of other faiths and worldviews.

3. RE classes in parishes should have equal rights and importance. More attention should be devoted to the work going on there, especially in two fields: syllabuses and materials on the one hand, and initial training, further training and various courses for religious educators on the other hand.

4. RE should be more and more ecumenical in terms of practical co-operation and in pedagogical and theological approaches as well. Significant progress in the field of RE is unimaginable without deep and intensive ecumenical cooperation of all participants of RE.

5. After controversial public and parliamentary debates at the beginning of the nineties RE became an optional subject. This position has many disadvantages, despite the efforts of teachers, RE remains separated from other subjects. It can reach mostly pupils of engaged Christian families but it is almost impossible to reach out to wider strata of the society. Currently churches take all the responsibility for RE as a co-sponsorship with the state is impossible. In this situation RE is seems to be an internal matter of churches instead of being a part of schooling and a factor of culture. It has been a permanent challenge for churches and experts involved in RE to make efforts toward an extension of RE to all the schools and make steps toward transforming it into a compulsory subject with an alternative of ethics.

Further reading

• Information concerning the roman catholic RE and teachers training - link
• Information concerning the protestant RE and teachers training. Please find the Faculty of Teachers Training - link
• The website of Hungarian Ministry for Education, an overview of Hungarian educational system - link

Szabóné Mátrai Marianna

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