High Shortage and Workload with Low Salaries in Hungarian Public Education, EC Country Report Finds
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Loading... - Shane Higgins
- 20 Sep 2022
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The teacher shortage is an escalating problem in Hungary, as the number of teaching hours for Hungarian teachers is very high while their salaries are among the lowest in an EU comparison.
The teacher shortage is an escalating problem in Hungary, as the number of teaching hours for Hungarian teachers is very high while their salaries are among the lowest in an EU comparison, the European Commission’s (EC) recently-released 2022 Country Report concluded.
The report also found that,
- Aggregate indicators, such as the teacher-pupil ratio, do not signal acute shortages of teachers in Hungary.
- However, a more detailed analysis shows that shortages do exist for specific subjects such as mathematics, science and foreign languages.
- Teacher shortages are also linked to the fragmentation of the school system as half of all primary and lower secondary schools had fewer than 150 pupils in 2020/2021.
- Schools with a high proportion of disadvantaged pupils tend to suffer particularly from a lack of qualified teachers.
- More than half of graduates from teacher-education courses end up in other careers due to the high workload and low pay of teachers, especially those at the beginning of their career.
- The number of teaching hours for Hungarian teachers is the highest in Europe, and in the absence of sufficient support staff, many teachers must perform non-teaching duties such as after-school care.
- Teacher salaries are the lowest among the EU countries that are OECD members and are equivalent to only 58- 66% of the salaries of other tertiary graduates, depending on educational level.
- Moreover, the centralized management of schools leaves school directors with limited autonomy and tools to improve teaching quality. Read More...
