At a press conference held on Thursday, Education and Culture Minister István Hiller stressed that the most important task of public education is the strengthening of basic skills, while Fidesz Spokesman Péter Szijjártó said it was unacceptable that wealth differences are reinforced in education.
According to right-leaning daily Magyar Nemzet, Hiller said that international studies have shown that the applicable knowledge Hungarian students aged between 10 and 15 develop does not compare well to their peers in other countries. He said it was not lexical knowledge that was missing, but the ability to use the material learned in practice, so a balance had to be created between lexical knowledge and the strengthening of basic skills. When asked how the elimination of tuition fees – if the results of the March referendum require its elimination – would affect education, the minister said it would result in both the institutions and – through a reduction in scholarships – students receiving less money.
Szijjártó said it was “exceptionally incorrect” that the government would not complete the budget of medical and educational institutions if the visit, hospital and tuition fees were to be eliminated after the March referendum. He said the government pretends as if it had not taken funds away from these institutions, when what really happened was that it had taken money away and then said it should be replaced with money arriving from the various fees. The spokesman said the government should return this money, and then there would be no need for the fees.
