[ad_1]
On August 30, the government decree was published in the Hungarian Gazette, partially rewriting who can work in Hungarian educational institutions from now on, with what qualifications and experience. The new regulations went into effect on the day of the school year, so kindergarten and school principals basically found out at the last minute who they could employ and hire, and exactly what pertained to the work of their existing colleagues.
In general, this also calls into question what exactly it means to be a teacher in Hungary today.
Especially after the new regulation lowers the requirements in several areas, offering jobs as educators to many people who have not had the opportunity to do so until now. Or at least not at this level.
Here we see now, above all, that power is trying to reduce the shortage of teachers. Among other things, opening the doors to those who, due to their qualifications, training and experience, have not been able to carry out teaching and educational activities so far. A good question is, will the world of public education be an attractive enough alternative for them? Do they want to work as a teacher or in another position in a kindergarten or school where the working conditions are known?
– raised by a well known educational researcher, István Nahalkawho, for their part, do not predict explosive success with the newly introduced requirements.
Is the kindergarten teacher the new class teacher?
The decree will make a difference mainly in the life of kindergartens, as you can also be a kindergarten teacher who has obtained an anno high school diploma and has seven years of kindergarten practice. While in 1993 training became exclusively at the university level, from 1996 someone could only become a kindergarten teacher with a higher education degree, he explains. Zsuzsa Szabó.
The president of the Teachers Union (PSZ) adds, all this is related to the novelty that the presence of kindergarten teachers is expected in the kindergarten only from 8 in the morning to the afternoon. In fact, the text of the regulation does not establish all this clearly, but establishes when “Organize non-developmental, preschool or other specifically educational activities” In kindergarten, there is no need for a graduate kindergarten teacher.
In practice this may also mean that after lunch the children are no longer anesthetized by the kindergarten teacher, but, for example, by eight general pedagogical assistants. However, all the changes described so far are a “Completely absurd” The category of our kindergarten director is our source, as it is according to the PSZ, because the kindergarten is not a mere nursery and is not yet a primary school.
In kindergarten, there is basically no developmental occupation, but kindergarten education. With us, at least, we keep talking, playing with the children, singing, telling stories and, of course, teaching different classes for them. For example, when a little boy comes to kindergarten and I tell him in the morning to untie him well and put his shoes on the shelf, it is already part of kindergarten education.
Said one Index reader who has worked as a kindergarten teacher for four decades.
You don’t even need a degree in school psychology
Under the government decree, you no longer need a degree in school psychology or any kind of work experience with children to work as a school psychologist. If you have a degree in psychology, you can get a job at the school, provided you agree to pursue the required specialization in school psychology within five years. According to the president of the PSZ, all this may even go well in the sense that in the future it will not be approx. A school psychologist would have 800 children.
Referencing kindergarten development is also professional nonsense, experts say, because children don’t get specific knowledge content in kindergarten all day. In return, with each movement of the kindergarten teacher, with her complete metacommunication, she educates throughout the day, transmitting values and patterns to the ages of three to six and seven, who will take over from her.
From this, of course, the participation of a certain nanny can be successful, who will instinctively perform the work of kindergarten teachers without fail, believes István Nahalka. Who also says that there is a need for graduated and highly qualified kindergarten teachers in the same way. “While to the max I understand the limitations of the relationship and, to my knowledge, the lack of teachers. in kindergartens even hotter that in schools, it is feared that new training will lead to lower-level results “ – says the expert.
So is the biology teacher teaching physics from now on?
Although it is not broadcast in an online forum, it is a strong exaggeration to say that science teachers are all interchangeable, and from now on, for example, any physics teacher in schools can teach geography, chemistry and biology in the same way. It is precisely here where the national core curriculum allows schools to teach a certain subject of integrated science, from primary school to primary schools. However, this is not new.
But in István Nahalka’s interpretation, this has not been the case so far. “real” Integrated subject, but it was broken down into modules of physics, biology, geography and chemistry, and for half a year each part was taught by a specialist teacher competent in the subject. If they had a job and used a different form of science education than usual.
“The integrated science subject, which I personally am not opposed to at all, in fact, I am permissive with gender, was invented mainly due to the lack of teachers in the field of science that the same teacher can teach in all these modules . But there are currently no people with such qualifications in Hungary. At most, there are environmental teachers, who are terribly few, ”says the researcher in education.
It states that it is now in the text of the regulation that if a school decides to include that subject integrated into its curriculum, this could be taught by any science teacher more recently. However, the problem with this is that on the one hand it does not solve anything and on the other hand it is not very likely that schools will resort to this method. At most, if they have been around for a long time, they won’t find a chemistry or geography teacher in the area, for example, Nahalka argues.
At the same time, the educational researcher also reads from the text of the decree that teachers can already teach subjects for which they do not have a specialized teaching qualification.
If the person has studied the professional methodology of teaching a subject in college or university, they can now take public education classes. For example, someone eventually became a history teacher, but in the meantime he also studied Hungarian for a time, which he did not complete.
However, if you have the appropriate certificate, signature and mark in this index of this period that you have successfully completed the professional teaching methodology of the given subject, in principle you can now teach Hungarian, literature and grammar in the same way . However, both their intensity and their professionalism are quite far from what prepares a teacher with a truly specialized training. Not to mention the lack of acquired practice in teaching Hungarian.
The regulation also covers the shortage of language teachers with clever tricks
– the president of the PSZ draws attention to this. Zsuzsa Szabó interprets that all kinds of schools can still employ university language teachers in any grade. He finds this problematic, especially in the case of grammar schools, where language teachers were expected to be college-ready until now.
At the same time, the recruitment of foreign mother tongue teachers has been facilitated and foreign diplomas have been accepted without the need to locate them at home.
The story is framed by the fact that the so-called related coronavirus Within the economic protection action plan, the diploma could be obtained this year without a language test. But so many young educators have been able to obtain their degrees to no avail, in the meantime they have to commit to taking the language test until the qualifying test that is due in two years.
Based on the numbers, little by little there will really be no one to teach our children:
- While graduates earn an average of HUF 334,000 gross, an educator earns HUF 234,000 gross.
- According to CSO data, education ranks last in the public sector in terms of regular average monthly gross salary.
- Today, the average salary of teachers corresponds to 60% of the average salary of a graduate.
- This year, approximately 7,000 young people were admitted to the 5-year higher teacher training.
- In 5 years, 6,000 teachers will retire.
- Teacher students have an average of approx. a third appears in the profession as an employee. Alumni take the qualifying exam at least in this proportion 2 years after starting their careers.
(The above data comes in part from the OSC data and in part from the Teachers Union).
(Cover image: Kindergarten teacher and children at the Mackóvár kindergarten in Salgótarján on May 25, 2020.
MTI / Péter Komka)
[ad_2]
