Secondary Education for All? The Hungarian Case

Abstract

ABSTRACT ABSTRACT The postwar development of Hungary under state socialism can be described as a quasi‐development in some fields and as a failure in others. The development of education falls into the first category, as both in quantitative and qualitative measures it has fitted rather well in with broad tendencies of European development of schooling. Therefore present educational changes during the transitional period from state socialism into market economy can be described as continuity rather than discontinuity, compared to other spheres of social and economic changes. At present, though, it is secondary education where discontinuity is probably the most seriously felt within the school system. It is here, where the bad side‐effects of highly ideological social engineering, that covered real social processes and hindered open discussion of future alternatives, are the most frequently experienced. The article introduces present conditions of secondary restructuring, perhaps not entirely unfamiliar to an international audience, and also describes some of its rather special social context in Hungary.