1. Teachers’ training in the Hungarian educational system on local, regional and national levels Teachers’ training in the Hungarian educational system on local, regional and national levels Postojna, Slovenia 16 – 20 10 2013

2. The past There was a 3-storey teachers’ training system in the Hungarian education for many decades: 1.after completing three years of college one could become nursery school teacher 2.after four years of college one could work as a primary school teacher with a graduation of a 5 -year-long university one could teach in high schools 3.with a PhD degree one could become a college and/or university teacher.

3. In 1999, Hungary joined the Bologna Process, so the training system changed. The higher education had switched from the conventional (undivided) 3-4 years of college and 4- 6 years of university training to the 3-storey system since 2005. The three successive diplomas (graduations) lead to the Bachelor (B.Sc.), the Master (Master) and the doctoral (PhD) degrees. These trainings mostly last for 3-4, 1.5-2 or three years. These are not fixed periods of time, the success of each level depends on the number of credits earned. The Bologna Process

4. In this system, some of those who complete the 3-4 years of basic training studies can gain the 1-2 years (on teacher branches 2.5 years old) Master programs. On the top of the training system there is the level of a 3-year doctoral program.

5. The old or first graduated, traditional college degree can be completed with an upgradeable degree, which can be acquired during only a year, so the B.Sc. degree can be upgraded to Master - which, of course, in everyday life, represents a higher category.

6. Interesting features One of the features is the large number often full- time teaching professors (the so-called ‘Intercity professors’). It had formed during the ‘90s, when the accreditation of the universities required a fixed number of qualified lecturers in order to keep the level of the quality education. So it is worth to the institutions to employ lecturers from other institutions with a grant of full payment. Another feature is that those PhD titles that acquired abroad could not be validated in Hungary without naturalization it was invalid.

7. The new teacher’s career model It was compulsory for Hungarian teachers to teach at first 20 lessons and than 22 lessons on a week. From September this school year a new „Teachers’ career model” was introduced which requires 22- 26 lessons to teach, and it consists of 32 working hours a week.

8. Teachers’ compulsory further education Since 1998, according to the law, teachers has had to acquire compulsorily 120 credits during several further educations and trainings in every seven years.

9. During the introduction of this seventh annual training the methods of the completion had been divided into three distinct groups: Trainings ended with a certificate (15-30-60-120 hour courses), Trainings ended with a vocational exam or an certification which is equivalent with a vocational training diploma, and Trainings for the acquisition of additional qualifications (e.g.. acquire other majors, intermediate or advanced level education), As well as a few specific courses that were mentioned in the Regulation could be carried out and had to take into account during the implementation of the training (e.g. ECDL, foreign language preparation abroad etc.).

10. Since 2009, the regulation of the training performance has changed significantly. The training methods were supplemented with opportunities that can be completed without paying a course fee or they can be performed with a small amount of effort. An opportunity appeared in the new Regulation with which the required minimum of 120 credits can be accomplished with self-educational trainings, or with completing professional mentoring tasks.

11. At local levels, „in-house” tasks can be made like visiting lessons, or with curriculum development. It also means a local training level when holding demonstrational lessons - colleagues to colleagues. (From this we can learn a lot.) We can take part on lectures which deal with youth protection, or medical school lectures on various topics such as conflict resolution, drug prevention, etc. Local trainings

12. There were trainings in our school for our colleagues like which dealt with: conflict management, sensitizing, using Interactive Whiteboards and their softwares. Local trainings

13. Regional trainings Regional further training is primarily organized by the local Institution of Education and the Local Government Office of Heves County. These are very colourful and diverse according to their topics. Several times in a year different textbook presentations, the framework curriculum guides, application coordination presentations are taken place where the region’s educational experts deliver professional projects.

14. The national trainings are projects in which teachers participate from all over the country. It includes those professional trainings which can mean further professional step and can provide opportunities for wage increases. E.g. The exam presidents or the Baccalaureate President trainings are like that. National – international training courses

15. They are also diverse. This includes initiatives in the past such as the Vocational School Development Program, which offers plenty of advantages for vocational schools (mainly in financial and material sources). It gave a lot of - otherwise unattainable – options to teachers for a 3 -week study abroad which were basically study visits, but they also meant a great foreign language learning opportunity (e.g.: in Ireland Norway etc.). National – international training courses

16. The certain international projects like „Borderless” or, not to mention the different Comenius projects, can be taken into this category, as the different teachers’ workshops are always part of the meetings.

17. Thank you for your attention!