Momentum MEP: Education should create opportunities

At the conference organised by Momentum, the Tomorrow’s Hungary association and the Renew Hungary party family of the European Parliament, Donath said such governance required “generous financing” and autonomy for schools and teachers, as well as high-quality, constantly renewed trainings for teachers.

Solving the “gravest crisis in Hungary, that of education” would ease others such as the cost of living crisis, she said.

She said the lack of teachers was “dramatic” in Hungary. According to a European Commission survey, the number of weak-performing Hungarian students has grown “to a brutal degree” between 2011 and 2021, she said.

Momentum will aim to raise the funding of public education from 4.5 percent to 7 percent of GDP. Teachers’ wages should be raised to 100 percent of the minimum wage of degree holders, she added.

Momentum has turned to the EC with a request to make the payment of EU funds to Hungary conditional on a public education reform. The party also launched a signature drive to support the proposal, she added.