Imre Pornói: Public Education in Hungary in the Twenties

Proposals for the development of public education emerging in the dualist era and coming close to realisation in 1918-19 were dropped after the fall of Hungarian Soviet Republic. This did not mean, however, that there were no plans to improve public education, although the realisation of the plans was impossible without economic consolidation. Kuno Klebersberg, who became head of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Education in 1922, aimed at the stabilisation of the situation of the middle class first that was considered the base of the social system. It was only after this and the reconstruction of economy that the basic improvement of public education could be started. The planned and established 5000 constructions (school rooms and apartments for teachers) of public education and the designing of the bill about the eight-grade public school system in 1929 prove that the government was serious in its view that the "high" and the "popular" culture could not be separated. Consequently, it was not the fault of the government that the legal realisation of the eight-grade public school did not succeed. The effect of the world-wide economic regression undermined the Klebersbergian plans for the development of public education. However, what was realised of these plans can serve only as a good example for any ministries of education.

MAGYAR PEDAGÓGIA 95. Number 3-4. 315-331. (1995)

Levelezési cím / Address for correspondence: Pornói Imre, H – 4028 Debrecen, Izsó u. 21.

 
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