Teachers protest Hungary’s education policy, stage walkout
Hundreds of teachers across Hungary have walked out of classes to protest government’s extensive changes in education policies.
Reports said teachers at over 200 schools officially took part in Wednesday's protest, which lasted for an hour, demanding changes to official policies governing schools and the education system.
Teachers, students and sympathizers formed a human chain outside the Ferenc Kolcsey high school in Budapest in a symbolic gesture not to allow “the public education system to take ... schools apart.”
“This is the start,” Katalin Torley a French teacher, said, adding, “If there is no meaningful response by the government, we will gradually increase the pressure.”
The organizers called the action as a form of civil disobedience as teachers and other employees of government in Hungary have restricted rights for strike based on law.
“This is a different form of protest, it has never happened here before that an entire profession has stepped up in such a way,” said another teacher.
The organizers put forward a list of 12 demands, including more state spending on education, less workloads for teachers and students and reinstating schools' independence.
The walkout comes as the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban has promised to decentralize the schools' administration and reduce curriculum contents, although it insists that teachers should attend an official forum for debating reforms.
Teachers have rejected the call, saying they will only participate in direct talks with education officials. Protesters said on Wednesday that bigger acts of disobedience will follow if the government keeps ignoring calls for a face-to-face meeting with the teachers within two weeks.
Orban’s centralization of schools, which began in 2012, finally led to nationwide protests in November. That culminated in large demonstrations this month with tens of thousands of teachers and sympathizers taking to the streets in the biggest such march in Hungary in two years.
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