The 2020/2021 school year started with traditional classroom education in institutions for initial and vocational education. Tertiary educational institutions launched the academic year with digital learning outside the classroom.
Following the protective measures introduced owing to the Covid19 pandemic in November 2020, secondary schools changed to digital education again, while primary schools changed in March 2021. During the spring of 2021, after the gradual easing of protective measures, educational institutions, except for tertiary education, closed the school year in the traditional form.
In the 2020/2021 school year 1.8 million children and young people participate in the different levels of initial, vocational and tertiary education in Hungary. Compared to the previous school year, the number of kindergarten children (323 thousand) and students in secondary educational institutions (469 thousand) decreased, while that of students in primary schools (729 thousand) and in tertiary educational institutions (287 thousand) increased. Similarly to the previous school year, 2.5 thousand children with severe and multiple disabilities fulfil their compulsory school attendance within developmental education.
In the 2020/2021 school year nearly 726 thousand students attended primary schools in full-time education, 5.4 more than a year earlier. Pupils studied in 3,611 primary schools in 1,771 settlements. The number of teachers remained unchanged compared to the 2019/2020 school year. The number of students with special educational needs (SEN) kept increasing. Nearly half of the disadvantaged and multi-disadvantaged students study in settlements with fewer than 3,000 inhabitants.
Almost 12 thousand more first-graders started primary school
In the 2020/2021 school year, the number of primary school students was nearly 726 thousand in full-time education, which is 5.4 thousand higher than a year earlier. The enrolled students continued their studies at 3,611 school sites in 1,771 settlements. The increase in the number of students is due to the higher number of enrolments in the 1st grade: the number of students in the 1st grade rose by 13%, nearly 12 thousand persons more than in the previous school year, to 103.5 thousand. Among the first-graders, the proportion of the six-year-olds is 36% this year, while this proportion only was 27% in 2013/2014 school year, the first school year of the legislative change in primary school enrolment.
Out of primary school students, 366 thousand pupils studied in the junior section and 359 thousand students in the senior section.
The number of pupils in the junior section exceeded the one recorded a year earlier by nearly 9 thousand persons, while that of students studying in the senior section fell by 3.4 thousand in a year.
The number of primary school teachers has increased by 1.6 thousand in the past ten years
The number of teachers working in primary schools is 75.2 thousand in the school year closing now, which corresponds to the number in the previous school year. The number of teachers has risen by almost 1.6 thousand in the past ten years, while the number of students decreased by nearly 31 thousand, so the student-teacher ratio fell from 10.3 to 9.7. In the 2020/2021 school year, the number of classes followed the increase in the number of children, though to a slight extent; therefore, the average number of students per class nearly equalled that in the previous year (19.9 students) and does not differ significantly from the average number measured ten years earlier (20.2 students).
Nearly half of the disadvantaged and multi-disadvantaged students study in settlements with fewer than 3,000 inhabitants
In the 2020/2021 school year, there are primary school sites in 56% of the settlements. Nearly half of the settlements with fewer than 3,000 inhabitants and all settlements with 3,000 or more inhabitants have primary schools. 40% of primary schools (1,460 school-sites) operate in settlements with fewer than 3,000 inhabitants, and 21% of full-time primary school students study here. At the same time, 46% of disadvantaged students and 48% of multi-disadvantaged students complete their compulsory education in these settlements, too. Further 41% of primary schools – apart from the data of Budapest – are located in settlements with 5,000 or more inhabitants, where, due to the larger resident population, 55% of primary school students study, and the education of 38% of disadvantaged students and 40% of multi-disadvantaged students is also realised in these settlements. The lowest proportion of disadvantaged and multi-disadvantaged students is recorded in the primary schools of Budapest.
The number and proportion of students with special educational needs kept increasing
Similarly to the previous school year, the number of primary school students with special educational needs (SEN) increased by further 1.1 thousand persons (2.0%), so in the present school year their number totalled 57.7 thousand. The proportion of students with SEN has continuously been increasing since the 2013/2014 school year and rates 7.9% in the present school year. The number of primary school students with SEN in mainstream classes has risen by 2.9% since the previous school year and reached 41.8 thousand persons. The proportion of students with SEN in mainstream education among all students with SEN has increased by 10 percentage points, to 73% over the past ten years.
70% of students with SEN in mainstream education suffer from severe learning, attention or behaviour disorder, 11% from mild intellectual disability and 8.5% from speech disorders. 71% of students with special educational needs in special classes or institutions have mild or moderate intellectual disability, and 10% live with autism spectrum disorder.
Nearly the same number of students study in the 5-8th grades of secondary general schools
There are 26 thousand students in the 5-8th grades of six-grade and eight-grade general schools, nearly the same as in the previous school year. The proportion of students going to the 5-8th grades in secondary general schools has remained unchanged over the past ten years; 6.5–6.8% of the students in the relevant grades go to secondary general schools.
10% more students in adult education
Besides full-time education, more than 3.5 thousand persons complete their primary school studies in adult education, which is 10% more than in the previous school year. The number of primary school students in adult education has significantly risen in the past two years, as it was 2.0–2.6 thousand until the 2018/2019 school year.
The number of students graduated from 8th grade has risen
In 2020 the number of students graduated from 8th grade in full-time education has increased by almost 2.8% to 92.4 thousand persons. At the end of the 2019/2020 school year, 92.2% of students who went to the 1st grade eight years earlier completed the 8th grade successfully. In 2020 further, nearly 700 persons fulfilled the 8th grade requirements of the primary school in adult education, 200 persons more than a year earlier.
2.5 thousand children with severe and multiple disabilities fulfil their compulsory school attendance within developmental education
In the 2020/2021 school year the developmental education of severely and multiply disabled children is provided at 136 school sites, which is 4 school sites more than in the previous school year. The development of over 2.5 thousand pupils is ensured by 433 teachers; the number of pupils increased by 1.5% and that of teachers by 5.4% compared to the previous school year. Similarly to the 2019/2020 school year, nearly 70% of the pupils are within compulsory school age and 30% are 17–23 years old.
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