News
Interview with Eva Pap
1. How does education in Hungary differ from other countries in Europe? In Hungary there is a National Core Curriculum in place, which serves as a base for schools and institutions to accredit their central and local curriculum. As ICT is considered as an educational area within the National Core Curriculum, it features as an educational component in all other curricula. Thus, although ICT is not mandatory, it is strongly recommended to be used within other subjects. 2. How is ICT being implemented in Hungary? The use of ICT tools is spreading more and more across Hungary. Further development is challenging due to the fact that there is both a lack of sufficient technical tools in schools as well as teacher knowledge with regards to the use of these tools. These two challenges are being addressed as more and more teacher training sessions are organised and schools are becoming more aware of the possibilities to apply for support for more up-to-date ICT tools. An example of this is the so-called ‘information technology norm’, introduced last year, which allows schools to apply for financial support in order to rent hardware tools and/or purchase software. 3. How has eTwinning impacted your country? How are schools and teachers responding to it? Under the coordination of the Sulinet Program Office, which is supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture, Hungary has been involved in eTwinning since it began. As the Sulinet Program Office has been involved in coordinating many other international programmes (e.g., Scale, Itcole, Celebrate, eColours, MELT, Spring Day, ThinkQuest), a database of all kindergarten, primary and secondary schools is available and all of these institutions are encouraged to participate. The Ministry of Education and Culture also provides great support in promoting the Action. More and more schools have been joining eTwinning, which is a result of the positive feedback from the participating schools, the interest in various seminars and competitions organised and the international activity. Our teachers travelling abroad always return full positive feedback which motivates them to get involved. Regarding project work, we receive both positive and negative comments, which is extremely useful for us to further support Hungarian teachers. 4. What kind of projects are Hungarian schools most often interested in? According to a survey executed last year, project topics show a wide range of themes and subjects; however, both students and teachers in Hungary are mainly interested in cross-curricular topics. This is definitely a positive result, as one of the main aims of eTwinning is to enhance cross-curricular activities. Being an international action, it is also not surprising that foreign languages and European studies are the most popular topics, with natural and social sciences also featuring quite high. 5. Are there special eTwinning activities going on in Hungary? Currently we are deeply occupied with the preparation for the eTwinning Annual Conference in February 2007. Together with the Slovakian and Czech NSS, we organised a joint eTwinning workshop in October, which was such great success that we plan to have another similar event in late March in the Czech Republic which will involve the Polish NSS as well. An updated national website launch is also on the way as well as a series of teacher training activities planned. Finally, we will organise a National eTwinning Competition Day this Spring. 6. Do you have any advice for teachers who are interested in twinning up with schools in Hungary? Most Hungarian students are very enthusiastic about participating in international actions, especially when these actions are integrated in their classroom activities. Children are open to cooperate both with schools from neighbouring countries as well as abroad. Working with neighbouring countries offers the possibility for personal contacts, which is a great motivation factor for our students; however, cooperating with countries that are further away gives them an opportunity to discover a totally new world. Personal contact can also be organised in the latter case, e.g., one of our schools spent two weeks at their partner school in Iceland which was a real life-time experience for the students. Are you interested in getting involved in an eTwinning project with a school in Hungary? Learn more about Hungary by having a look at information on its national school structure and eTwinning projects.
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