The record-high teacher recruitment data also show that the teaching career is increasingly attractive to young people; the new law on the career path of teachers has increased the interest in the teaching profession, the prestige and attractiveness of the teaching career has increased – the parliamentary state secretary of the Ministry of the Interior told MTI.
According to Bence Rétvári, 18,845 applied for teacher training this year, of which 10,514 were accepted, and 9,674 can study with a state scholarship. In the last six years, the number of those admitted has not been this high, and with additional admissions, this number may increase even more, he indicated.
This year’s ten and a half thousand student teachers are much higher than the nine thousand ten years ago (2013) or the five thousand twenty years ago (2003), said Bence Rétvári.
“Therefore, we have good chances that the number of replacement teachers will increase in the coming years. It is a great success that the supply is not running out, but has increased by 67 percent this year.”
“One of the biggest increases is in teacher and kindergarten teacher training, where the number of admissions doubled, but almost a third more people entered teacher training as well.”
Bence Rétvári stated: “For almost a year and a half, the left-wing parties and trade unions have been trying to dissuade as many young people as possible from choosing the teaching career, and they are encouraging those working in kindergartens and schools to leave the career.
The left-wing parties and trade unions claimed that there would be fewer applicants for the teaching career due to the new law on the career path of teachers. The reality turned out to be just the opposite. With the outstandingly high enrollment figures, the student teachers gave a resounding answer to the left wing, which is constantly trashing the new career law and the education system”.
“Despite the left-wing banter, the teaching career is still one of the most popular,” said Bence Rétvári.
He went on to say that the new law on teacher careers is much more favorable to those starting their careers than the previous salary scale for civil servants. Since there is a performance wage in the new career system, even a young person has a chance to achieve a higher salary. The new career path eliminates the salary elements that obligatorily penalize young teachers, he added.
“It is important that the new law on teacher careers created the foundations for a large-scale teacher salary increase. If the EU no longer arbitrarily withholds the funds due to Hungary by law, the 10-10 percent wage increase for this year and next year may more than double. With this, in five years, by the time those hired now graduate, the average teacher salary will be HUF one million,” said the state secretary.
