The Vet’s Horse – Education

In one of my previous articles, I wrote about the “vet’s horse” syndrome and argued that it could be applied to almost every area of Hungarian life.

So now, somewhat arbitrarily, I am highlighting several sectors which I believe are essential if Hungary is to undertake a comprehensive change in economic policy.

I find the term “economic policy” somewhat contradictory. The economy has rules of its own, and those rules can often be unforgiving. Politics, however, frequently subordinates professional considerations to the requirements of political survival.

This applies not only to the economy, but also to education, healthcare and agriculture. There is a delicate balance between genuine professional necessity and political priorities.

It does not help that professionals in any given field rarely, and perhaps cannot, represent a completely unified position on every issue. That is partly what makes them professionals: they are able to examine a problem from several perspectives, and therefore disagreements will always remain.

Politics therefore does not always have to determine which professional position is the one and only correct answer. Its task is often to decide which of several possibilities is most likely to produce the desired result.

We might even invoke Occam’s razor: do not assume more than is necessary. Or, if we want the more popular version, there is Murphy’s law: if something can go wrong, sooner or later it probably will.

The two spirits could have some interesting conversations about every major area of society. Perhaps that would be the subject not of an article, but of a separate study.

Education

It is not an exaggeration to argue that the basic logic of the Hungarian education system still carries the legacy of an era in which economic and social development was considerably slower than it is today.

The structure has, of course, changed. Primary, secondary and higher education have all undergone numerous transformations. But the question is not only what structure the education system has, but what results it produces.

I have previously used the term “holistic policy”. Education may be one of the areas where it is particularly necessary.

Education cannot be separated from the economy, demographics, the labour market, technological development or wider social change.

Finished product or unfinished component?

The present system seems to regard students leaving each institution as being ready for the next stage.

A primary-school graduate moves on to secondary school. A secondary-school graduate moves on to higher education or the world of work. A university graduate then enters professional life.

But if we use an industrial analogy, perhaps the graduate is not a finished product at all, but rather a semi-finished product or a component.

Not because they know too little, but because they are entering a world whose next stages we cannot yet know.

In an earlier era of industrial development, it was easier to predict what knowledge and which professions would be needed a few years later.

Today, technological and social change is so rapid that we cannot even say with certainty which professions, fields of science or skills will be the most important ten years from now.

Yet the education system itself can remain in essentially the same structure for decades.

That is one of its greatest contradictions.

How can we educate people for a future whose nature we do not yet know?

What should we teach?

A significant part of today’s curriculum is still based on the transmission of factual knowledge.

Knowledge is, of course, important. But a rapidly changing economy and society require more than fixed knowledge from tomorrow’s adults. They require creativity, independent thinking, the ability to work in groups, problem-solving skills and, above all, the ability to learn again.

Perhaps schools should therefore focus less on teaching knowledge that we assume will still be needed twenty years from now, and more on teaching the ability to learn.

Lifelong learning cannot simply be a fashionable slogan.

If a worker’s knowledge remains unchanged while the economy around them is constantly transforming, sooner or later that worker becomes outdated.

Funding – a vicious circle

Education funding presents a peculiar dilemma. More money does not automatically produce better education. Yet without better education, it is difficult to create a higher-value-added economy.

The two are interconnected.

Better education is needed to produce a better-trained workforce capable of generating greater added value. A stronger economy, in turn, creates greater opportunities to finance education.

But the process can also work in the opposite direction.

That is why money spent on education should not be regarded simply as a budgetary expense.

Institutions and buildings

The problem with education is not only the curriculum.

Many institutions operate in old buildings, while demographic changes mean that parts of the institutional network may no longer be located or structured in the way that made sense several decades ago.

But this is not merely a question of managing buildings.

A school is part of the life of a community. Closing or restructuring an institution is therefore simultaneously a professional, economic, social and political decision.

Once again, we arrive at the same question: where does professional necessity end and politics begin?

We do not need to build a new system, but to think differently

Education is a major social system.

Such a system cannot be transformed overnight. Good methods should be preserved, poor ones changed, and new ones tested.

But perhaps most importantly, educational reform cannot be reduced to programmes tied to four-year political cycles.

The results of genuine reform emerge decades later.

This is why education requires thinking that extends beyond political cycles.

We do not need to throw everything away. We do not need to preserve everything either. Nor should we believe that there is one perfect model of education.

We need to think about the system as a whole.

Perhaps that is what holistic education really means.

And finally, we should accept something that may be uncomfortable:

Our future depends not on loyal citizens, but on citizens who can think independently, be creative and continue learning throughout their lives.

By: Viktor Szentkiralyi