The Hungarian-language debate on the situation of the education in Hungary, organized by our Istvan Bibo Free University, received extensive coverage in Hungarian media.

“The discussion covered the difference between civil disobedience and strikes, and what to expect in the future,” Telex wrote in its long summary, adding that “union members can only support a legal strike, while according to the education researcher without political involvement, systemic change will not be achieved. All participants agreed that demonstrations should be extended even further to rural towns, otherwise they would remain in the bubble of elite schools.” The article was cited by other major portals like 24.hu and rtl.hu.

444 focused on the political aspects, why trade unions don’t admit to being political, and why they strike when they say the right to strike has been neutered (these questions were asked during the discussion).

In its summary, Index highlighted how the current movement is different from previous ones, what is the key to successful cooperation, why only some of the teachers are on strike, and whether the strike movement can achieve results in other areas of education policy beyond wages.

Qubit emphasized that the teachers’ protest is not primarily about their wages, but about injustice and frustration. They also wrote about the facts that 16 thousand teachers are missing from the system, and that it is held together by obsessed teachers.

Watch the full debate (in Hungarian):