Reportage
Hungary: the fed up of teachers and students against the Orban government
Audio 01:17
Students support the demands of their teachers who are asking for better working conditions, in Budapest, Hungary, November 18, 2022. REUTERS - MARTON MONUS
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
As for several weeks, the Hungarians took to the streets on Saturday 26 November.
At the origin of the protest movement, the dismissal of five professors at the end of September for having gone on strike.
Organized as a “United Front of Students
“, middle and high school students support their teachers who are demanding the restoration of the right to strike, an immediate 50% salary increase, and a return to freedom of education that Viktor Orban has gagged.
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With our correspondent in Budapest,
Florence La Bruyère
In Budapest, high school students, teachers and parents are not giving up: they once again protested in Parliament Square against the authoritarian regime of Viktor Orban.
"
We're fed up!
chants the crowd.
Eszter, 50, a maths and physics teacher at a college in Pécs, southern Hungary, drove three hours to come to Budapest.
She is holding a sign with the slogan “
I am a teacher, not a tourist
”.
“
And I drew a bomb, because the teaching body is about to fall apart
,” adds the protester.
Hungarian teachers are the worst paid in Europe.
Eszter earns 600 euros net per month.
The Orban government claims it can't grant anything until it
disburses the funds allocated by the European Union
, frozen by Brussels, because of violations of the rule of law by Hungary.
► To read also:
In Hungary, the infox attack the mobilization of high school students
But Eszter would especially like a return to the old school curriculum.
Because the program imposed by the Orban government is rigid, very cumbersome and absurd.
“
A 6th grader is too young to understand the Pythagorean theorem.
But it's on the program!
It's ridiculous, and not realistic
.
“
The good teachers leave, only the bad ones remain
”
Kristof, 17, is in a technical school.
He came to demonstrate with his group of friends.
“
Good teachers are badly paid so they leave.
Only the bad ones remain, and the level goes down
.”
At the podium, a high school student member of the “Front Uni des Élèves” recounts the carelessness: in a school, it is raining in the classrooms.
In another, the ceiling collapsed.
In a third, the solar panels do not work.
And the company that installed them is gone.
But the worst, he says, is that the students, like the teachers, all have the impression of being in prison.
The procession brought together only a few thousand people this Saturday, while 65,000 Hungarians took to the streets in October.
It must be said that it was organized by the union of teachers (PSZ), a formation close to power that some teachers consider untrustworthy.
The main union – Democratic Teachers' Union (PDSZ) – which is very active in defending teachers' rights, nevertheless rallied to the event.
Further events are planned for December.
► To listen: The anger of Hungarian teachers and students
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