send their kids to religious schools.
It is still early in the morning, but that has not dampened the enthusiasm of the pupils at the Julianna Reformed Elementary School in Budapest as they heartily sing a Christian hymn. It is part of the daily ritual at the Julianna School, as is beginning the day with prayer.
Named after the former Queen of the Netherlands, a country with many church ties to Hungary, the Julianna School began in 1926. But like other Christian institutions, it was forced to close after World War II, when the Communists took over Hungary.
The school remained closed throughout the Communist era, but under Hungary’s first democratically elected center-right government in 1992, the Julianna School opened its doors again. In the first year after it re-opened it had 24 pupils; now it has 200.
PARENTS ACTIVE
The primary sponsor is the Hungarian Reformed Church, but parents also play a very active role. Economist Andrea Hosso says she and her husband considered it important that their six-year-old son attend the Julianna School.
"Church schools usually have better academic achievements and they pay a lot of attention to inculcate the right values in children," Hosso explains at a noisy morning. "So the moral upbringing is something we very much like, which goes inside with what we have in our family. We think that religious belief, country and family are very important values that the school teaches our children. And we wanted to send him to such an environment."
Hosso, who is 42, says she wants her son to have a different education than the one she experienced under Communism. "It was a fairly intimidated country. The atmosphere was subdued," she recalls. "People could not speak their minds. Teachers had to teach whatever was prescribed to them. Now, that did not matter in math, because math is not an ideological subject. But when it came to history, literature, language or human sciences, they were not free to teach the truth."
FORMER COMMUNISTS
But times have changed and ironically Hungary’s Socialist-led Government, which includes former Communists, announced a 50 percent pay rise for religious teachers in public schools.
The director of the Julianna School, Judit Sikfalvi, disagrees with those who argue that religion should remain outside the classrooms. Sikfalvi, who also teaches a course in history, says religion has an important role in a child’s education. "Our education is based on biblical values," she argues.
"We think that both things are important: to bring children up as good people and to teach them academic values." This combination is having a growing appeal in Hungary, according to official figures. The ministry of education says that since the collapse of Communism the number of church schools has grown from almost zero to near 500, of which more than 50 are in the capital, Budapest.
CATHOLICS INVOLVED
Catholic Bishop Istvan Seregely from the town of Eger is not surprised about the growing number of church schools. "After the vicissitudes of the 20th century, God’s people on Earth are campaigning for a Christian family and generation, that grows up in a healthy, environment of parents who create life," he says. "We need schools that think along those lines."
Kornel Papp, head of the education department of the Hungarian Reformed Church, says the interest in church schools is only in part a reaction to decades of Communism and state-sponsored atheism. "Another reason is that, in a time of great change in Hungary, parents believe religion-based schools will, in addition to giving their children a good education, instill in them other values that they could not get in a public school."
Papp hopes this will help children to prepare for a better future, and career. At the Julianna School some pupils reportedly want to become a pilot or fire-fighter. However 6-year old Levente Morrison tells BosNewsLife that he has not yet decided about his next career moves.
"Well…I don’t really know. But I think I will know. But not just now…" Perhaps diplomat?
