The Current State of Vocational Schools in Hungary and New Strategies in Teaching

Abstract

The research examines the academic performance of students at vocational schools. The majority of vocational school students only want to attend school until they complete their compulsory studies. In previous experience, the authors encountered situations where students who didn't feel good at school had difficulty adapting to their peers, and had integration problems, which were also associated with behavioral and learning problems. Whether it is because they spend too much time at school or their behavior is a result of a curriculum that is abstract, the research aims to find an explanation for the recent poor academic performance of students across Hungary. The quantitative part of the research was performed at two separate vocational schools – the ADU business vocational secondary school and the “Gyemrekház” vocational school situated in the Újpest district of Budapest. The subjects of the research are senior students at the aforementioned vocational schools enrolled in travel and hospitality and business and management training. The research finds that the Hungarian vocational schooling system needs to adopt elements from the Finnish education system to increase the reading comprehension of students, furthermore, a revision is required of the latest educational law adopted in 2011 to reinstate methodological classes into the timetable of students, and finally, modernize teaching methods to adhere to nowadays technological societal and environmental standards.