Along with a controversial new bill that greatly increases the power of Hungary's far-right Prime Minister Victor Orban, which has been described by critics as a power grab, the country's education system is also facing reforms reflecting the government's nationalist propaganda.

When Orban presented the new National Core Curriculum (NAT) at the end of January, nobody suspected that two months later, all schools in the country would remain closed until further notice.

The coronavirus crisis has practically brought Hungary's education system to a standstill.

"Apart from a few exceptions, home schooling is currently not working in Hungary," Ildiko Reparszky, a teacher at Mihaly Fazeka's high school in Budapest, told DW.

The state's online learning platform regularly breaks down. Many teachers and students do not have access to stable internet connections or laptops, especially in the poorer regions of the country.

"The current situation shows how the modernization of the education system has been neglected in recent years," said Reparszky.

Even though the school system is collapsing, the Hungarian government wants to maintain the launch of its much-criticized nationalist curriculum in September. Protests against it are growing. Teachers' associations, students, parents, professors and intellectuals have been criticizing the ideologically driven, overloaded new program.

Read more: Hungary's university ban on gender studies heats up culture war

Deleted from school reading lists: Nobel Prize laureate Imre Kertesz, here at the award ceremony in 2002

The curriculum's patriotic goals are particularly clear in literature and history. Students should learn to be "proud of their people's past." The nation's historical wartime defeats are to be deleted from textbooks and replaced by portrayals of victorious battles. Hungarian legends and myths are to be presented as historical facts.

The controversial authoritarian rule of Miklos Horthy from 1920 to 1944 is also to be portrayed in a positive light. The fact that Horthy passed anti-Jewish laws in 1920 and later became one of Adolf Hitler's close allies will be downplayed.

Hungary's most famous authors Sandor Petofi (1823-1849) To this day, Sandor Petofi is considered Hungary's national poet par excellence. His "National Song" became the anthem of the revolution of 1848 when the Hungarians rebelled against the ruling Habsburgs. Petofi was killed during one of the last battles of the revolution and became a national martyr. Today, in Hungary, countless streets, schools, squares and bridges are named after him.

Hungary's most famous authors Peter Esterhazy (1950-2016) He is one of the most influential Hungarian writers of the 20th century. In his main work, "Celestial Harmonies," Peter Esterhazy skillfully traces the complex history of Hungary along his own family history. His works have also received many awards outside of Hungary. His work was removed from the new curriculum of the Orban government.

Hungary's most famous authors Imre Kertesz (1929-2016) His works are also no longer to be part of compulsory reading in Hungarian schools. Yet Imre Kertesz is the country's only Nobel Prize winner for literature. In his best-known work, "Fatelessness," he deals with his personal experiences in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. Later, Kertesz repeatedly stressed Hungary's complicity in the Holocaust.

Hungary's most famous authors Miklos Radnoti (1909-1944) Miklos Radnoti was also a writer of Jewish heritage. During the Second World War, he was sent to the front several times as a forced laborer. He recorded his experiences in impressive poems. Later he was sent on one of the infamous death marches. Despite the exertions, he continued to write poems. In November 1944, he was murdered, as he was too exhausted to go on.

Hungary's most famous authors Jozsef Attila (1905-1937) Jozsef Attila advanced from being a poor street urchin to becoming one of the most famous poets of his time even as a young man. His poems were provocative. In 2011, the Orban government planned to remove a monument to the writer near the parliament due to his communist affinities. After massive protests by artists and intellectuals, however, the plan was abandoned.

Hungary's most famous authors Magda Szabo (1917-2007) Magda Szabo was one of the most outstanding female voices in the completely male-dominated Hungarian literary world. Strong women often play a leading role in her novels. In communist Hungary, she was not allowed to publish for a long time. From the late 1950s onwards, Szabo wrote numerous books, mainly novels, which were translated into over 30 languages.

Hungary's most famous authors Margit Kaffka (1880-1918) Margit Kaffka also made the social role of women a central theme of her literary work. Beginning when she was a young woman, she wrote for the influential literary journal "Nyugat." Her most famous novel, "Colors and Years," was published in 1912. Six years later, Kaffka died of the Spanish flu.

Hungary's most famous authors Endre Ady (1877-1919) Endre Ady was a great admirer of Kaffka's work and for a time editor of "Nyugat." In his poems he denounced social injustices and the burgeoning nationalism in early 20th-century Hungary. He often visited Paris and was influenced by the works of Baudelaire. To this day, he is considered one of Hungary's most important poets.

Hungary's most famous authors Laszlo Krasznahorkai (1954-) Laszlo Krasznahorkai is one of Hungary's most important contemporary writers. His often gloomy novels such as "Satan's Tango" have been translated in numerous languages and have made him famous far beyond the country's borders. Many of his books were also turned into films by Hungarian director Bela Tarr. In 2015, he was the first Hungarian author to receive the Man Booker International Prize. Author: Felix Schlagwein (als)



Laszlo Miklosi, chairman of Hungary's History Teachers' Association, described this idealized portrayal of the country's history as "highly problematic." It not only distorts students' views of history, it deters critical thinking, he told DW.

Mandatory reading: anti-Semitic authors

The literature program has also been highly criticized. Hungary's only Nobel laureate for literature, Holocaust survivor Imre Kertesz, was removed from the curriculum, as well as the internationally recognized and widely translated novelist Peter Esterhazy, who received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 2004.

Instead, works by nationalist authors such as Jozsef Nyiro and Albert Wass are now mandatory reading. Nyiro was a member of the fascist Arrow Cross Party and an admirer of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Wass was an avowed anti-Semite and convicted war criminal. The government of Orban's Fidesz party has been pushing the rehabilitation of these authors for years, erecting new monuments and naming streets after them.

A statue of the nationalist author Albert Wass near Budapest

The new reading lists have sparked a nationwide outcry. Teachers' unions, universities and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences have called for the curriculum to be withdrawn. Teachers protested on social media under the hashtag #noNAT with slogans such as "I don't teach fascist writers." Criticism also came from conservative circles and churches.

Another move in the country's 'culture war'

With the introduction of the new curriculum, Viktor Orban's Fidesz government is pursuing its centralization policy in the education sector. "The government is using schools as a battlefield in their culture war," political scientist and educational researcher Peter Rado said.

Fights against the new program: Education expert Peter Rado

The government had also previously forced Budapest's Central European University (CEU), founded by Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros, to relocate the majority of its operations outside the country, while expanding its political influence on the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA).

With the adoption of a controversial cultural law at the end of last year, cultural institutions have also been under greater government control.

Orban does not have to fear a critical press: Hungary's media landscape is largely under the control of the government and government-related companies.

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