Students' Opinions about the Changes in the Educational System.

The change of the political system in Hungary stimulates a great deal of discussion about the consequent modification of the educational system. Almost every aspect of schooling is to be changed: the content of teaching, the basic structure of public education, the decision-making system, the dependency relationships, etc. Within this context we examined how the students perceive the changes around them. During the spring of 1990, 252 eleventh grade high-school students, their mothers and 70 math teachers were interviewed about the planned educational reforms. This paper presents data on their answers concerning some of the most critical aspects of the changes (e.g. the role of the ideology, the Churches, establishing private schools, decentralizing the curriculum). Results show that each of the three groups support the planned changes. In general, teachers are the most active proponents of the coming reforms and mothers are the most reluctant. No significant correlation was found between students' and mothers' answers. (Author)