A WAY WE NEED TO STEP ON
The author of this article, Vigen Sargsyan, who is the External Affairs Officer of the World Bank Yerevan Office, was delegated to Budapest to study the experience of awareness raising with regard to the reforms of university admission system. The experience is particularly interesting, since Armenia is soon to go through a similar reform and will also need to conduct an awareness campaign.
“Elections, sir” – a similar remark was made by many people I met. The theme that brought me to this country seemed to have no direct correlation to elections, though: admission exams at universities. However, as it turned out later, the correlation is there, and it is more than direct, too.
On April 9 parliamentary elections were held in Hungary. Their significance in a parliamentary republic is comparable to that of our presidential elections. And many of the parents, discontent with the reform of the admission system or purely with the test results, hoped for the victory of right-winged forces and abolition of the one-stage examinations. The dreams have not as yet come true: by preliminary results, socialists and liberals have overcome the five-percent barrier and are even a bit ahead of their opponents, but the second round is still to come…
This is where Enlightened Europe has arrived: the left political forces implement a reform, known as the Bologna process, and the right-wingers promise voters to go back to the old system. This reality, uncharacteristic for an EU member country, is probably the first lesson.
In Armenia, where the university admission examinations, along with the elections, are probably the two main national sports, the climate around the exams is just as politicized. The argument that the introduction of the new system in Hungary coincided with election tension is true for us, too. Next year, when our Ministry of Education and Science is to adopt the new system, Armenia will also have parliamentary elections… Hence, Hungary turned out to be almost an ideal ground for observations. The other lesson is that the education sphere is better off when it is out of politics: this does not make the generations any more educated.
So, a year ago Hungarian Ministry of Education announced the adoption of a new system of admission examinations: it is simple and is combined with the finals at schools. This seems to be an easy task; it does not take more than an announcement of a transition, which was made: February 15, 2005 was the deadline for applications to universities.
HOW TO CAMPAIGN
Attila Matiscsak is one of the six media Advisors of the Minister of Education. Each of the advisors is responsible for a specific sphere in the education system (this function distribution is actually very reasonable and effective). The whole communication workload on higher education is Attila’s duty.
“At the initial stage the commission on the introduction of the new system held dozens of discussions with all main actors: Bologna Committee, councils of rectors and students, etc. The Prime Minister made a personal promise to back the process, should the professional community give its consent. The consent was given. At the second stage about one hundred meetings were held throughout the country: at schools, universities or just with parents, students as interested parties. All this took almost half a year. At first I was purely an observer, I wrote down ideas on how to conduct the campaign best, and afterwards, at the meetings my recommendations mattered in terms of how to present the reform in the best way.”
Notably, all these meetings Attila referred to took place with the participation of the Minister or his Deputy for Higher Education. It was important to pay particular attention to the target groups – teachers of the senior school, parents, who were the primary addressees of the information.
However, the main and the simplest lesson is: to avoid incomplete, inconsistent, contradictory and inaccurate information. Otherwise the problems may be too many. The wrong interpretation or just freely made phrasings at public presentations did cause a storm of questions addressed to the Ministry. A group of professionals within the Ministry, knowledgeable of all details, was formed. All other structures were prohibited from giving their interpretations on the issues so as to avoid chaos.
In average, on a monthly basis the staff of the Ministry had to answer over 4,000 questions on the phone or e-mail. The torrent actually subsided only recently. Similarly to any other country, parents and applicants themselves, before making the final decision, prefer to discuss everything. Even though there has been no shortage of print or other production, explaining the details of the new system.
“Yes, the whole information of who shall apply and where, the changes in the system, the required scores, the popular departments, testing procedures, test concepts – in other words, everything important to know – was presented on our web-site well ahead of time”, Eva Roberts, Deputy Director of Communications of National Higher Education Information Center, says. “This very information was published as a brochure. There was also a separate brochure with tests only: the concept and examples.”
There is nothing extraordinary in the new tests: they call for basic school knowledge with greater emphasis on critical thinking instead of memorizing. Another publication, a certain “compass” of all changes and innovations, was directed to school teachers.
A week before February 15 the universities received about two thousand applications. The other 148,000 were received, also by e-mail, a few days before the deadline (so, this occurs not only in Armenia).
However, the questions did not subside. The greatest predicament arose with the two types of tests – of average and higher difficulty. The choice of the second option enables scoring seven additional points (the reform in Armenia also stipulates two testing options). The opinions divided over this: universities and teachers supported the tests of average difficulty; the Ministry with all its subdivisions did not introduce the due clarity. Hence, the majority was seduced by the easiest way and lost in the end. Many applicants lost scores for preferring these tests.
“It is the mistake of the teachers, and the parents were to study the instructions more attentively, too”, Eva Roberts believes. “Because there has been no lack of information.”
“All information was open and accessible for public”, Attila Matiscsak says. “But in my opinion, journalists preferred to focus on scandals.”
HOW TO REPORT ON THE CAMPAIGN
“I cannot deny the accessibility of information”, Dora Varga, the correspondent of “Nepszabadsag”, a popular Hungarian daily, confirms. “But how could one refrain from the coverage of scandals, if two days before the examinations the test samples were all over the Internet? Or, I was producing weekly pages on education, and this information became obsolete in a couple of days, because the Ministry kept changing the rules. Hence the confusion in the society. In my opinion, the Ministry was simply late with its awareness campaign, in what referred to applicants, parents.”
“Nepszabadsag” is not the only publication covering the overall reform process and the admission examinations in particular. The statistics, provided by Attila Matiscsak, shows that 6-7 articles were published daily on this subject, to say nothing of the weekly pages – and this was only in the leading newspapers.
One of the fresh examples: 200-page supplement to “HVG” (“World Economy”) weekly titled “Diploma 2006”. The journal gives an answer to almost every question that an applicant or anyone similarly interested may have: starting from most reputable departments to the examination rules with all details.
Anyway, none of the experts I talk to has doubts that this year will go with no problem. “The tension is no longer there”, I was told at the Ministry and the Information Center. Similar opinion was held at the Institute for Higher Education Research, where the reform trends are analyzed in academic silence. Dora Varga of “Nepszabadsag” noted, as a joke: “No scandals are expected this year, unless, of course, politics, namely, the elections, messes things up.”
She believes that the higher education reform was generally too politicized. Thus, the reform package was on the table since 1997, but the real implementation started only three years ago. The other strange thing, in her opinion, is the over-reliance on the Internet: “The Minister thought that the information is on the web, so there is nothing to worry about…” (This is not something we in Armenia can fear, so the details are not that significant.)
In conversations with the education sector representatives and journalists often a name of an organization – an NGO or a news agency – was cited. The organization was specialized in education matters only. Later a meeting with two pleasant young men occurred, and their experience turned out to be quite instructive.
In 1996 Campus Media was established – an association, uniting all the University publications and publishing houses. The idea was in improvement of student media by the efforts of students themselves. Five years later this became a base for Hungarian University and College Media Association, incorporating three structures: publishing houses, school of journalism and news agency. So the student idea became commercial.
“It is purely educational subject matter, our agency does not disseminate other kinds of news”, Tibor Hornyak, one of the founders of the Media Association, says. “The narrow niche seemingly has little attraction, but the media market – newspapers, TV and radio channels, news agencies are willing to purchase our production (70% of the budget is subscription-driven). We only have one aim: to give objective coverage of education reform, ranging from student problems to entrance exams.”
In the opinions of the other Media Association founder, Gabor Kisfalvi, they do not experience any information shortages, as it comes from the sources directly – students, professors. The unbiased coverage of news resulted in a business cooperation with Ministry of Education, who is now the main client. The agency played a very important role in the admission reformation process, being consistent in reporting and explaining the new rules.
“Hungary needs good quality education, we can no longer rely on its being universal”, Gabor Kisfalvi says. “And we cover all the issues that arise on this way. Professional media only address this subject when something extraordinary happens, but the problems of students, the low salaries of lecturers or wretched condition of dormitories need publicity just as well.”
The discussion of education problems continued at Budapest University of Technology and Economics. One of the oldest universities (established in 1782), an example of the beautiful architecture the city is so rich in. On the day of my visit the main hall was transformed into a filming ground: a film on the riot of 1956, the 50th anniversary of which the Hungarians will commemorate this autumn, was being shot. The interest of the students towards the dramatic events was huge, but the silence of the corridors showed the classes ongoing and the academic routine uninterrupted. The respect for the past and the pragmatism of today: the surprising intermingling of 50 years ago with the realities of the new millennium deserves following suit.
Dr. Janos Kovesi, the University Vice-Rector, spoke at length of the general problems. It turned out Hungarian professors, similarly to their Armenian colleagues, complain of the weak knowledge base given at school, private tutoring is blossoming. But there is one thing that does not exist in Hungary: there is no corruption at universities, schools and during entrance examinations. That is, the argument which ensures the unequivocal support for the transition to new admission system does not hold water in Hungary. All my interlocutors smiled in amazement or just shook shoulders: “No, there is no corruption, lecturers or teachers cannot humiliate themselves by bribery…” They are concerned with other problems that are not so resonant in our case. Unfortunately.
“Obviously Hungary is not going to need this number of specialists with five-year University education”, Dr. Kovesi believes. “By our assessments, 30-40% of bachelor’s degree holders will continue their studies at graduate school. The law on higher education, strictly delineating between the three-year education for undergraduate and two-year education for graduate schools, pays serious attention to bachelors, not to violate their employment right on the labor market. At some point the universities, such as ours, will only produce masters, and the undergraduate studies will be transferred to colleges. The number of graduate students at our university reduced from 400 to 100. These are the realities demanding greater flexibility on our part. The transition to one-stage admission system has only made our lives easier, reducing the organizational worries.”
For this reason the universities were the most active participants in the draft law debates, for this very reason they traveled all over the country, explaining the nature of Bologna process, attracting future students. The competition here is at the university level. Similarly to Armenia, many of the universities here have the same departments. Hence, the politicizing of the process. There are changes ahead that are not favored by everyone.
One can only wish for our professors to be so supportive for the reformation of admission system and be happy to have “fewer organizational worries”, instead of lamenting the loss of clientele. But wishes do not always come true…
Dr. Kovesi was actually dissatisfied with the awareness campaign on Bologna process in general. In his view, there was more attention paid to the political aspect of the matter, rather than to the essence of the reforms. And it is the universities that are trying to fill in this gap, stressing the innovations, the credit system, adopted by every school here, in their promotional leaflets.
“KIDS” OF THE BOLOGNA PROCESS
Mate Maros, a graduate of one of the best high schools in Budapest and a student of a prestigious medical university, experienced no discomfort at all when the new system was introduced.
“Our teachers informed us about every single detail of the new rules”, he says. “Even when they changed on daily basis. The teachers followed the events, made explanations, and practiced new tests. There was confusion over the two-level tests, but I went for the difficult option and I was right there.”
“I did not even follow the changes”, Zsofi Buzetzky, a freshman at the Geography Department of Pecs University, admits. “In my case, parents kept an eye on everything. They were nervous, were searching for accurate information, were reading and asking for explanations, and I only attended to my studies…”
These are the two extreme opinions of freshmen, already nicknamed “the Bologna kids”. After all, kids differ. However, these two young students were the most optimistic of all. They look into the future and think the Bologna process, which is integration in essence, to be quite important for their lives. Mate made a point, surprisingly mature for an adolescent, that being a European he wants to be as free in education and employment as his peers in other countries are. The young man, who stands on his feet firmly, gave his brief vision of the reform with a phrase I put in the headline: “This is a way we need to step on”. One can hardly say any better.
INSTEAD OF AN AFTERWORD
The education reform is abundant in stages, methods, concepts. I omitted the details on purpose, focusing on the information part. The Hungarian experience shows that if the awareness is a bit delayed, an information vacuum is formed, bringing the situation close to chaos. This is enough to discredit any idea or reform. Despite the strong preparatory basis, the human and financial resources, the Hungarians did not manage to avoid problems. Yet, the problems are left behind, and this year everything will flow smoothly.
We still have it all ahead us: we can learn from mistakes of others – or of our own. The choice is ours. My recent impression is that entrance exams in Armenia will not be held by the new system next year. We need a political rather than politicized will. We need our own Ministry to be active and consistent in promoting the changes, also in admission process, considering how radical the reform is and the fact that nearly one-third of the nation is involved in this most national sport. We need all subdivisions, particularly the Assessment and Testing Center, to play the leading role in education system starting from today, for the future applicant to be aware of the upcoming changes today, for the subject to be discussed in public today. As we can see, even the slight delay in actions renders them ineffective and can result in negative consequences. We only need to prepare our society, particularly the Armenian society, so scrupulous in the issue of educating the children.
Vigen SARGSYAN
P.S. The author expresses his gratitude to Richard Hirschler, the editor-in-chief of the online version of “HVG” (“World Economy”) weekly for the assistance in the preparation of the article.
