Environmental Education and Training in Hungary. Training Discussion Paper No. 83.

Overview & Synopsis

In Hungary, the educational system is responsible for developing an up-to-date and enlightened attitude toward the environment. Elementary schools have made the greatest advance in environmental education during the past 10 years. Conditions for environmental education are most favorable in the gymnasium; secondary vocational education has the greatest lack of environmental education in its curricula. A development project for environmental education in secondary vocational training has designed an ecological and environmental protection curriculum including general and specific requirements and some elements of curriculum content. Recommendations for teacher training and postgraduate training have also been made. Three pilot programs show correlations between environmental protection and technology. They illustrate the role of the Paks nuclear power plant in environmental education, an experiment in environmental education in the Baktay Ervin Gymnasium and Vocational Secondary School for Water Management in Budapest (Hungary), and an experiment in environmental education in the Petrik Lajos Vocational Secondary School for Industrial Chemistry in Budapest. Comprehensive analysis proposals are for the modernization of Hungarian environmental education and solutions to problems arising within the framework of international collaboration. (Appendixes include 20 references and 4 tables.) (YLB)