School performance trends in Hungary in international comparison

Hungary has participated in major international knowledge assessments since the early 1970s, allowing us to evaluate the development of the Hungarian school system in an international context over several decades. In this chapter, we first review the development of students' knowledge in light of the most important surveys and examine how our results compare with those of other countries. In the second part, we analyze in more detail the phenomena that indicate the most serious problems of the Hungarian school system: the weak contribution of schools to reducing disparities, social inclusion, and, ultimately, improving the labor market position of disadvantaged groups. Finally, we look at the results of measurements carried out using modern technologies, which indicate that there are particularly serious problems with the quality of our students' knowledge, foreshadowing the problems of the coming years.