Hungary's teacher demonstration draws tens of thousands

Tens of thousands of people braved steady rain and near freezing weather to march through Budapest on Tuesday, and gathered in front of parliament to demand sweeping changes in the education system, underlining demands with a call for a general strike.

Teachers protested the over-centralization of the curricula, a system that supports rather than diminishes segregation, funding shortcomings, and excessively long school hours among their problems.

As Oliver Pilz, a teacher from the city of Miskolc put it, "the working week is 40 hours for adults so how can we expect our children to put in longer hours studying."

Teachers demanded negotiations with the government on repairing the system, and called for a government-side delegation able to approach the difficulties professionally and competently.

Istvan Pukli, a school principal from Budapest demanded an apology from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and President Janos Ader for the past six years of botched education policy.

Unless an apology is offered and substantive talks begin before March 23, Pukli said, the teachers were calling for a one-hour nationwide teacher strike on March 30, which he invited the rest of the country to join.

Pukli said that 75 percent of the public supported teacher efforts, and suggested that if these people supported a teacher strike with their own work stoppages the government should get the message. If not, he said the next strike could be two hours long.

Organizers estimated that between 50,000 and 80,000 people packed the large square in front of parliament and a number of side streets. Endit