Crosses and catechism: Hungary’s push to ‘Christianize’ education

  • Date: 09-Sep-2021
  • Source: Kuwait Times
  • Sector:Education
  • Country:Kuwait
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Crosses and catechism: Hungary’s push to ‘Christianize’ education

HODMEZOVASARHELY: Hands clasped, children line church pews as nuns lead morning prayer in Hungary. “Jesus loves me… Jesus is happiness,” they sing, clapping along to the hymns. It is not a scene from Sunday mass, but from a primary school where students are kicking off the day with prayer as part of the government’s efforts to re-Christianise education.

The decade-old campaign has been pioneered by Hungary’s nationalist firebrand prime minister as part of his “conservative revolution” in the eastern European nation that Pope Francis will visit on Sunday. The result: more crosses in classrooms and daily schedules punctuated by prayer and catechism.

It has also led to more government funds being funneled into Christian schools – often attended by wealthier students – at the expense of public schools where poorer children are enrolled. For Andrea Magyar, headmistress at Ferenc Liszt, the change has been a welcome one. Her school of 400 in the southeastern town of Hodmezovasarhely has been under the direction of Dominican nuns since September 2020.

She says relations are “less bureaucratic and warmer” with the diocese compared to the centralized education authority, and insists the curriculum itself “has not changed”. The religious elements – crosses and catechisms – are not