Orbán’s Bid to Shape Hungary’s Next Generation Through Education Reform

The party’s latest crackdown on education is an attempt to silence teachers and influence Hungarian public education. The goal is to indoctrinate and raise an obedient, uncritical generation who won’t challenge Orbán’s power.

In July 2023, the Hungarian parliament passed – along party lines – the highly controversial, so-called “revenge law” that targets teachers across the country, changing their employment status and worsening their already grim working conditions.

These moves by the government have turned the summer into a period of protest and uncertainty, with many educators threatening to leave the sector and placing an added burden on schools in trying to fill their positions.

While the impact of this law certainly is exacerbating the ongoing teacher crisis, these recent attacks by the far-right Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, neatly fits into the Fidesz party’s history of attempting to influence education and broaden its authoritarian influence across all strata of public life.