UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre Piazza SS. Annunziata, 12 50122 Florence, Italy Tel. 39055-20330 (switchboard) Fax. 39055-244817 Website: www.unicef-icdc.org

YOUNG PEOPLE IN TRANSITION IN HUNGARY

COUNTRY PAPER Coordinator: Judit Lakatos Hungarian Central Statistical Office, Budapest

Background paper prepared for the Regional Monitoring Report No. 7 “Young People in Changing Societies (2000)

The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies or views of UNICEF.

The UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre (formally known as the International Child Development Centre) explores issues that contribute to the implementation of child rights in both industrialized and developing countries.

YOUNG PEOPLE IN TRANSITION IN HUNGARY

Budapest July 1999

1

Introduction Like in so many countries, in Hungary too a special attention is paid to the young. In the previous term of government a Youth Co-ordination Committee headed by a secretary of state was set up which was required to report to the Parliament annually. However, due to the reorganisation of ministries in 1998, a separate Youth and Sports Ministry was set up whose responsibilities and authority concerning the youth have not been fully developed yet. Young related issues are addressed by several other governmental organisations from various perspectives. The most important of them is the Ministry of Education which directs and controls public education (primary and secondary education) and higher education as well as vocational training; the Ministry of Welfare and Family, however, focuses on the labour market situation of the young and improving their chances. Furthermore, the Ministry develops social policy guidelines designed to improve the living conditions of young families. With the establishment of the institutions of democracy, KISZ (Communist Youth Organisation), the earlier single one youth organisation of the single-party regime has been replaced by several youth organisation of which only few are attached to political parties. These organisations, however, all together have a much smaller influence than KISZ. Information resources and analyses of the current situation of young people in Hungary are fairly rich. Up to 1997, the annual reports of the Youth Co-ordination Committee provide a good summary of the information, and a supplementary survey of the labour market situation of the young was conducted. Furthermore, throughout the 1990s several national conferences have been organised on these issues by various institutions. In the Hungarian professional and political practice, those aged 15 to 29 are considered as young, nevertheless some surveys, such as the labour market surveys, focused on the 15-24 years old people, which is the commonly accepted European definition of young.

School Transitions and Drop-Outs In the 1990s age groups starting and finishing schools have been of very different size. This fact together with the transformation of the labour market have heavily challenged the flexibility and elasticity of the education system throughout the decade. Age groups 0 to 14 have been shrinking: in 1998 less than 100 thousand children were born; the size of primary school age cohorts is around 120 thousand while cohorts of those aged 15 –19, which is the potential base for secondary education, are around 130 to 160 thousand; 170 to 190 thousand large cohorts in the 20 to 24 years old represent a local demographic peak.

2

Total population and age composition Year st (January 1 )

Total population in thousands

Age composition /%/ of the population 0-14

15-29

20-24

25-29

over 30

1980

10 710

21.9

6.1

7.6

8.3

56.1

1990

10 375

20.5

7.4

6.5

6.0

59.6

1996

10 212

17.9

7.9

7.9

6.9

59.4

1997

10 174

17.7

7.6

8.3

6.9

59.5

1998

10 135

17.6

7.1

8.5

7.1

59.7

1999

10 092

17.7

6.8

8.7

7.2

60.6

By accepting more students in secondary and particularly in higher education students’ entering in the labour market has been delayed which has helped to avoid growing social tensions occurring as a consequence of the appearance and soaring unemployment. (In the late 1990s a new source of tensions has been that several primary schools have been closed down as the number of pupils have decreased; with these age groups growing older, cutting back on schools will hit the whole education system.) Besides quantitative changes structural ones have taken place in recent years. As secondary schools providing a leaving certificate (GCE) and post-certificate training programs have been absorbing more pupils the number of vocational trainees has been declining. 6 and 8 grade secondary schools, that are rather alien to the traditional system of 8 grade primary school + 4 grade secondary school, continue to be very popular and tend to be the ones to offer elite education. In higher education the number of students continues to grow, though at a slower pace. From 1990 to 1998 the number of students doubled. The modernisation of co-operation between institutions has started: the system of enrolment applications has changed; several studies and specialisations have been introduced that meet modern requirements. In 1998 the accredited (so called semi-higher education) specialised education was introduced, too. In the 1998/99 academic year 2051 thousand young people participated in day course education of the school system (public plus higher education). Despite a further drop in the number of first grade pupils in primary schools, there were 250 more primary school pupils than last year, totalling to over 964 thousand. The explanation for this is that in the academic year 1998/99, after finishing the 8 grade primary education over 1200 pupils continued their studies in the 9th and 10th grades of basic education, especially in small communities without secondary schools. 95.8% of 114 thousand pupils finishing the 8th grade in 1998 went on to day course secondary education. Unfortunately, the rate of those going on to further education has been declining for several years partly because families cannot afford it and partly because secondary schools cannot provide sufficient students’ hostel accommodation. 69% of those finishing primary school went on to

3

secondary schools and only 27% went on to apprentice schools and vocational training programs that do not provide a leaving certificate. Despite a substantial increase, enrolment rates in secondary schools in various age groups are somewhat lower than in most of the OECD countries. Changes in the structure of secondary education as well as the in the relative numbers of pupils in various types of secondary education has been more or less in harmony with the changes in labour market requirements. In 1998/99 there were altogether 509 thousand pupils in day course secondary education. Within a declining total of pupils and students, the number and share of those in secondary education has been increasing. In the academic year of 1998/99 38% of nearly 377 thousand pupils in secondary education studied in secondary grammar schools and 62% in secondary vocational schools. The role and popularity of secondary education that besides a general leaving certificate provides specialisation certificates has grown: in the academic year of 1998/99 46 thousand participated in this kind of education. In 1998 nearly 78 thousand of day course secondary education pupils passed successfully the examinations for the leaving certificate and another 22 thousand earned some kind of specialised vocational examination in addition to the general leaving certificate. In the same year 120 thousand participated in apprentice schools. In the academic year of 1998/99 over 81 thousand young people applied to day courses of universities and colleges and nearly 54% of them were accepted. Overdemand for arts colleges, universities and colleges of law, medicine and economics continues to be above-average. In 1998/99 163 thousand young people studied in day courses of higher education institutions, ten thousand more than in the previous year. The increase in the number of students is still substantial (6.7%), though has been declining since 1995. Although fee paying education has been growing, over 90% of students participate in state financed education. Despite a substantial increase in the number of students and growing range of options in higher education, in international comparison the share of those studying in higher education in the age group 18-22 has only slowly growing as the size of this age group grew until as late as 1996. In 1998/99 the net enrolment ratio of day course students was 15.9%, which is lower than in most OECD countries. (True, in Hungary suspending studies temporarily, which increases the numbers of higher education students, is not as wide spread as in Western Europe). Partly as a result of external processes, in the 1990s substantial positive changes have taken place in terms of young people’s levels of education and qualifications - at least on the surface. However, the school system in its present structure continues to play a great, according to several experts even an increasing role in maintaining the existing social structure and amplifies the effects of early advantages and disadvantages.

4

Enrolment ratios in full-time forma) Age Groups

1990/91

1995/96

1997/98

1998/99

% The share of pupils in kindergartens in the 3-5 year-old population

85.5

87.2

86.3

86.5

The share of pupils in primary education in the 613 year-old population

99.1

97.4

97.8

97.7

The share of pupils in apprentice school in the 1417 year-old population

30.3

26.6

24.4

22.5

The share of pupils in secondary education in the 14-17 year-old population

40.2

52.8

57.7

60.7

The share of students in universities and colleges in the 18-22 year-old population

8.5

11.9

14.1

15.9

The share of participants in education in the 322 year-old population

71.5

71.0

72.7

74.7

a)

Net enrolment ratio

It is not easy to judge the “quality” of education. Monitoring surveys, which are more or less standardised, allow for the international comparison. Since 1986 five monitoring surveys have been conducted with the participation of the National Public Education Institute, the last one in 1999 the results of which have not yet been fully evaluated. According to the 1997 survey, achievements in mathematics of pupils in the 4th, 10th and 12th grades were worse while that of 8th grade students’ were slightly better than previously. An important finding of the survey was that for apprentice school trainees it proved often impossible even to maintain the level of knowledge gained earlier in public education subjects. The differences in achievements of pupils in grades 4 through 8 by type of community, which had already been exceptionally great in international comparison, further increased in 1997: differences in achievements of 8th grade pupils in Budapest and in villages was considerably greater than what was measured in 4th grade pupils. While pupils in Budapest considerably improved their achievements compared to the average and pupils in county seats did so slightly, achievements of pupils in towns and villages deteriorated gradually over the series of surveys. The 1999 survey found that the difference between Budapest and villages is huge though it is not yet know whether it is greater than in 1997. Although not the schools alone are responsible for creating such a difference, a well operating education system could just be expected to reduce rather than increase it. Monitor ’97 also calls the attention to the fact that an important background factor in the differences by type of communities is the educational level of parents. Achievements by pupils directly correlates with the educational level of parents. In international comparison this correlation is the strongest in Hungary. There are few empirical evidences available for the correlation between educational and social segregation. One of the most recent surveys on this issue

5

was conducted on a 1000 sample in Budapest in 1996 and 97 by the ‘Századvég’ research group headed by Ferenc Gazsó. The major findings of the survey were the following: -

As a result of an increasing competition in the labour market, the competition in education is increasing, too. Chances of groups with various social status, educational level and financial situation to acquire necessary education greatly differ. One third of the families in Budapest sent their children to schools which offer special curricula in certain subjects: primarily parents with university or college education did so, then those with secondary education and least those who have apprentice training or only basic education. Of course the choice of special curriculum was typical: while better educated parents chose languages, less well educated families chose sports. Half of the young in the survey attended extracurricular classes when they were at primary school, mainly language, music and computer sciences classes. Social differences were discernible here too: while 70% of children of parents with university or college education attended extracurricular classes only one third of the children whose parents had apprentice training or primary school education did so; 35% of children in the first group and less then one tenth (9%) of the latter group studied languages in extracurricular classes. Various social strata did not only use the primary schools in different ways they also benefited differently from what was taught to them. 50% of children with poorly educated parents had “fair” achievements in primary school, and one third (29 – 35 percent) of such children were “good” while only 7 to 9 percent of them were “excellent” or “outstanding”. In contrast, half of the children with parents with higher education were “good” and only 9 – 13 percent of them were “fair” while one third and two fifth of them were “excellent” and “outstanding”.

-

Although 97% of children in Budapest applied to secondary schools after finishing primary school, there are substantial differences in the choice of the type of secondary school by social strata – just as it was expected in the light of children’s achievements. The majority of children, 68 –72 percent, from families with university or college education applied to secondary grammar schools that prepare them the best for higher education; 45-58 percent of children of parents with apprentice training or less went on to apprentice schools.

-

Those who had the choice chose a profession, a field or a specialisation which were demanded on the labour market. Most popular vocational training schools were commerce and catering schools while traditional metallurgical and engineering as well as construction and food industrial schools proved to be forced choices. Of secondary vocational schools or “technikum” schools (“technikums” are secondary schools where after earning a leaving certificate one more year of specialised training results in a vocational certificate), the most popular ones were economic sciences, then industrial and constructions schools, commerce and catering schools coming third.

-

A fact which provides further insight in the schooling and educational competition between segments of society is that two fifth (42%) of secondary school pupils attended extracurricular classes, mostly languages, then mathematics, computer sciences, physics, biology and chemistry. Two thirds of 6

Budapest pupils finishing secondary schools applied to higher education institutions. Nine tenth of secondary grammar school pupils intended to go on to higher education and nearly two thirds (63%) of secondary vocational school and technikum graduates wanted to study in higher education. Two fifth (38%) of apprentice trainees wished to continue their studies in secondary vocational schools or secondary grammar schools. Currently in Budapest around 18% of those finishing secondary education go on to higher education, which is far less than how many apply; the situation is the same with apprentice trainees wishing to go on to secondary education. A permanent problem affecting the whole of the educational system is the situation of Gipsy children*. Partly because migration options of the Gipsy population and the majority society are different and partly because prejudices against Gipsies exist, in recent years the number of institutions which teach exclusively or mostly Gipsy pupils have further increased. It continues to be an everyday practice to refer healthy Gipsy children to special classes or schools. The number of segregated Gipsy classes within schools, which has no pedagogical justification, has not decreased: according to a 1995 survey, of 840 respondent schools 132 operated Gipsy classes. There are various degrees of negative discriminative practices in schools ranging from reduced value education to various degrees of segregation and to getting rid of Gipsy pupils (by making them repeat the same grades over and over until they drop out to exempting them from education or referring them to special schools.) The underlying idea of reduced value education usually is that by reducing requirements and organising segregated classes it will be easier for Gipsy pupils to progress. Available information, however, proves this assumption faulty: in 1995 the drop out rate of Gipsy pupils before they finish the 8 grades of primary school was over 10% in 14% of schools which provided integrated education for Gipsies, in 16% of schools with segregated Gipsy classes and in 25% of special schools. Although the education level of the Gipsy population has increased since the 1970s, the share of those with a general leaving certificate in the Gipsy population has still been very low in the 1990s, or to be more accurate it has declined in the 1990s: a larger share of those in their thirties hold a leaving certificate than those in their twenties. Generally, the education level of Gipsies has improved since the 1970s though their backwardness in education compared to the rest of society has not decreased.

*

Source: Judit Lannert, Public Education in the 1990s. TÁRKI, Social Report, 1998.

7

The education level of the Gipsy population by age groups in 1993 Age

0 grades of primary school

1-7 grades of primary school

8 grades of primary school

Apprentice school or special secondary education

Secondary vocational school or secondary grammar school

College or university

Total

14-19

1.5

32.4

55.3

10.4

0.4

0.0

100.0

20-29

1.7

22.4

59.7

14.5

1.7

0.0

100.0

30-39

4.6

32.5

47.4

12.5

2.5

0.3

100.0

40-49

10.1

39.7

40.8

7.4

1.4

0.6

100.0

50-59

32.0

42.3

20.5

3.7

1.4

0.2

100.0

60-69

39.6

51.2

6.4

2.1

0.4

0.4

100.0

70-

50.9

40.2

7.8

1.0

0.0

0.0

100.0

Source: A Representative National Gipsy Survey (Kemény, 1996).

Life Skills and Health Programs Delivered in Schools Acquiring modern and convertible skills is an indispensable foundation to successfully enter the labour market and make a career. Job advertisements make it clear that speaking foreign languages (mostly English or German) and having computer skills are a condition of white collar jobs even if the particular position does not require them. Education in schools, however, should adapt to these conditions. In the area of language teaching considerable changes have taken place both in public and in higher education. Earlier from grade 5 of primary school one language, Russian, used to be compulsory. In the first years after the compulsory Russian classes were abolished, free choice of languages was limited by the lack of language teachers. Later, however, former Russian teachers were retrained from central funds and teachers’ training colleges and universities accepted more applicants to language courses. As a result of this process, in the academic year 1997/98 53.0% of primary school pupils studied German and 43.7% English. Those primary schools that offer good quality special language classes faced severe over-demand; in that year some 10 thousand pupils attended such classes. Interestingly enough, some 20 thousand primary school pupils studied an optional second foreign language (mostly English). Studying a foreign language is compulsory in secondary schools, too. In 1997/98 41.7% of secondary grammar school pupils studied English, 35.5% German, 8.1% French and 7.5% Latin. Foreign language teaching is especially important in secondary grammar schools; as a matter of fact, secondary grammar schools with the reputation of providing 8

high quality and intensive language classes can recruit the children of the “elite”. In 1997/98 about 10% of secondary grammar school pupils studied foreign languages in special curricula that ensure an increased number of hours devoted to language studies. 3.6% of all secondary grammar school pupils attended the most popular of secondary grammar schools, in which some of the subjects are taught in a foreign language. In vocational secondary schools language teaching is less important, nonetheless one tenth of pupils participate in the noncompulsory language classes, too. In apprentice schools studying a foreign language is compulsory only in certain specialisations (for instance commerce and catering); in the academic year 1997/98 only one third of apprentice trainees studied languages. In higher education one of the conditions of earning one’s degree is having at least one centrally recognised language (medium level) examination certificate. As a matter of fact, colleges and universities reward one’s holding language certificate(s) before application and add extra scores to one’s admission examination scores. Although everyone getting as far as the upper grades of primary school is taught a foreign language its successfulness varies greatly. On the one hand in small communities there is hardly a choice of what language one wants to learn and usually language teaching is of poorer quality; on the other hand the demand for good quality language teaching is characteristic of higher social status parents while in lower segments of society this is hardly an expectation. Thus educational segregation is reinforced by both the objective and subjective possibilities and conditions of language studies. Findings of the supplementary youth survey of the labour survey in the 4th quarter of 1998 are the following:

Language skills of the young at the end of 1998 % Age group

Per cent of youth with foreign language skills

of which Speaking at least Having a foreign two foreign language languages certificate

Do not speak any foreign languages

Total

aged 15–19 Male

42,4

6,9

13,0

57,6

100,0

Female

52,3

12,0

20,2

47,7

100,0

Total

47,3

9,5

16,5

52,7

100,0

Male

36,9

14,7

12,7

63,1

100,0

Female

47,7

22,6

19,0

52,3

100,0

Total

42,2

18,6

15,9

57,8

100,0

aged 20–24

9

As the figures show 53% young people aged 15-19 and 58% of those aged 20-24 reported that they did not have foreign language skills though those of them who attended secondary schools studied foreign languages for at least eight years. And it is highly probable that these figures are actually better than reality as only 9.5% of the first age group and 18.6% of the second one held a language exam certificate in the surveyed period. The lack of language skills is particularly apparent in the young in villages. A further matter of interest is that more than three fourth of unemployed young aged 15 to 24 did not have language skills while the share of those holding a language exam certificate in this group of unemployed was very little. The previous government started a very ambitious program in the area of teaching computer skills: the objective of the “Sulinet” (Schoolnet) program, involving external funds, was to supply primary and secondary schools with computers and ensuring them access to Internet. All secondary schools successfully joined the Sulinet program but the new education policy makers have decided not to complete the primary school program. Schools play a very important role in reducing the inequality of chances in acquiring computer skills as currently as few as one out of ten Hungarian households have a computer - and mostly those households with higher incomes and few children. A positive finding of the youth survey is that at the end of 1998 nearly two thirds of 15-24 year old young had some computer skills. The negative side of it is that while 81% of those participating in education and 54% of working young have computer skills, only 35% of the unemployed and 25% of non-studying inactive young have some.

Computer skills % Computer skills suitable

some

Total none at all

aged 15–19 Male

34.5

33.9

100.0

Female

39.9

31.0

100.0

Total

37.2

32.4

100.0

Male

23.5

44.6

100.0

Female

24.5

40.8

100.0

Total

24.0

42.7

100.0

aged 20–24

Education institutions deliver knowledge and skills other that those in the curriculum. However, such free time classes nowadays are provided on a market basis. The organisation of medical care in schools has not changed. Primary and secondary schools ensure regular medical and dental screenings, carried out 10

usually by the local paediatrist. (In small communities the local doctor takes care of children, too.) The main types of diseases and malformations at various ages are regularly surveyed.

Most frequent diseases and malformations of children at kindergarten and school, 1996/1997 Diseases (according to ICD Rev. X.)

5 year old children at kindergarten

Pupils and Students aged 11

a)

15

b)

17

c)

Boys Deformation of bones, cartilage

51.20

74.28

110.07

110.79

157.65

167.97

165.90

161.39

Ametropia

47.56

107.17

137.91

151.55

Strabismus

25.09

16.13

11.97

10.20

Wearing glasses

51.81

97.00

122.54

136.99

Loss of hearing

10.40

4.97

8.25

9.70

Obesity

20.87

54.86

40.02

45.40

Asthma bronchiale spastica

11.87

12.10

9.99

9.91

Childhood behaviour disorders

24.28

15.51

10.38

7.77

Essential benign hypertension

1.69

5.23

15.66

25.01

Anaemia

6.78

4.12

3.42

2.98

Epilepsy

1.87

2.74

2.69

1.84

42.28

67.38

98.05

92.22

Statical deformations of feet

Girls Deformation of bones, cartilage Statical deformations of feet

125.92

144.76

129.80

125.07

Ametropia

51.58

127.64

180.29

214.78

Strabismus

25.33

17.47

11.04

9.79

Wearing glasses

55.07

116.01

164.82

199.03

Loss of hearing Obesity Asthma bronchiale spastica

8.36

4.71

5.42

5.68

26.48

51.67

50.08

47.77

6.73

7.40

8.52

8.90

Childhood behaviour disorders

11.97

7.66

7.45

4.77

Essential benign hypertension

1.09

4.84

7.64

9.81

Anaemia

7.83

6.54

9.49

11.47

Epilepsy

1.63

2.46

2.87

2.72

The general curriculum includes “education for family life” and “civies studies”. At schools Pupils’ Councils operate that communicate the pupils’ needs and problems to the teaching staff and make sure that statutory rights of children are enforced in the school. However, whether the Pupils’ Council works only formally or in a meaningful way depends on the liberalism of the staff and the general atmosphere in the school.

11

Transition from School to Labour Market The current young generation was born to an era in which unemployment exists: the 24 years old young grew to the age of starting to work at a time when mass unemployment started in Hungary due to the close down of huge corporations. Although the unemployment rate in the young is lower than in most Western European countries and this generation benefits the most from the improvement of the unemployment situation that began in 1997, in 1998 still over 28% of all unemployed were under 25; some 41% of unemployed young are long term unemployed. Just as other groups of society, those young are prone to become unemployed or inactive in other ways who have low levels of education, especially if did not finish even primary school, and live in depressed areas far from economic centres. Although statistical surveys do not ask the respondent’s ethnicity, sociological researches suggest that Gipsy young have special difficulties to enter the labour market. Connected to LFS, in the fourth quarter of 1998 the third detailed survey of the situation of the young in the labour market was conducted. This survey underpins the finding that an increasing number of young stay out of the labour market for an increasingly long period to participate in education. At the same time, as a result of favourable processes in the national labour market in the past two years the number of employed young has grown and the unemployment rate has dropped.

Number of young people by labour market status and gender (in 1000) Employed

Pupil (student)

Neither work nor study of which Unemployed Inactive

Total

All

th

1996 4 quarter Male

259.9

359.4

65.4

48.7

114.1

733.4

Female

202.7

368.7

36.5

138.7

175.2

746.6

All

462.6

728.1

101.9

187.4

289.3

1 480.0

Male

287.3

367.0

52.1

78.1

130.2

784.5

Female

227.5

363.5

26.7

155.3

182.0

773.0

All

514.8

730.5

78.8

233.4

312.2

1 557.5

Male

305.8

358.3

44.9

73.0

117.9

782.0

Female

243.1

374.6

21.6

126.8

148.4

766.1

All

548.9

732.9

66.5

199.8

266.3

1 548.1

th

1997. 4 quarter

th

1998. 4 quarter

Source: LFS Supplementary Youth Survey

A substantial portion of the young are inactive who participate in not day-course education. Part of them prepare for higher level education and attend preparatory 12

courses while an other part probably works on an occasional basis. Substantial numbers of young women are at home with young children; this is made financially easier by the widely criticised Bokros package which makes mothers eligible for maternity provisions who never worked before bearing children and consequently were not insured. In the above spreadsheet a couple of thousand of students are represented as part time workers who in the regular LFS report feature as employed. 60% of young who neither work nor study (mostly males) reported in the survey that they wanted to work. Few of the employed young are entrepreneurs, most of them are employed by small size businesses or by private entrepreneurs. In the latter kind of employment jobs are insecure and employee rights are difficult to enforce. As they are far from the retirement age and do not feel threatened by long term illnesses, young people are often willing to work without being registered and insured or to be registered as minimum wage employees. In a large part of the young, their qualification and the actual job they do do not correspond and in the past two years this difference has increased. In 1998 nearly 45% of working young people aged 15-19 and 43% of those aged 20-24 said that their job did not correspond to their qualification.

The correspondance of education and job in the working young in 1998. Education corresponds to the job

Education partially corresponds to the job

Education does not correspond to the job

Total

Aged 15-19 Male

47.6

4.8

47.6

100.0

Female

54.2

4.9

40.9

100.0

Total

50.2

4.8

44.7

100.0

Male

45.6

8.0

46.4

100.0

Female

53.0

9.0

38.0

100.0

Total.

48.9

8.4

42.7

100.0

Male

45.9

7.6

46.5

100.0

Female

53.2

8.4

38.4

100.0

Total

49.1

7.9

42.9

100.0

Aged 20-24

TOTAL

The employment position of the young appears to be less secure than the average: some 20% of working young aged 15-19 hold an employment contract 13

for a definite period of time, and almost half of the respondent young in the 1998 survey did no work in first jobs. Until 1996, if they did not find employment, school leaver young were entitled to a special kind of unemployment benefit for six months. The July 1996 modification of the employment act, however, abolished this payment and introduced active tools to fight unemployment instead. (Also the definition of career starters entitled to support changed: earlier those qualified career starters who had at least secondary education and were eligible for the support for two years after finishing school while according to the new definition those qualify who are under 25, and under 30 with higher education.) Local agencies of Labour Centres offer the young various services and skills training programs that help them improve their employment finding prospects; another tool to help young people find jobs is that Labour Centres pay the employer part of the costs of employing a career starter. Some of the services listed in the program are available only in 90 days after registering with the local agency of the Labour Centre. According to the findings of the youth survey, in 1998 44% of young who were registered unemployed received this kind of support as opposed to only 26% in the previous year. The share of young unemployed participating in various programs, such as personal development training, counselling, organised by Labour Centres has considerably grown. This change is especially conspicuous in areas where in the past this kind of support was received with total indifference.

Transition from Parental Environment to Own Family An increasing share of those aged 15-24 do not have their own families. Currently, the average age of women marrying for the first time is 23.5; 1st January 1998 as few as 10.7 thousand (1.5%) out of 727.2 thousand young aged 15-19 and 177.1 thousand (20.4%) out of 869.3 thousand aged 20-24 were married, though 8.5 thousand of them were divorced at least once before. In the 1990s the age of marrying has strongly changed. It has various social and economic reasons, the most important being the longer schooling time which allows the young to start their own families only at a later point of time. Entering the labour market has become harder: many of the young only have employment contracts for a specific period of time or work only on an occasional basis. Creating one’s own home and family has become financially more demanding then before, which also encourages the young to do it at a later time. However, the number of marriages has declined also because cohabitation is a spreading practice: in 1998 one fourth of all babies were born in such families while in 1990 only 13%.

14

Shares of married men and women in the total of the respective gender by age groups % Age group

Male

Female

1990

1998

1990

1998

aged 15-19

1.1

0.3

6.9

2.6

aged 20-24

25.5

12.4

53.7

28.7

Marriage of persons under 14 is not permitted (having sexual relation with such a person is a criminal act); although 15 or 16 year old young are allowed to marry with the permission of parents and authorities, marriage among people so young is becoming less frequent even in those groups of society where it used to be a tradition, such as in Romany Gispsies. With marriages taking place later children are born later. (Demographers say that this is the primary cause of the decreasing rate of births in the 1990s). In 1997 10.2% of mothers were younger than 20 when bearing a child (in 1980 14.5% and in 1990 12.3%) while 34.9% of them were aged 20 to 24 (in 1980 41.1% and in 1990 39.2%). In 1997 mothers of 1562 new born were under 17 and the overwhelming majority, 90.1%, of these babies were born out of wedlock. 54.1% of babies of mothers aged 17 to 19 and 25% of babies of mothers aged 20 to 24 were born out of wedlock. The majority of unmarried young live with their parents and few have their own household (home). According to the data of the 1996 micro census, 82% of those aged 15 to 19 lived as children in their parents’ household, 11% in institutions, mostly (97% of them) in students’ hostels of schools where they were day course students. One third of young aged 20 to 24 had their own families but nearly 40% of those with their own family lived with their or their spouse’s parents. In 1996 3.4% of those aged 20 to 24 lived independently (in their own homes) without being married. 4% of this age group lived in institutions and three fourth of them were day course students. In Hungarian statistical surveys the majority of those aged 25 to 29 qualify as young: although 70% of them have their own families 20% of this age group live as children with their parents.

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The young population by the type and the number of families living in the housing unit and by age groups 1996. Description

Total

15-19

20-24

25-29

15-19

20-24

25-29

years old as a percentage of the total

years old

One family lives in the housing unit In the family with a couple the family status of the young is 540 087

1.5

19.8

52.4

22.7

29.9

67.8

858 216

59.0

37.1

11.9

55.0

35.4

9.7

29 467

0.8

1.3

1.7

23.0

37.2

39.7

1 427 770

61.4

58.2

65.9

34.4

33.3

32.3

27 565

0.1

0.9

2.8

1.9

27.4

70.6

263 065

15.5

11.9

5.9

47.1

37.2

15.7

6 263

0.1

0.3

0.4

17.9

42.7

39.4

296 893

15.7

13.2

9.1

42.3

36.6

21.3

1 724 663

77.1

71.4

75.0

35.7

33.9

30.4

husband, wife

201 358

2.1

11.7

12.7

8.5

47.4

44.0

mother, father

25 719

0.3

1.4

1.7

10.1

44.3

45.7

104 807

7.0

4.5

1.7

53.2

35.5

11.3

4 009

0.2

0.2

0.2

30.4

32.2

37.4

335 893

9.6

17.8

16.3

22.8

43.3

33.9

88 609

1.3

4.7

5.8

11.4

43.1

45.5

67 010

0.8

3.4

4.7

9.6

41.6

48.7

41 477

1.4

2.2

1.8

26.9

43.3

29.9

126 150

10.6

4.0

1.2

67.3

26.0

6.7

818 466

699 065

34.5

35.3

30.2

husband, wife child relative, not relative All In single parent family the family status of the young mother, father child relative, not relative All Total Several families live in the housing unit In single parent families and families with couple the family status of the young

child relative not relative All Single person of whom single in the family Live in a non-family household Live in institutions Total of those aged 15 to 29

2 316 792

799 261

Source: Micro census, 1998

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Part of young people about to form their own family start their life in a housing which is not modern and of a low comfort level. However, their housing conditions tend to improve as they age: 40% of those aged 20 to 24 and 52% of those aged 25 to 29 live in full comfort housing. 13% of the young live in substandard housing. More than 13% of young people living with other families live in substandard housing. As for the differences of housing conditions by regions, the share of young families living together with other families is larger in villages (21%) than in cities and especially than in Budapest (11%). In 1996 in 461 thousand families, 19% of families with a couple, either the husband or the wife was under 30. In 39% of surveyed families the husband and the wife were of the same age group. In a significant share of couples the husband is older than the wife – as it has always been the tradition. 25% of young families with a couple do not raise children. The share of families without children in all families varies widely by the age of the couple. 43% of families with a couple of which both members are under 25 do not have children. The rate is lower but still significant (35%) in families in which the husband is 2529 and the wife is under 25. 19% of families in which both the husband and the wife are aged 25 to 29 and 14% of families in which the husband is over 30 do not raise children. According to the 1996 micro census, in half of young couples the education level of the husband and the wife were similar and in the rest of the couples the difference was not greater that one level.

Inter-Generational and Social Differences in Lifestyles As already said, younger generations marry at a later time and at a lower rate than the middle age generations. In 1997 the age group 20 to 24 had the highest divorce ratio (number of divorces per 1000 married in a given age group) in both males and females. In the young age group not only the number of children born out of wedlock was high but also the number of abortions per birth was higher than the average. In 1997 the abortion/birth ratio was one in women under 19 while women aged 20 to 24 had 35 thousand births and 19 thousand abortions. 68% of women 19 or under had their first abortions but nearly 70% of those 20 to 24 had been pregnant before. As one tool to reduce the higher than desirable number of abortions, the “education for family life” program was introduced in the educational curriculum of schools, so far not too successfully. Other initiatives are the establishment of pilot special teenager gynaecological clinics and emergency clinics where women can get an after-act contraceptive substance free of charge. At least half of the patients of the latter service are young many of whom cannot afford regular contraceptive drugs. A 1994 health survey by HCSO provides information about alcohol consumption and smoking habits of the young. According to this survey, in Hungary 35% of males and 24% of females under 30 smoked. 22% of males aged 15 to 19 smoked which is a smaller share than in 1986 while 14% of females in the same age group, which is exactly the same as eight years before. As for those aged 20 to 29, 19% less males and 12% less females smoked in 1994 (44% of males and 17

30% of females) than in 1986. Taking to smoking usually happens in one’s teens: three fourth of males and 60% of females in the survey reported they had started to smoke before they were 20. Respondents aged 15 to 19 started to smoke regularly when they were 16 while those aged 20 to 29 at the age of 18. One’s smoking habits has a direct relationship with parents’ smoking habits. 66% of males and 41% of females with smoker parents smoked themselves while only 45% of males and 26% of females with non-smoker parents smoked. Drinking alcohol is a socially accepted behaviour. According to the survey slightly more than half of boys aged 15 to 19 and 37% of girls drink alcohol while 75% and 59% of males and females aged 20 to 29 do so. 78% of those under 30 drink alcohol on an occasional basis. According to the survey, women generally are not regular and abusive drinkers. Drinking alcohol is a masculine habit and becomes a regular practice in males’ twenties. Every tenth male aged 20 to 29, who drink, do it every day while 13% of them several times a week. 14% reported that they drank at home at nights and 7% admitted that they would drink at any hour of the day. It should be mentioned that unemployed males aged 20 to 29 drink substantially more alcohol than others. A relatively new health risk is drug abuse. Following heated social disputes, sanctions against drug use have been made substantially more severe than before as drug use among the young has soared. According to the third turn of an international comparative survey (ESPAD 99) in 1999, 36.8% of 16 year old young, as opposed to 21% in 1995, have used prohibited substances or legal ones without a doctor’s prescription, such as sedatives or sleeping pills sometimes combined with alcohol. The frequency of drug use significantly increases during the four years of secondary school: in county Pest twice as many fourth grade pupils have tried one kind of drug or another than first year pupils, and in Budapest the rates are one fourth and one third, respectively. However, it is important to note that in this survey fourth grade pupils did not include vocational trainees in whom a much larger share of pupils have tried drugs as early as in their first grade than their counterparts in other secondary schools. All this suggests that while in Western Europe no real change has taken place in drug abuse, Hungary has come to rank among the greatest consumers of drugs. Young people mostly try marijuana and hashish: 24.5% of the 16 year old young in Budapest and 16.1% in county Pest have had an experience with soft drugs. 58% of others trying taking drugs used marijuana first. 11.1% of the young in Budapest and 10.3% county Pest drank alcohol and took sedatives at the same time. Less than one tenth of pupils have tried hard drugs, of which in Budapest the most popular ones are LSD and other hallucinogen substances; 8.2% of pupils have tried one of these, which is nearly three times as high as in 1995 and over five times as high as in 1992. The third most widely used substance is amphetamines: 7.8% of pupils have had them which is again several times as high as in previous years. In county Pest sniffing, which is the most dangerous form of selfdestruction, is more frequent than taking amphetamines: 6.2% of the young do it. Parallel with this, the share of those only using legal substances, such as sedatives and sleeping pills, has decreased. While in 1992 only 23.8% of those using legal substances tried illegal ones, in 1995 36.2% and in 1999 59.2% did so. Pupils mostly taste drugs out of curiosity: one third of them mentioned this as the reason for taking drugs. The second most frequent reason, mentioned by 25% of respondents, is that they want to feel good. In contrast to the public opinion, pupils 18

obtain drugs for the first time from their friends rather than from dealers: two thirds of respondents reported that a friend offered them drugs first. The rate of regular drug abusers is one or two per cent, though 6% smoke marijuana regularly which is currently the easiest accessible and cheapest narcotic in Hungary. Depending on the quality, one gram is sold for HUF 1000 to 1500. Heroin, the most damaging of drugs for the personality and health, is a typical street drug which can be purchased from dealers in public areas, pedestrian subways and sometimes in rented apartments. A half-gram package is sold for HUF 3000. The price of morphine ampoules past use-before date is HUF 2000. Cocaine is the drug of the privileged. Few dealers sell it and the price of a dose is HUF 15 to 16 thousand. Disco drugs are relatively easy to buy in night clubs or their direct neighbourhood. An Extasy or speed pill costs HUF 3000 and an LSD stamp costs HUF 1000 to 1500*.

Young People in Conflict with the Law As for criminality, the primary information is the number of reported crimes. In the past decades, the growth in the quantity of criminal cases es has been greater than forecasted earlier. The increase was especially great between 1987 and 1991 in which period the number of reported crimes almost doubled and rose from 188 thousand to 440 thousand. Unfortunately the increase in the number of criminal acts has not stopped and in 1998 reached over 600 thousand. The total number of crimes rose primarily as a result of soaring crimes against property: in 1987 116 thousand crimes against property were reported while in 1991 356 thousand. In terms of the mix of crimes, the share of crimes against property was 61.7% in 1987, 81.0% in 1991 and 76% in 1998. The increase in the number of perpetrators found has been far smaller than that of criminal acts. (The number of reported criminal acts was 188 thousand in 1987 and 600 thousand in 1998 while the number of perpetrators found rose from 98 thousand to 140 thousand in the same period.) A socially alarming development is that the number of juvenile delinquents has been growing. In 1987 9887 and in 1997 13955 juvenile delinquents were indicted. In 1987 the ratio of juvenile delinquents was 168 and in 1997 247 per 10 000 of similar age. In 1998 the number of juvenile delinquents declined by some 8%. In the mix of criminals the share of juvenile delinquents dropped from the record 12.5% in 1994 to 9%. Juveniles have committed all types of crimes, even the capital crime of manslaughter which is usually committed with exceptional cruelty presumably because, with TV as the primary source of information, adolescents are able to foresee the consequences of criminal acts even less than adults. The victims of minors are primarily their peers and the objective of the crime is to get hold of desired consumer goods by force.

*

Source: Erika Dusza and Ildikó Emese Nagy, Drug Use by Pupils Has Substantially Grown. Magyar Nemzet June 1999.

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Perpetrators of crimes Perpetrators

1990

1995

1996

1997

118 046

128 189

129 061

138 763

Minors (under 14 years of age)

3 762

4 169

3 689

4 287

Adolescent (aged 14-17 years)

12 264

14 321

13 544

13 955

Young adult perpetrators (aged 18-24 years)

28 143

34 849

36 028

38 155

Total number of perpetrators Of which:

Source: Ministry of Interior, Chief Prosecutor’s Department

As the time requirement of criminal prosecution varies by regions and by categories of crime, the development of the number of convicted criminals has followed changes in the number of indicted perpetrators with delay. As for legal consequences, sentencing practices currently are more lenient in cases of crimes against property than before. While in 1990 only in 27% of the cases of crimes against property was the sentence less than six months imprisonment, in 1997 in 43% of cases. Nevertheless, the tolerance of society has been diminishing and citizens demand efficient and effective measures to curb the wave of criminality. In 1998 8.3% of all convicted criminals were adolescent. According to the latest detailed report by the Ministry of Interior, in 1997 7447 juveniles were sentenced validly, of them 2080 for imprisonment of whom 1495 were suspended. 30 were subject to a community service order and 435 to pay penalty. The most typical sentence was probation, in 4590 cases, while 184 juveniles were sentenced to youth correctional institutions. According to information from the Ministry of Interior, in 1997 there were 322.7 thousand victims of criminal acts, of them 3722 were minors (1698 girls), 6459 adolescent (2143 girls) and 32966 young adults (12073 girls).

Political Participation of Young People In Hungary young people have suffrage from the age of 18. That the participation rate at the third parliamentary elections after the change of the regime was 56.3% is a clear sign of the general decline in political activism. Although there is no information available on the age group mix of voters, according to social science researchers young generations are politically exceptionally passive. In 1997 142 youth organisations had as few as 84 thousand members. The 1998 elections were won by FIDESZ, a one time youth party which has fundamentally changed since its coming into power in terms of its profile and system of ideals. The first line people of FIDESZ were students or fresh graduates ten years ago and turned full time politicians without ever practising their professions. Today the FIDESZ generation is in their thirties and thus cannot be regarded young any more but for their professional inexperience. That among the

20

political power holders the generation in their 30ies represent a relatively large weight reduces the chances of younger people to become politicians and may be considered as one of the causes of their passivity. The Parliament “ages”, too: as few as 11 of 386 are under 30.

21