MRAVNÁ VÝCHOVA V ŠKOLÁCH NA SLOVENSKU A V ZAHRANI ČÍ

At the time (1999-2000) of the work on the Central Framework Curricula (CFC) the idea really
brought up that ethics should be taught instead of Learning about man. The expert committee on the
tuition of ethics, requested by the Minister of Education, also confronted with this idea. The members
of the committee who represented different anthropological studies (mainly ethics) and who had
different world-views 1 defended the earlier (Anthropology and Ethics) conception. The expert
committee definitely concluded that the Learning about man and of ethics and the religious instruction
cannot substitute for each other, they are not foes, not even rivals, and they agreed that the religion can
built upon anthropology and ethics well.
In the end under the term Learning about man and of society, ethics such a subject got into the primary
education of the CFC, which content stands on the basis of the NCC. Both the expert committee both
those teachers who would have taught this subject to more grades and in more weekly contact times
expressed their dissatisfaction with its extent. In consequence of the reduced size of the subject the
moral responsibility casted the burden upon schools. Schools undoubtedly have the opportunity – if
they consider the human and ethics important – to prepare such local curriculum in which this subject
occurs in more grades and with more weekly contact times.
This eminently Hungarian, and at the same time genuine European innovation could not have become
a complete success because in a peculiar way it fell victim to the ideological and pragmatic-rationalist
way of thinking that was born in the reduced spirit of image of human, which inspire both the high
politics and the educational policy 2 .
Present-day heads of education face a dilemma: on the one hand it liberated schools from the CFC that
strongly curtailed their autonomy, on the other hand it has to decide whether it shoulder the identity
with its own, namely with that NCC. From it a quite decided scale of values can be gathered, of which
one of the striking features is exactly Anthropology and Ethics. For the time being it cannot be
experienced that beside the grater freedom the strongly bowdlerised honour of Learning about man
would restore as well.
Until any central notice about Anthropology and Ethics only those schools can be reckoned on in
whose scale of values human and ethics are of great importance, and it does not only become visible in
principled position but also in the number of lessons.
There are also about 50-100 grammar schools where this subject is taught either for four years (5 to 8)
or for two years (7 to 8) as an independent subject, and there are schools where a part (or all) of the
class teacher lessons is put at this subject’s disposal in order to increase the minimum number of
lessons. And there are grammar schools, not more than a dozen, where this subject is taught instead of
the mandatory one year for longer time.
References
AMBRUS A., KÉRI K., 1996. A sokoldalú ember. Budapest, Calibra. p.156 ISBN 963-686-134-3
BERAN F. (ed), 2005. Emberismeret és etika. 2005. Ed. Beran F. Budapest, Szent István Társulat p.
154 ISBN 963-361-328-0
BOHÁR A., 1993. Antropológiai és etikai vázlatok. Budapest, Keraban K. p.213. ISBN 963-8146-65-2
BÓNA G. M. M., 2003. Emberismeret és etika. Budapest, OKKER p.103. ISBN 963-9228-59-1
FALUS K., JAKAB Gy., 2005. Emberismeret és etika. Budapest, Független Pedagógiai Intézet. ISBN
963-86620-7-7
1 The three biggest historical Churches had separate representatives in the committee as well, which had a good
number of religious members besides them.
2 In 1998-ban, at the introduction of the National Core Curriculum about 50 schools started to teach this subject
in at least one hour per week, in about 1000 schools within the scope of Class teacher lesson. Next years the
education of this subject stopped in most of the schools at the news of Framework Curricula, though by 1998
already 800 teachers had finished a 30-60 hour preparatory training.
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