Connection between scolastic knowledge and circumstances of life in North-Hungarian region

Abstract

We argue that the low quality of human resources sustains the lagging behind and the bad competitiveness of the North Hungarian Region. The basic condition of development is a school which provides chances. Poor economic background decreases the efficiency of pupils rather than supporting it, which lessens the region’s chances for closing up. Our hypothesis suggests that pupils’ performance is influenced by their social and economic background. The resulting unequal opportunities are at variance with the efforts of the European Union. The plenty of study-failures enhance the exclusion. The competitiveness of the region is worsened by the lack of the threshold-competences in the case of a part of the population. The funding system of Hungarian basic training places undue emphasis on positive discrimination. That is, it is unable and unwilling to improve the chance of regional closing-up by way of providing a premium support to educational institutions operating in bad social and economics conditions. It creates an environment in the primary educational institutions which helps pupils acquire knowledge and skills necessary for continuing studies or getting a job. Our study presents the results of the research which was carried out to verify these hypotheses; it also wishes to furnish a basis for elaborating a differentiated support system. The research was conducted in the framework of a project, named “Regions for students, students for the region”, funded by the Human Resource Operative Program. The participants were the Institute of World and Regional Economics of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Miskolc and the National Public Education Evaluation and Examination Centre (OKÉV).