Tradition and Background
After the 2nd World War the spread of the so called "correspondence education" was inevitable in Hungary which resulted in distance learning and non-formal training at the end of the seventies and at the beginning of the eighties. This coincided with the first computer school programmes entering the market.
Some Hungarian professionals argue that Hungary has a good basis for further development of distance education while others hold the opinion that there are too many different initiatives and approaches which impede the manifestation of a single consistent trend. There are training centres in Hungary where distance education is performed on a high level and in cooperation with international partners (affiliations of foreign universities, multinational institutions, music training etc.).
There are many Hungarian institutions in the European Distance Education Network (EDEN), more than it could be expected as to Hungary's population. The good tradition of distance education and the initial impulse of the nineties have won many institutes and professionals over this kind of modernization of the education system: regional university distance education centres have been established with the co-ordination of the National Council for Distance Education and the support of the multilateral PHARE programme taking up the co-operation of post-socialist countries and EU member states in the field of distance education.
Government Support
From the beginning of the nineties the government has spent 1- 3 billion HUF yearly for the development of distance education in Hungary, while the support for PHARE is about 800 million HUF. 20-25 institutes have been modernised in distance education on the basis of these financial resources offering proper infrastructure, tutors and eLearning materials.
In 2001 the Office of the Government Commissioner for ICT - the predecessor of the present Ministry of Informatics and Communications - spent 800 million HUF for the IT training of officers in the public sector (public administration, teachers, employees of the court, etc.),using eLearning methods.
The concept of Life-Long-Learning has been coveredin the government strategy this year (2002). To accomplish this, a call for proposals was launched with a budget of 160 million HUF. Next year's changes in taxation may have favourable effects on adult training (income tax can be decreased by a max. sum of 30 thousand HUF if it is spent on adult training).
Future Expectations in the State of eLearning Industry
There is a general optimism in this sector: a significant progress is forecasted in the near future for those organisations thatare involved in content industry or in the development of eLearning materials and services. The digitalisation of the national curriculum and also its export accomplished via the net due to inexpensive labour force is the reason for these positive expectations.
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