Ombudsman Inquires Ex Officio into the Csongrád County Secondary School Admission Procedure

The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights launched a procedure and asked the competent ministry for information about the decisions of the education district regarding the grammar school admission process in Csongrád County. Ombudsman Dr. Ákos Kozma wishes to find out how well-founded the earlier information on this matter has been, and whether the violation of the right of the affected students to education could have been the case.

The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights was informed that in a total of three grammar schools in Csongrád County (Makó, Csongrád and Szentes), students who had participated in the secondary school admission procedure and who were admitted to one of these grammar schools, according to the coordinated admission list, could still not be accepted to the grammar schools at the instruction of the Klebelsberg Institution Maintenance Center. According to the news, the reason for this was that the education district reduced the number of children admissible to the classes that had been announced in the admission procedure last year. The number of affected students was eleven in one of the grammar schools, while the respective data of the other institutions have not been disclosed. This step was explained by the education district by the increased standards of secondary education in the county. According to news from the press, however, in the case of the Szentes grammar school, the measure was later withdrawn by the education district, adding that an extraordinary admission procedure would be announced for the unadmitted students.

Related to this case, the Ombudsman draws attention to that the effective ministerial decree on the operation of educational institutions is very clear on the question of the admission of students. Applicants who successfully participated in the admission procedure, those who were ranked on the basis of their results, who are within the headcount announced by the school, and who have been included in the coordinated admission list by the Admission Center, cannot even be rejected at the initiative of the education district. In order to clarify the circumstances of the case, the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights requested information, by taking all this into account, about the decision and the background of the decision from the Minister of State for Public Education, also trying to find out what measures he was planning to take to ensure a lawful admission procedure.