National
Development Agency

The government made decisions about applications submitted in response to the National School Renewal Programme implemented within the framework of the New Hungary Development Plan (NHDP). As a part of the series of public education development decisions made so far in 2008 concerning schools in central Hungary and disadvantaged schools, the present series of decisions approved applications submitted by an additional 253 beneficiaries to be implemented at approximately 500 various development locations. As requested by the regional development councils (RDC), in order to be able to approve good quality and a high number of applications, the government has decided to make a part of the 2007-2013 framework available at an earlier date to enable RDCs to approve at least a further 50 public education development projects during the course of the year.

The objective of the present call for applications that has an explicit development policy vision and is more rigorously controlled than ever before aims at developing a modern high standard public education system in Hungary which helps improve the opportunities of children living in disadvantaged regions, achieve social integration and establish a sustainable public education institutional system.     

Within the framework of the New Hungary Development Plan, the government endorsed the most significant school and kindergarten renewal programme of the past 50 years as a part of the National School Renewal Programme. Altogether 1410 applications were submitted in the present round and having screened out invalid applications, the National Development Agency (NDA) carried out the professional evaluation of a total of 1109 applications in collaboration with the competent intermediate bodies. In overall terms, over 80% of the applications deemed complete and valid equally complied with educational professional criteria (and were consequently awarded a point score of over 60 during the course of evaluation). Due to the high number of professionally high standard applications and since over 5 times more applicants submitted applications in response to the call, the government increased the financial framework by 40% in the 2007-2013 development period by reallocating funding, without which step only 17% of valid applications could have been approved funding from the original framework equivalent to 58.89 billion HUF. This would have meant serious professional difficulties and lost time for applicants exceeding the lower financial framework.

• Thanks to the enhanced budget a total of 253 beneficiaries will now be granted development funding, which potentially means that nearly 500 education centres can be renewed around the country. These institutions have been granted total funding of over 80 billion HUF.  (The difference between the number of beneficiaries and education centres can be explained by the fact that many local governments or local government associations applied for the renewal of institutions spread out across several municipalities, with several member institutions and running educational programmes in several locations.) The 500 development locations nevertheless affect public education development in over 500 settlements in Hungary, since one of the key criterions of the call stipulated that efficiently operating integrated education must be implemented in the given region once renewal is completed.   

• By ensuring earlier access to the 7-year framework used to achieve the public education development objectives set out in the New Hungary Development Plan, regional development councils – on the grounds of their request - are given the opportunity to approve at least an additional 50 school renewal projects during the course of the year.

Efficiency, sustainability and social integration – these are the objectives of the National School Renewal Programme
The objective of the National School Renewal Programme announced in September 2007 targets the renewal of outdated and rundown school buildings and facilities. Kindergartens and schools will be rehabilitated within the framework of the programme (e.g. modernisation of the heating system, lighting renewal, gymnasium development) in a way that applicants must concurrently comply with rigorous equal opportunity, cost-effectiveness and sustainability criteria stipulated by the host organisation. Within the scope of this, the National Development Agency prioritised the enforcement of desegregation, development of public education in socially disadvantaged regions, as well as the establishment of institutional facilities enabling effective and quality education and cooperation among settlements in the field of public education, which is why only institutions that will be effectively renewed and improve the quality of education have been granted funding in this round. Altogether 92 schools and kindergartens in disadvantaged micro-regions will be renewed pursuant to the current round of decisions and this complies with the development and social policy intentions stipulated by the government.

Rigorous controls, several hundreds of on-site inspections during the assessment procedure
The institutional system responsible for development put the applications through the most rigorous screening and control applied so far, partly due to the huge volume of applications submitted and partly because of the rigorous enforcement of equal opportunity criteria. On-site inspections were conducted at the site of each individual application approved funding, as well as at the sites of several hundreds of applicant institutions. In many cases, the thorough series of controls exposed insufficiently grounded application aims and applications based on false pretences. For example, in one case, the applicant requested funding to replace “old” doors and windows, although they had been granted funding for the same purpose during the past 5 years. In another case, the institution applied for funding for accessibilization developments, which were, however, already completed within the framework of the relevant EU application announced during the past few years.             

Application approval does not automatically mean investment implementation
As regards the current round of decisions made within the framework of the National School Development Programme, it is important to note that application approval does not automatically imply investment implementation. The work phase during the course of which beneficiaries must conclude assistance contracts that comply with EU application criteria and conduct public procurement procedures will now begin, following which they will be required to keep in line with professional objectives and the expectations of the host organisation throughout the entire development procedure. On the grounds of the current series of decisions made, it will be possible to begin using the renewed institutions for educational purposes in the concerned settlements in academic year 2009/2010 or 2010/2011.

2008: year of public education development decisions
The present decision made at the end of August and decisions to be made by the regional development councils at a later date are all a part of the series of decisions made by the government over the entire year (2008) targeting the development of public education. As has already been reported, 14 applications were approved funding of a total of 2.4 billion HUF in value at the beginning of the year in the Central Hungary Region; 10 of these applications are aimed at infrastructure development, whilst 4 target the procurement of equipment. In June of this year, the Ministry of Local Government endorsed a decision aimed at improving the material conditions for learning in 146 small settlements, pursuant to which applicants were individually approved funding of 14 million HUF on average.