National
Development Agency

The Hungarian high school history syllabus fails to sufficiently focus on the period after 1945, as well as themes presenting specific disadvantaged social groups, which in many regards divide public opinion. The programme about to be launched, which is unique in Europe and has been allocated a budget of 549 million HUF, aims to address these shortfalls by introducing methodology used to conduct oral history interviews, which equally attempts to promote the intent to preserve common social memories and support the comprehensive set of objectives of public education, namely, the wide-scope development of students’ skills and competencies. Consequently, within the framework of the programme called "Audio-visual Memory Collection", students from a total of 200 high schools will have the opportunity to conduct at least 500 oral history interviews with witnesses of events that unfolded over the past several decades, hence contributing to the renewal of the post World War II history syllabus.    

One of the well-known difficulties hindering the balanced and successful development of post-communist societies relates to how insufficient attention has been paid to recent historic events, which equally inhibits the strengthening of social cohesion at a local community level. In its current form and with the set of instruments available at present, civic and history education in the context of formal education is only capable of mitigating this problem at a slow pace and to a limited degree. The programme called "Audio-visual Memory Collection" aims to help change this situation, the assistance contract of which was signed in Budapest on 29 October.   

One priority project and a single-round call for applications funded through EU resources will be announced as a part of this programme. The objective of the former is to develop a new teaching methodology and provide training for teachers taking part in the programme under the direction of the Institute for Central and Eastern European History and Society Public Foundation, as project host - which Institute is also responsible for operating the House of Terror Museum – in collaboration with the Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, the Institute of History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Corvinus University in Budapest, Institute of Habsburg History and the "Life for Years" National Association of Pensioners' Clubs and Elderly, whilst the aim of the latter involves introducing the programme and developing it once it is running by integrating students and teachers from a total of 200 high schools. Therefore, the aim of the programme called "Audio-visual Memory Collection" is none other than providing a new teaching methodology and teaching aids for teaching 20th century Hungarian history primarily for high school and history teachers. These methodological guidelines shape know-how elements underpinning the way oral history interviews are conducted and their integration in the teaching process by transforming these into procedures supporting teaching practices that provide an excellent tool for teachers.  

Throughout the duration of this programme, high school students will, under the supervision of their history teachers trained to use the methodology developed and within the framework of extra-curricula activities, search for and contact witnesses of historic events that unfolded over the past several decades, make digital video recordings of these oral history interviews, set up a system for these and ensure access to these for teachers and students of other educational institutions by exploiting opportunities made available by the Internet. Presenting conventional and new types of historic documents and contents in digitalised and multi-media format is truly capable of attracting the interest of the high school age group. 

History teaching methodology may become more elaborate through the integration of practical experiences, it can cover a wider scope of areas and further develop as an outcome of the programme; moreover, a history database and collection of interviews will be created, which, on the one hand, also offers teachers that did not take part in the programme the opportunity to apply the methodology developed, whilst, on the other hand, provides primary sources for historians and other researchers for researching the recent past..      

By building on the methodology of conducting oral history interviews, students taking part in the programme have the opportunity to personally experience the history that surrounds us, primarily through the memories of an era, which the syllabus generally only focuses on in the last half year just before students sit to take baccalaureate exams. These types of programmes, i.e., programmes that help students directly experience history, are running successfully in several European Union member states and play a major role in drawing the attention of the most concerned age group towards recent historical events unfolding in their environment, as well as general political and social history connections.