Almost five hundred teachers start indefinite civil disobedience, students in several high schools hold sit-ins

As we have reported, eight more teachers were fired from three Budapest high schools on Wednesday for taking part in the civil disobedience movement. Their students organized a protest in front of the Ministry of Interior for the same afternoon, where their newly fired educators also joined them.

Around a thousand people gathered at the impromptu rally, where students held up signs saying “It’s enough!” “Give us back our teachers!” and “I want my teacher back!”

At the end of the protest, the teachers’ advocacy groups announced that as of Thursday morning, hundreds of Hungarian teachers will be practicing civil disobedience for an indefinite period.

By 10 am on Thursday, reports came in about close to 500 teachers across the country joining the movement as an expression of solidarity with their fired colleagues and to stand by their continued demands for a general overhaul of the Hungarian education system.

Students are getting louder

After organizing several huge protests over the last months, including the biggest one Hungary has seen in years, Hungarian high schoolers do not seem to be intimidated by the government’s general silence about their protests and several of the speakers at Wednesday’s rally have said that they would not back down.

On Thursday, students of Eötvös József Gimnázium in Budapest welcomed each teacher arriving to work by clapping for them in front of the building – in response to one of their teachers, the institution’s mathematics-biology teacher being one of those let go the day before. As one of the students told us, they organized this themselves as a way of showing their respect for their educators. They also held a sit-in during their second, third and fourth lesson.

Those studying at Szilágyi Erzsébet Gimnázium in Budapest also held a sit-in during their first lesson of the day. Instead of being in the classrooms, the students filled the stairs of the institutions – as the photo sent by one of our readers attests:

Six teachers from Karinthy Frigyes High School in Budapest’s XVIII district were also fired on Wednesday. The teachers of this school have been actively taking part in the various protests and civil disobedience over the last several months. On the same day these teachers’ jobs were terminated, the district’s leadership nominated the entire faculty for the title of honorary citizen and the municipal council approved immediate financial assistance for the fired teachers, Hvg.hu reported.

"Karinthy Frigyes High School has regularly placed among the best schools in the country, which would not be the case without excellent educators, even better teachers and graduates. That is why our municipality has decided to nominate the teaching staff of the Karinthy Frigyes Gymnasium for the title of "honorary citizen", which they will receive next year. I hope that this will be another way of showing our respect for the school", said Sándor Szaniszló, Mayor of Pestszentlőrinc, said on Friday last week.

The teachers’ advocacy groups announced a protest for 5pm this Saturday in front of Klebelsberg Központ, the government authority which is the official maintainer of public education institutions.

Student organizations have called for a country-wide sit-in on 8 December, and a protest in front of the central building of the state media the day after, on the 9th – here, they will demand airtime to talk about the problems in the Hungarian education system.