The „Affairs of Zalaegerszeg Local College”

The Three-Year Period of the Teacher Training College of Pécs in Zalaegerszeg

Abstract

To mitigate the extensive teacher shortage after the Second World War, the Teacher Training College of Pécs established an off-site full-time training institute in Zalaegerszeg in 1964 for two consecutive years. The first academic year introduced training in Russian language, Mathematics and Physical Education, while the second academic year had training in Mathematics and Hungarian Language and Literature. The establishment of the training was preceded by a programme from 1962, whereby secondary students who were committed to teaching were placed into rural primary schools after some minimal basic training. After a successful entrance exam, these students could continue their studies in correspondence training at the Teacher Training College of Pécs. As a result of these two programmes, particularly the establishment of an off-site full-time training institute, the number of specialised lessons held at public schools increased. This was also a matter of prestige for the ever-renewing county government, which, in contrast with the previous leaderships, had long term perspectives, a part of which was the continued support of the off-site full-time training programmes. 

In addition to Pécs, the teacher training colleges of Szeged, and later Eger also established off-site trainings. As a result, this practice, hitherto unknown in the Hungarian higher education, spread to the fields of economic, technical and agricultural education.