István Széchenyi Secondary Technical School of Economics, Information Technology and Student Hostel
‘In a country that loves freedom educating young people is a duty.’
(István Széchenyi)
Our school is quite old, it was founded in 1918, and was called Town High School of Commerce first. Since then it has had several names. 20 years after the foundation the schoolwas named after Count István Széchenyi, who was a famous politician, theorist, reformer,writer, one of the greatest statesmen of Hungarian history, and whose reform programmes and achievements were remarkable.
The latest official name of our school is István Széchenyi Secondary Technical School of Economics, Information Technology and Student Hostel. At present it can provide a wide range of education including Economics, Information Technology, and intensive language teaching. Also, there is a class called Sports Academy in which students are training to become professional football players.
There are more than seventy teachers and around 700 students in 26 classes. We have students aged 14-18, as well as graduates aged 19-20. The students take their school leaving exams at
the age of 18-19. The compulsory subjects of the final exams are Hungarian Literature and Grammar, Mathematics, History and a foreign language: either German or English. They have to take one more optional exam. Our students have the opportunity to stay here after passing their final exams and attend one- or two-year courses specialized in Business Administration, Computer Operation or Financial Studies.
In our school the students have special daily routines in some ways. School starts quite early, at 7:40. The classes usually have 6 or 7 lessons a day. Lessons last for 45 minutes with ten- minute breaks in between. About one third of the students commute from other towns or villages of the county every day. We have 2 student hostels for those who live farther. The school has well-equipped computer rooms, a ‘model office’ -where students can learn and practise office work-, a library, a large gymnasium, a club in the basement -where
meetings can be held-, as well as a large canteen in the building of the student hostel. The school life is fairly colourful because almost every month there is a special programme. On the 21 st of September we commemorate Széchenyi, the eponym of our school. In Octoberthere is a ball organised for the first-year students to initiate them into school life.
In November there is a special festival held in honour of the school leaving students called ‘Ribbon-pinning ceremony’. In December we celebrate Christmas. During the year we commemorate all the public holidays and important events of Hungarian history. One of the most touching festivals is the school-leaving ceremony at the beginning of May. We are very proud of the fact that this school has always had a good reputation. At present it is one of the best secondary technical schools in Hungary based on the results of the university entrance exams and other national contests.
We have done two Erasmus+ projects so far, the first one was about sports and the second one was about the problem of early school leaving, vocational education and future jobs. The school management supports all kind of projects which give the possibility for students to work on topics they are really interested in. Students like working on eTwinning projects as well, we have got the national and European Quality Labels for our projects and won the first prize at the national eTwinning competition in 2017.
