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Annual report 2000 |  |
The office's participation In the enforcement of educational rightsPursuant to the DOCER the Office participates in the enforcement of the civil rights of the participants in education as it relates to education. The handling of their complaints is only one of our activities. Our ex officio inspections explore in a comprehensive way the actual enforcement of the rights related to education. This is done when the petitions submitted to the Office indicate a situation with a large number of problems. We are making efforts to reduce the gap between the Office and the participants in education as shown by our activities at the 'Pepsi Island' 1 1 , and at professional forums. We make ongoing efforts to familiarise those concerned with their educational rights thorough various conventions, seminars and forums including the recently created website. This is the only way for the Office to completely fulfil its mandate with respect to the enforcement of educational rights. 11 One of the largest contemporary music festivals in Europe. Forums, open days for complaintsSince the Office of the Commissioner for Educational Rights provides services to participants in education therefore it is considered crucial that everyone concerned has access to examine and review our work. We organise professional forums and open days in rural locations for people to submit their complaints. In the course of our local events, those attending our programmes may not only learn about issues of importance from the aspect of educational rights but they may also meet our staff, helping us to develop client friendly culture. In the autumn of 2000, we visited three county seats, Tatabánya, Kaposvár and Debrecen. The two-day programmes were prepared with the aid of the staff of the county pedagogy institutes. Their professional and administrative assistance made a large contribution to the success of the events. Also, colleagues from the Office accompanied the Commissioner on tours. This was required primarily to make it easier to deal with questions, and when it was necessary, our personnel dealt with complainants in two different rooms. Professional forumsThe primary objective of our professional forums, such as seminars and meetings, is to let participants in education learn about the operation, procedures and objectives of the Office. Furthermore, we make every effort to share the already successfully applied conflict management techniques with the participants in education and to answer their questions pertaining to educational rights. One of our most important objectives is that an open dialogue be launched with respect to educational rights, their infringements and enforcement. A mechanism which can carried on a daily basis and which may be pursued and applied in the future. A separate forum was held for maintenance organisations in charge of kindergartens and schools, as these organisations are subject to special rights, responsibilities and obligations. Teachers, students and parents interpret educational rights and their enforcemention a different manner. Therefore, we met the different groups on different occasions. Heads of institutions and organisations responsible for maintenance organisations are responsible for the compliant operation of educational institutions. According to our experience, they are not contacted to attend discussions relating to educational rights as often as we would like. Therefore, holding more discussions with them should offer new perspectives for all participants. Also, we make efforts to develop less formal dialogue with teachers, students and parents that focus on individual cases. In order to eliminate misunderstandings that emerge with respect to the Office, contacts with teachers are encouraged because the Office is not only involved in protecting students' rights. Higher education institutions are also operating in Kaposvár and Debrecen, therefore, we had personal discussions with university and college students in those towns. Open daysThe problems of many complainants who turned to the Office are rather complex. Problems arise because some questions are of a sensitive nature, and others are afraid of official procedures, and therefore, they wanted to know what would happen if they submitted a formal complaint. At open days, the Office helps answer such questions on-site, with the Commissioner hearing out everyone, and if possible provides advice and takes records where necessary. Organisations involved in the above programmes were very interested in attending along with those invited. They attended the forums with questions and proposals. In many of the cases our proposals were sufficient, in other cases we launched inspections. In the assessment of the needs, we will continue our visits to rural locations in the future, as all of the pedagogy institutions in Hungary welcomed our initiative. In August 2000, the Office set-up a tent at the event. Since this is an event frequented by students, we thought that being present in the 'Street of Organisations', we could make them aware of our existence and in addition to provide them information on our work. We designed questionnaires to gauge the perception of the most frequently encountered infringements. In our questionnaires outlining typical educational conflicts, only one of the answers was compliant, the rest described non-compliant solutions. Students, teachers and parents visited our stand. The questionnaires were evaluated using group participation, where each of the participants learned something. We also provided legal advice and in some cases we launched investigations.
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OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER FOR EDUCATIONAL RIGHTS |
Impresszum |