INTRODUCTION

Four years and nearly three thousand petitions - this is what our Office has accomplished so far, if expressed in terms of figures. In the year 2003, we received 916 petitions compared to 611 in 2000. An increasing number of citizens in Hungary know that the Commissioner for Educational Rights is an institution providing help to those who feel that their educational rights have been infringed. The increase in the number of the cases we deal with indicates clearly that more and more people trust the Commissioner for Educational Rights and the work of his staff. This trust is the basis of our work. Those who feel that their rights have been infringed, and who took every effort to seek remedy at the place of the infringement, but without success, will request a special procedure only if they can trust the institution investigating their case. Educational stakeholders will only trust the Commissioner for Educational Rights if they can see that his actions are unaffected by politics or political interests. In addition to autonomy, another prerequisite of trust is impartial and unbiased inquiry. The Commissioner for Educational Rights may examine the unlawful decisions and measures of educational institutions providing public service. This office was set up by the state to protect its citizens from the unlawful decisions of public service providers. The initiatives and recommendations of the Commissioner for Educational Rights protect the weak, the party who suffered a violation of rights, using legal means exclusively.

The complaints received in 2003 allow us to draw a few general conclusions. One of these is that we have never received so many petitions reporting corporal punishment. It has been always known that there is a serious lack of transparency in such issues, many cases are not reported or do not receive publicity outside the school. The increasing awareness of the existence and work of the Office may have contributed to the increase in the number of petitioners who seek our help in investigating their cases. In our view, the most serious offence at school is physical aggression against children and students.

In the course of the investigation of the petitions, it was apparent that conflicts were rooted in the lack of information. The parties involved in a conflict are often not familiar with the applicable regulations and local provisions. They are not aware of their rights and obligations, and do not know what proceedings must be followed in case of legal disputes. If the rules governing the work of educational institutions are not clear for the parents and students, they will not be able to make responsible decisions, and tend to come out of their disputes with the institutions as losers. The applicable legislative instruments establish clear lines of distinction between the responsibilities of the family and those of the educational institution. However, when such lines of distinction are known by neither the institution nor the family, conflicts will inevitably occur between them, and the parties will blame each other for the arising situation. This situation will not change unless the users of educational services are given a chance to become familiar with the legislation regulating the world of education, as well as the local regulations developed on the basis thereof, which will provide them with all the necessary information needed for responsible decision making. Otherwise citizens will remain helpless and may be humiliated in their conflicts. This may lead to irremediable damages especially in those educational institutions that do not have any institutional form of civilised conflict resolution in place.

We receive petitions describing cases relating to the protection of personal data and freedom of information every year. In 2003, however, we received more petitions of this type than ever. Stakeholders in education have become more sensitive to issues relating to personal data, which is partly the result of the work of the Commissioners for Data Protection. The political and professional debates on the obligations of official secrecy and the rules of transmitting data caused some uncertainty among teachers as well. Hopefully, the new regulations will ensure the protection of the flow of information between teachers and students, and thus make a significant contribution to the emergence of a trustful atmosphere around the participants in education.

Many cases reveal a total absence of trust. A school did not trust an HIV infected student, and did not allow the student to enrol. Another school did not trust that its students would not use drugs at the weekends, and introduced drug tests. Some parents did not trust their children, and authorised drug tests in the school. A student dormitory did not trust the students and bought a breathalyser to check alcohol consumption. The reason why parents do not complain is either that they are afraid of the institution, or do not trust their own children. Check-in systems, sms messages about grades and electronic report books - although they are not necessarily unlawful - reveal the absence of trust. Institutions tend to dismiss children they do not know how to deal with. These children are not trusted any longer. There are students who prefer not to ask their teacher for advice or help because the latter has abused their confidence. It will lead to a loss of trust if a teacher overtly refuses to observe the rules that would apply to him or her, but does not hesitate to punish students when they break the rules. Many teachers do not trust the families. This is because the consequences of family issues tend to appear at school, but teachers feel powerless. We have read hundreds of complaints from parents who want to take their children out of a school because they no longer trust the institution. It is alarming how many forms of control, prohibition and restriction exist. Check-in systems are used to screen everyone because there are some latecomers. Because of drug abusers, everybody is subjected to testing. Because of alcohol abusers, everybody is tested. Children suffering from a disease are dismissed from school. Indubitably, these are convenient solutions, eliminating the need to face social problems such as drug abuse, alcohol consumption and the diseases of our modern age. This way, no one needs to talk about these issues, and these problems are made to disappear from the field of education. In such cases, the law is the only instrument that may stop the various forms of exclusion.

Trust can be created and strengthened by co-operation. We can often observe that schools are left alone in solving a problem without receiving any external help. In many cases they do not know where they could turn for assistance. Teachers should be aware of the limits of their competence, and they may act only within those limits. However, they should also know that at the point where their own competence ends, someone else's begins, and that this is the person who can help. Teachers need to find partners who can take part in the resolution of conflicts which arise in the school, but not necessarily originate in the school only. Drug and alcohol abuse, violence, children at risk and poverty are all social phenomena which schools are unable to tackle effectively on their own. However, families are also unable to cope with these problems single-handed. On the other hand, the various institutions only deal with the problem of the child or the family if the problem falls within their competence. Unfortunately, at that time the conflict has already become so emotional, the relationship of the involved parties has become so bad that the means available to the authorities are not sufficient for providing an effective remedy.

We receive an increasing number of petitions in which teachers indicate that they are powerless in cases where students commit violent actions against one another. Disciplinary measures are often not powerful enough to prevent such violent actions, which are becoming increasingly serious and are increasingly committed by younger students. The Commissioner for Educational Rights does not have the appropriate means to provide remedy for or to prevent such offences, because the Commissioner's initiatives and recommendations are always addressed to educational institutions and not to citizens. How can one provide effective help in these cases? In our view, co-operation between institutions and civil organisations may be the solution in individual cases. The Commissioner for Educational Rights attended the conference on preventing and combating violence at school, organised by the Council of Europe. The one hundred and fifty experts agreed that violence at school was often due to factors outside the school, and therefore the various measures and initiatives - especially the preventive ones - could only be successful if the organisations of the local communities work together as partners. Violence results in serious social damage and cost; therefore preventive measures should aim at achieving a tangible reduction of violence. This co-operation must be free of bureaucracy. The joint efforts of professionals from different sectors and services can be a major contribution to success. The possible partners are school communities, local authorities and regional governments, as well as their various educational, cultural and youth services, along with youth and children's organisations, local and regional NGOs, the local and regional media, scientific and research centres, universities and colleges.

Co-operation is of vital importance in the protection of rights as well. Developed democracies have a complex system of institutions for the protection of the rights of citizens. Courts are the ultimate means of dispute resolution, but judicial proceedings tend to be lengthy, expensive and less confidential due to the principle of publicity. Fortunately, the number of institutions helping the better enforcement of citizens' rights increased in the last few years. The advocates of patients' rights and children's rights, the 'solicitors of the people', the institution of the Ministerial Commissioner for Children's Rights, mediators and certain NGOs all aim to ensure a more effective protection of rights. They are closer to the stakeholders, and may help mediation in the initial stage of conflicts or contribute to their settlement via cheaper, more confidential and faster procedures. It is a special pleasure for us that the Ministerial Commissioner for Children's Rights formerly worked at our Office for three years. Co-operation of the two institutions started on the day after the appointment of the ministerial commissioner, with a view to harmonising and complementing our services. The Office has well-established professional relations with the parliamentary commissioners, and in many instances, they started an inquiry on our initiative. Also, on numerous occasions when it appeared to be the most expedient way of solving the problems of those who turned to us, we suggested that they use the procedures and authority of the parliamentary commissioners. We have expanded our earlier relations with NGOs in Hungary, and with their assistance, we have explored the conflict management techniques which can make an effective contribution to the satisfactory and lawful settlement of disputes at school. The studies on these methods will be published on our web site soon.

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  OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER FOR EDUCATIONAL RIGHTS
  1055 - Budapest, Szalay u. 10-14.; e-mail: panasz@oktbiztos.hu