Abstract:

One of the most important goals and tasks of the school is to assist in the development of individuals' abilities, and their individual and social utilisation. This requires an equitable education that provides opportunities and active, supportive tools for individuals regardless of their background (social, economic, ethnic, etc.) in order to achieve real equality of opportunity. Concerning this, two important issues of the Hungarian educational system can be emphasised, which have been for decades now:
(1) the selection mechanisms of the Hungarian education system and
(2) closely related to the above, the quality issues of education (efficiency, effectiveness and equity) (Széll et al., 2022; OECD, 2023).

In international comparison, Hungary has an exceptionally strong relationship between family background and student achievement. It has to be added that the effect of family background primarily applied to the average social composition of the school (OECD, 2023). The issue of effectiveness and equity has become even more topical due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Research on the issue points to the negative impact of school closures due to the pandemic on student achievement, particularly for children with low socio-economic backgrounds (Andrew et al., 2020; Blaskó et al., 2021; Engzell et al., 2021; Grewenig et al., 2020; Haeck & Lefebvre, 2020; Lannert & Varga, 2022).

The analysis uses descriptive statistics, crosstabs, correlation tests and linear regression models (OLS, ENTER method, dependent variables: test scores in reading comprehension and mathematics, 22 independent variables) to investigate how the achievement of primary school pupils changed and what factors play a role in the achievement of pupils before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and which factors are related to the observed change in achievement, and whether the pandemic situation has brought about changes in this area. The analysis is based on the Hungarian National Assessment of Basic Competences (NABC) databases (reading comprehension and mathematics scores, student background questionnaire data) for grades 6 (N=57,364-69,762) and 8 (N=57,351-69,769) students between 2017 and 2021.

In line with international results (OECD, 2023), there has been a general decline in the achievement of Hungarian primary school pupils. The results show that partly the same factors (e.g. family background, school programmes, school size, type of school settlement, grade repetition, aspirations for further education) play marked a role in the development of student achievement after COVID-19 as before. Adding that, there are significant differences in student achievement according to several factors and the differences and effect sizes are also larger after the COVID-19 pandemic than before. Overall, the inequality gap between those with more and less favourable circumstances has widened further.

Acknowledgement:
*The presentation was supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office—NKFIH, PD 138342.

Keywords:

Student achievement, inequality of opportunity, primary school, NABC, COVID-19.