Protest in Hungary after principal fired over ‘smartphone ban’

BUDAPEST: Thousands demonstrated in central Budapest on Monday after the head of a renowned high school was sacked for not implementing a government-mandated “smartphone ban”.

A decree, adopted in August, requires schools to collect students´ phones and smart devices at the start of the day. The move has reignited simmering tensions between nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in power continuously since 2010, and teachers, who have protested over poor working conditions in the past two years.

On the first day of the school year, thousands packed the square at the headquarters of the Interior Ministry, which has supervised public education since 2022. “I found it outrageous that the measures were taken without prior consultation overnight,” Katalin Elteto, a 71-year-old retired teacher told AFP.

“I think this protest is not just about the restriction of mobile phones, but the state of the public education in general,” she added, saying she is saddened by the lack of public debate over the issue, which is designed to “cover up the failing system”.

The main teachers´ union PDSZ criticised the regulation -- dubbed “smartphone ban” by some media -- as “poorly thought out” and “unrealistic”, urging the government to let schools come up with their own solutions. Budapest´s Imre Madach high school announced in mid-August it would not take away digital devices.

In a statement to parents, the school faculty said its “pedagogical goal” is to “educate pupils in the correct use of digital culture”. It cited a part of the regulation, which allows institutions to authorise the use of restricted items.

A week later, the Interior Ministry fired the principal, Csaba Meszaros, saying that a “leader who does not abide by the law and openly defies it cannot run a public institution”. Zita Nemethy-Csato, 17, said she finds the policy “discouraging” and “unnecessary”.

“Instead, we should be taught how to use smartphones sensibly,” she told AFP, echoing placards held up by young demonstrators calling for the state to educate “thinkers, not slaves”. Mate, also 17, a student of Imre Madach high school, who did not want give his full name, called the dismissal of Meszaros “injustice”.

“He was an excellent principal for 24 years... educating students to think freely and building a completely child-centred school,” he said.