Gábor Tóth : The students of the Apponyi College

By the beginning of 20th century, the concept of teacher training had been develo¬ped in Hungary. According to this concept, the different fields of the training should be combined within the organizational frame of one institution. Due to the measures of 1906, it was the Apponyi College that provided the organizational frame for teacher training and became the central institution. On the one hand, the training was based on the theoretical professional background and scientific research of the university, the College of Music and the College of Fine Arts, and on the other hand, on the primary teacher training college which functioned as an institution where theoretical knowledge is combined with practice. The organi¬zational system of teacher training included these three institutions. In 43 years, 1027 graduates of classical and scientific studies, 154 students of arts and 136 students of music graduated from the Apponyi College. This essay analyzes the documents of these 1317 teachers from a historical-sociological point of view. The chapters are the following: (1) The changes in the number of students between 1906 and 1949; (2) The most significant demographic data of students (age, religion, mother tongue, place and date of birth); (3) The jobs of students’ parents; (4) The social status and background of students, the financial support they got at the college; (5) Students’ former studies and knowledge of foreign languages. (These data are compared to those of university students.) Two important conclusions drawn from the analysis are to be focused on. One of them can be considered as the governing principle for primary teacher training in training institutions and that is the principle of selection. It functioned right from the pri¬mary school till getting a higher educational degree and it was the acknowledgement of academic results as the basis for selection. Another selective factor was the aptitude for te¬aching. The other conclusion is that the changes in the number of students in the Apponyi College were always closely related to the actual needs for training teachers; no more teachers were trained than were actually needed. During the 43 years of its existence the Apponyi College trained both professionally and pedagogically highly qualified teachers with a strong sense of vocation providing trainers for the other teacher training institutions. This was achieved by long-term planning, careful selection of students at the beginning of their studies and continuous further selection.

MAGYAR PEDAGÓGIA 92. Number 4. 285-307. (1992)

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