The primary goal of our church education system is that all those we serve and who use our institutional services can experience the Christ experience, the evangelical encounter, which can be continued in the community of one of our churches. Among other things, this was emphasized by Zoltán Balog, bishop of Danube, president of the Synod of Pastors at the XI held on February 15-16 in Balatonszárszó. At the National Reformed Public Education Conference. The Miklós Molnár religious teacher award was presented for the first time at the meeting, which was attended by the interest of two hundred heads of institutions and superiors.
At the opening devotion, Bishop Zoltán Balog preached the Word of God based on the story of the healing of the ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19). He pointed out that in our current education system, starting from kindergarten, more and more children are admitted who, in addition to education, primarily need healing, because they come with a broken spirit. If we manage to create or restore stability in the institutional system - which includes the school, the charity service, the special education service and the church youth community - then we can say that we have done our job, and this is to be expected from a well-functioning school. We must point to Jesus Christ, the author of healing, whose word has healing power. This is the evangelical encounter, so children can be touched by God's love. This may result from the fact that our students leave the school as believers, glorifying God, and testify - even with their parents - that it is a good thing to attend a church educational institution.
He highlighted:
in the last ten years, the reformed institutional system has doubled. Through the Reformed religious education, the word of God reaches more than one hundred and fifty thousand children and young people every week.
It is worthwhile to operate the education system in such a way that every child we meet experiences the joy of meeting with the Gospel at least once. Then we have already completed our task. The rest is up to the Lord and the one who was touched by this encounter. Congregations must be provided with all possible human resources. This also means a serious rethinking of the church's maintenance role. One of the most important maintenance tasks is that each institution has an annual spiritual program and an institutional pastor who is responsible for this program. The focus should be on church-centeredness, which gives the meaning of our Reformed education.
of the Miklós Molnár religious teacher award - Péterné Péterné Bíró Mária Demecseri assigned pastor and Zoltánné Bóna Gizella Molnár retired pastor - received the prestigious award from Zoltán Balog and László Bruckner, the director general of the Reformed Education Service.
According to Zoltán Maruzsa, the State Secretary for Public Education at the Ministry of the Interior, attracting young people and retaining retired teachers who can still be burdened are crucial for the future. For disadvantaged children and young people, there is an institutional system that ensures validation, from compulsory kindergarten to the talent development program to Roma vocational colleges. He specifically mentioned the scholarship system introduced in vocational training to make it worthwhile for young people to study. Ensuring the supply of teachers in disadvantaged regions is the biggest challenge. It is therefore a priority that, in addition to additional benefits, the average salary of these teachers reaches at least ninety percent of the average graduate salary. With regard to the salary arrangements for teachers, it was said that by 2025, they would like to ensure the achievement of eighty percent of the average graduate salary with a significant salary increase, and then a further salary increase proportional to the increase in the average graduate salary until 2030.
At the conference organized for the heads of institutions and the representatives of the maintainers, there were many opportunities to speak in the forums, to have informal discussions within the working groups, and to share common ideas. The two-day conference was organized in Balatonszárszón by the Reformed Pedagogical Institute and the Reformed Education Service.
Source, full article and featured image: reformatus.hu
