STUDENTS FLEECED

The students had to pay about HUF 800 million for useless chipcards. The Minister of Education introduced the documents with chip in 1998 for university students but the conditions to use them were not ensured.

Now students get new cards for a price three times higher than the old ones. Each year about 100 000 new students start their studies in higher education so in the past eight years 800 000 students had to pay 1000 forints for the useless documents. The contract to produce these documents was concluded by Bálint Magyar, Minister of Education in 1998 who returned in his seat again in 2002. Fidesz has called on the ministry to invalidate the tender for new cards which would be paid from the material expenditure of the universities.

Translated by Péter Szentmihályi Szabó