Pledge-Making Ceremony for Law Enforcement Students

“Our school launched the courses preparing for the home affairs law enforcement careers in September 2003, and we introduced the subject military basics into the curriculum in September 2005. This year, our 10th-year law enforcement students make a ceremonial pledge for the seventh time", Schoolmaster Csaba Csank said with great pride in his speech.

In addition to the 435 students of the school and their relatives, also in attendance were the representatives of the Hungarian Defence Forces, the police, the disaster management directorate, the fire department and the civil defence, as well as the leaders of churches, local governments, non-governmental organizations, supporting firms and companies.

The students gathering in the sunny schoolyard were in a good mood, waiting for the ceremony to begin. A handful of them, the 22 disciplined students of the class 10/A to make their pledge were standing in close ranks in front of the stand. In his soldierly report, the “commander" of the law enforcement students told Cabinet Chief Dr. Gábor Szarka that they had lined up for the pledge-making ceremony, then their schoolmates raised the Hungarian tricolor by the strains of the national anthem.

“We are here today to witness your pledge-making event", this was how Gábor Szarka started his speech addressing the law enforcement students. “Nobody can accidentally enroll in the class you have been attending. Only those attend this class who have come here to defend something – to defend law and order, security and thereby the homeland. The pledge you are about to make is a solemn act, because it is only things of great importance that are worth pledging on. The defence of the nation, the homeland is among these things."

In what followed, the Cabinet Chief commemorated the Arad martyrs of 1849. He talked about those soldiers and heroes who sacrificed their lives for the homeland during a fight in which even one of the most advanced armies of the era was unable to win against them, and it was only the overwhelming numerical superiority that finally defeated them. Nevertheless, their death was not meaningless as the cause they were fighting for eventually prevailed.

“Dear girls and boys! There are a lot of people here standing now in front of you who serve the homeland. Follow their example, and show example to others. Your work will always be needed. I am sure that you will be able to carry out the things you have resolved to accomplish: you will defend order and the rule of law. I ask you to stay faithful to your pledge at all times" – this was how the Cabinet Chief concluded his speech.

During the subsequent pledge-making ceremony, the law enforcement students, beyond pledging to “maintain order and discipline by every lawful means", also pledged to do well at school.

Police Col. Dr. István Mihály, the Chief of Police in Nógrád County congratulated each young man and woman, and, on the occasion of the signficant day, handed over certificates of merit to the law enforcement students who made their pledge.

At the end of the ceremony, the commemorators laid wreaths at the heroes’ wooden headboard after it was blessed by a priest. Firstly Cabinet Chief Dr. Gábor Szarka, MP Zsolt Becsó, the Chairman of the county’s general assembly and Police Col. István Mihály paid their tributes and laid the flowers of remembrance.

After the strains of the Szózat (second national anthem), the ceremony concluded with a parade march of the law enforcement students who made a pledge.

Photo: Gábor Galovtsik

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