“Those Who Are Here Today Have Already Won!”

Nearly three hundred students were waiting anxiously in Stefánia Palace for the clock to strike ten, and the national finals of the three contests organized by SZAKE to begin. The theatre room, the venue of the opening event was almost entirely filled by the students and their teachers who arrived from every county in Hungary. 160 teams of 70 secondary schools participated in the competition.

Before the opening address Mr József Kaposi, Chairman of SZAKE told honvedelem.hu that students were to compete in three categories – that is grammar schools, vocational schools, and specialized schools – in all the three contests in the national finals, which are held simultaneously. "Our heritage ’48" is mainly a historical contest, while "Hungary is my home" is a complex test of their knowledge of the country, in which the teams have to process the history, ethnology, economy and culture of the country. In the contest titled "Europe" the participating teams are given mostly social and civic studies-related questions.

At the opening of the contests, the participating teams were greeted by Dr. Éva Kissné Németh, a board member of the association. She said: it has been a tradition in the association for decades now to organize these contests for secondary school students, and it is MoD Military Cultural Services Non-profit Company (HM Honvéd Kulturális Szolgáltató Kht.) that regularly provides the venue for the nationals.

Colonel József Szabó, Deputy Head of the Planning and Codification Department of the Ministry of Defence emphasized in his welcome speech: in the room the best contestants of the three series are sitting now, who have already proven their knowledge in the semifinals, therefore those who are present today have already won. Colonel Szabó also told the students that the Hungarian Defence Forces of today are proud of their predecessor, the army of 1848. It was also mentioned that at the moment the Hungarian Defence Forces perform the tasks stipulated in the Constitution, and in addition to that, a thousand Hungarian peacekeeping troops are serving in 13 countries in the world. The deputy head of the department also mentioned that he hopes that the young people who participate in today’s contest will soon dress in a uniform and he can greet them either as contracted or professional troops of the Hungarian Defence Forces.

Mr István Orgovány, Managing Director of MoD Zrínyi Communication Servicing Non-profit Company (HM Zrínyi Kommunikációs és Szolgáltató Kht.) addressed the contestants with a copy of the military magazine Magyar Honvéd (Hungarian Soldier) in his hand. As he said: every student and the teachers who have prepared them were handed a copy of this issue when they entered the theatre room.

– Magyar Honvéd magazine covers every topic today’s contests are about: the knowledge of the country, military history, and the European Union are all present in the pages – underlined Mr Orgovány, adding: as of January, the magazine has entered public circulation, as opposed to the earlier periods when Magyar Honvéd was the internal communications tool of the ministry, providing information for the corps and military organizations about the events taking place in the defence forces. The decision was made last year on the need to establish a public magazine that would make the Hungarian Defence Forces more known and accepted by society.

– There are a number of articles in this magazine that give us insight into the life of the Hungarian Defence Forces, deal with the questions of security policy, and give an overview of the work of the missions. The magazine was sent to hundreds of secondary schools and every college and university in the past year – said István Orgovány, who continued with a short presentation on news site honvedelem.hu. He explained: the homepage that was renewed in 2007 has the same purposes than the magazine. The news site has several thousands of visitors a day – underlined Mr Orgovány, adding: he hopes that from now on, the contestants themselves will also be regular readers of the site.

The opening event continued with Dr. Éva Kissné Németh recalling the history of the establishment of SZAKE, and telling us about when and under what circumstances they had begun to organize the contests. She said: the association was founded in 1989 as a civil organization, at the time of political changes in Hungary. The contest titled "Our heritage ’48" was held in 1990 for the first time with the aim of recalling the events of the 1848 revolution and fight for freedom. "Hungary is my homeland" contest was held much earlier, in 1983 for secondary school students for the first time. From the very beginning, the aim of these competitions has been to give an opportunity for young people to acquire extensive knowledge of the country where they were born. The ’youngest’ competition is the one titled "Europe", the purpose of which is that students learned about the operation of societies and democratic institutions, security policy, the NATO and the European Union.

Following that Mr József Kaposi, the Chairman of the association handed over certificates of merit and bonuses for members who have been helping SZAKE’s operation with their excellent work in the past years. Certificates of merit were awarded to Ms Ágnes Eszéki, the Headmistress of Váci Mihály Industrial Specialized School and Dormitory of Székesfehérvár; Mr János Untern, Headmaster of Irinyi János Vocational School and Dormitory of Kazincbarcika; Mr András Szûcs, the teacher of Saint Ladislaus Catholic Secondary School; and Mr Zoltán Csallóközi, member of the Committee for Education of the Assembly of the Capital.

This year the most prestigious award of the association, the memorial ring was granted to Mrs Sándorné Vincze, the teacher of Sipkai Barna Secondary School, Specialized School and Dormitory for Trade, Catering and Tourism, Nyíregyháza, and a founding member of the association, for her decades of excellent work in SZAKE.

It has to be known about the memorial ring that it was founded by the association in 2002, and the first person to receive it was Mr Tamás Rostaházy, the Deputy Chairman of SZAKE at the time and instructor of Árpád Specialized School and Dormitory. Unfortunately, Mr Rostaházy passed away last year and the board of the association decided to name the ring after him. The ‘Tamás Rostaházy memorial ring’ was awarded for the first time this year, and on this occasion the family of the teacher received a certificate at the opening event of the national finals of the contests. The certificate was received in the name of the family by one of the teacher’s daughters, Mrs Krisztina Borbélyné Rostaházy. Together with her sisters Mrs Eszter Hunka-Rostaházy and Mrs Judit Gömbösné Rostaházy they told honvedelem.hu: this certificate is for their father in the first place, who devoted his life to the education of vocational school, grammar school and specialized school students outside the classroom. The certificate will be displayed in the most worthy place, the parents’ house.

The three contests begun immediately after the opening speeches. In the competition titled “Our heritage ‘48" the girl trio from Avasi Secondary School of Miskolc – Adrienn Sándor, Fanni Horváth, and Olga Stefanyuk – took their seats in hussar uniforms behind the table assigned to them. As they said: they had already been given a task to present the council of war of the battle of Zsolca, therefore they had chosen this costume. The girls – who were prepared for the contest by their teacher Mr Zoltán Nyíri – got as far as the national finals last year, finishing at the 7th place. They were really hoping that they can have a better score this year. They have been preparing for the finals for more than three weeks, and they felt they have spent this time successfully.

Similarly to them, the team of Szilágyi Erzsébet Grammar School of Eger, prepared by Mrs Sándorné Munkácsi, got into the national finals of "Our heritage ’48" as well. The trio of Péter Zloch, Roland Antal and Szabolcs Kulcsár believed the tasks were quite difficult but they can be solved if you paid attention. They have also been preparing for the contest for several weeks, so in their opinion they were prepared when they entered Stefánia Palace. The guys also participated in the contest last year, but didn’t manage to end up among the first three.

The team of Éva Juhász, Andrea Szikszai and Zsolt Arató arrived from Kazincbarcika’s Surányi Endre Vocational School and Dormitory for the contest titled “Europe". The young people, who have been prepared by their teacher Mr Péter Havas, believed they were given very difficult exercises. Neverheless, when they were given a blank map and had to locate the towns in which various events had taken place, they completed it in just a few minutes. In their opinion there are strong teams who compare their knowledge so they would be glad even if they had medium scores.

The trio of Pesti Barnabás Food Industrial Vocational and Grammar School of Budapest, who were prepared for the national finals of “Europe" by Dr. Laura Foidl, were also aiming at medium scores. Vera Varga, Ildikó Szilágyi and Ildikó Takács said that they have been preparing for more than a month. Now they were given a very interesting task: they have to hold an imaginary press conference and inform the representatives of the media about the situation of young people living in the European Union. Their biggest problem was how to begin the press conference when it’s their turn…

In the contest titled "Hungary is my home" there has also been a tight competition among the teams all the way to the finals. In the opinion of the team of Hunyadi Mátyás Vocational and Specialized School of Mosonmagyaróvár – the members of which were Róbert Hornyák, Gábor Hujber and Ferenc Szükösdi – they have a good chance to end up among the first three since they have been preparing for the competition for several weeks. One of the tasks of the team prepared by their teacher Mr Ferenc Csicsai was to tell every factual data and interesting feature about the town of Pápa, but other tasks included naming certain artists on the basis of a few typical characteristics.

The girls from Krúdy Gyula Vocational School of Gyõr were waiting for their turn in baroque dresses. The trio of Fanni Novák, Bea Galambosi and Sára Pál had to hold a presentation about the famous baroque sites of the Transdanubian region, so they told the rigorous jury about Gyõr, Tata, and Mosonmagyaróvár. The team prepared by Ms Ildikó Tóth astonished the panel, therefore after this exercise, they were waiting for the contest to continue from a very good position.

The final results of the whole-day contests are the following:

Civic studies contest titled "Europe"

Grammar school category: Zrínyi Miklós Grammar School, Zalaegerszeg. (Instructor: Zoltán Monok. Team members: Áron Bartal, Ferenc Somogyi, Fruzsina Szabó.)
Vocational school category: ÁFEOSZ Vocational School and Dormitory of Commerce and Economics, Kecskemét. (Instructor: Csaba Vajda. Team members: Fanni Gaborják, Ágnes Ordasi, Nóra Vári.)
Specialized school category: Jókai Mór Elementary and Specialized School, Gyõr. (Instructor: Lászlóné Gyõrfi. Team members: Mónika Németh, Viktória Stoller, Rita Szvitek.)

Historical contest titled "Our heritage ’48"

Grammar schools: Avasi Grammar School, Miskolc. (Instructor: Zoltán Nyíri. Team members: Fanni Horváth, Adrienn Sándor, Olga Stefanyuk.)
Vocational schools: Kada Elek Vocational School of Economics of the Kecskemét Secondary School, Specialized School and Dormitory for Humanities. (Instructor: Ildikó Nagy. Team members: Péter Dugár, Nikolett Pesti, Réka Utasi.)
Specialized schools: Surányi Endre Vocational School and Dormitory, Kazincbarcika. (Instructor: Zsolt Viczházi. Team members: Gréta Borbély, Eszter Magyar, Dénes Majtényi.)

"Hungary is my home"

Grammar schools: Boronkai György Technical Secondary and Grammar School, Vác. (Instructor: Mária Molnár. Team members: Balázs Ivanics, Adrienn Kende, Máté Oláh.)
Vocational schools: Krúdy Gyula Grammar School, Vocational and Specialized School for Tourism and Catering, Gyõr. (Instructor: Ildikó Tóth. Team members: Bea Galambos, Fanni Novák, Sára Pál.)
Specialized schools: Jókai Mór Elementary and Specialized School, Gyõr. (Instructor: Ildikó Gasparek. Team members: Kitti Bedõk, Viktória Hordós, Kitti Weisz.)