The Digital Education Strategy is one of the milestones of the Hungarian Digital Success Programme and Open Source represents a fundamental part of it.
Digital education is becoming more and more important in the Hungarian political arena. When the Government of Hungary established the Digitális Jólét Program (Digital Success Programme or DSP, in English) in 2015, the Digital Education Strategy represented one of its pillars, together with Digital Child Protection, Digital Export Development and Digital Startup. Specifically, the Digital Education Strategy was formally launched in 2016 and takes into account the education system at all levels, from public education, to higher education, lifelong learning and vocational training.
Open Source (OS) has undertaken a paramount role in the Strategy. One of the backbones of the DSP is the Digital Success Software Package (or DSSP), an OS solution which provides different services ranging from business-friendly tools (e.g. email client, web browser, document and spreadsheet editor) as well as educational materials for both elderly and young users.
Broadening the perspective of the Digital Education Strategy by highlighting the strong link between education and the long-term positive spillovers to the economy, Dr. Peter Rakyta from the DSSP claimed that “such a development of the digital competences of citizens would increase the employees’ competitiveness, in addition to public administration’s, switching to cost-effective OS solutions which may constitute a competitive advantage for Hungarian SMEs. Our plans include introducing citizens to the alternatives offered by OS software and, in the long-term, developing their competencies by providing target-oriented educational and promotional materials. The Digital Success Software Package is an Open Source operating system distribution that would enable citizens to try out in person the competencies presented by the educational materials”.
After an extension approved in 2017 (DSP 2.0), the government has launched a new Digital Success Programme in 2019 (DSP 2030), which represents “a holistic and structured accounting system for government actions related to the development of a country's digital ecosystem”.