How Hungary’s Systemic Corruption Made Me Learn a Lesson for Life
And leave my home country for good.
My mom was crying.
She’d just received a call from the town’s best elementary school, where I was supposed to go in September. The school accepted another kid instead of me because the family had more connections. No, they couldn’t take me anymore because there was no more space left in the classroom.
I was only six years old, but the system’s corruption had already impacted the course of my life and deprived me of quality education.
Fast forward ten years, and I applied for a scholarship in the conservative school where I spent ten years of my life. The funding was only available for one person, and the requirements were pretty straightforward: excellent end-of-year results, participation in national competitions, and being a Slovak minority.
I was the most likely candidate, and everyone knew that.
All facts spoke for me receiving the scholarship. My grades were slightly better, and I won more competitions than the others. My family belongs to the Slovak minority, and I went to the Slovakian kindergarten and school in the town. I have Slovakian roots.
