The presentation aims to describe the changes in Hungarian secondary education in the communist period (1945-1990) about the educational laws and the party decisions containing the political guidelines of the one-party dictatorship. The following questions are addressed: what internal and external factors shaped the educational decrees? How did the place and role of secondary education change during the communist period? What are the specific features of these changes? The analysis is intended to highlight the specificities of the country's geopolitical nature, partly because of its semi-periphery (periphery) and partly as a result of its being part of the Soviet sphere of interest after World War II. Hungarian education after 1945 was fundamentally determined by the one-party, communist dictatorship of 1948, the ideological basis of which was Marxism-Leninism. In the field of education, while copying the Soviet model, the reform process was influenced by the cultural traditions and school system of the past and the educational needs of the country (illiteracy, vocational training, new elite) (Romsics, 1999). Among the factors that determined education policy after 1945, the following were given special attention: a) ideological and economic, socio-political goals; b) the reference of education policy to the ideological (propaganda) sphere; c) the playing field that emerged in the relationship between the ministries and the party; d) the relationship between the political field outside the party and the development of education policy (Halász, 1988). Four specific forms of reform can be distinguished: The period between 1945 and 1948, which created a period of nationalisation and secularisation, is an era of interrupted and expropriated reform. The Education Law of 1961 can be interpreted as a pseudo-reform in the spirit of consolidation. The 1972 Party decision is more of a counter-reform in nature, aimed at curbing the reform efforts. The Education Act in 1985 can be considered as an attempt to break out of the system in a reformist way (Kelemen 2003). The sources of the study are the laws, decrees and party resolutions defining education policy, as well as a comparative analysis of secondary literature which analyses the education policy of the period from a political, historical, and sociological point of view, comparing it with the changes in the education policy of the countries of the region. The analysis of this discourse shows that in Hungary the expansion of secondary education is taking place, although it is not becoming general. In Hungary, the prestige of the school-leaving certificate remained until the change of regime. From the 1970s there were significant curricular modernisation and methodological and technical improvements in teaching. National and international narratives focus on the contradictory nature of the modernisation process in the post-Soviet space, highlighting reformist steps alongside systemic efforts (Mincu 2016).

On October 2 1962 the Law about the unified junior school was eventually approved by the
Senate of the Italian Republic. It established a single course of 3 years, after the 5 years of
elementary school, (3 years) putting into effect the provision of the Italian Constitution, that
established a compulsory and free of charge school up to 14 years of age (art.34). This
law, implemented since 1963, came after decades of debates and managed eventually to
change a very segmented secondary school, unifying the lower level, hence giving it a
democratic stamp. Up to then, the secondary school had a strong selective character,
theoretically based on merit, as a matter of facts depending on the cultural, social and
economic condition of the families. This selective trait was already present in the Casati
Law (1859) and was carried on by Giovanni Gentile (1923), who stressed the elitarian
dimension of the classic studies (Liceo). Giovanni Bottai partially changed this system
(1940). With the Republic, the awareness of how a segmented school for preadolescents
was actually penalizing the lowest classes but also the economy of the entire State kept
growing. The Law of 1962 was the result of the unification of two projects of law: n.359, presented by the Communist Party and n.904, presented by the Minister od education Giovanni Medici on behalf of the government, where the Christina Democratic party was the leading political force. The two projects, deeply discussed and amended, until a compromise was reached (the sore point was the destiny of Latin as a subject: the Law maintained Latin as compulsory only in the second year). In the end, the final project was voted by the
Christian democratic party and the Socialist Party, but not by the Communist Party. Indeed,
since 1963 the two Parties realized a common political agreement that opened to the era
of the Centro-Sinistra (Center-Left) governments, with the Communist at the opposition
and the Socialist and Catholic parties as leaders. The 1982 Law is a democratic conquest that has been a very important topic of pedagogical and political debate. The historical analysis, however, shows a more complex situation. The Italian Constitution prescribes the respect for all citizenships, notwithstanding their differences of gender race, sex. Also, the disabled have the right to literacy, education and work. But the implementation of such an innovative single junior school brought many problems. Not only the disabled were excluded but also the children who ware migrants from the South and could not speak Italian properly, using dialect. Separated classes were created for pupils who could not reach the “standard”. The teacher being graduated had no pedagogical or psychological background and could not deal with difficult or disadvantaged children. Aim of the paper is to show how the Law was approved and which obstacles and difficulties hindered the full implementation of a truly democratic school system.