The share of spending on this cornerstone of the GND is well below the EU average relative to the GDP. Real expenditures were dramatically reduced. This can partially be explained by the fact that there are fewer and fewer children enrolled in public education each year (as fewer children were born). Yet, the learning outcomes of the Hungarian educational system have also been deteriorating since 2008, where they were not at a high level already, especially for low performers. A grade of 5 would have been given if there had been a substantial improvement in spending (knowing that the learning outcomes in the statistics are not likely to follow straight away at this stage the rating would have not depended on this.) The Green consensus in Hungary is that it expenditures on education should be kept above 5% of the GDP.

The share of the population aged 30-34 years who have successfully completed university or university-like (tertiary-level) education has been steadily growing during the period examined. The effect of the reform of the tertiary-level education implemented in 2013 will only show its effects in the EU2020 target statistics around the end of the decade, and given the increasing mobility of university students, not all of the negative impact will be visible. For the examined period a grade of 5 is given as there has been a 9 percentage points improvement and if the current phase of improvement continues, the EU average seems within reach (which is likely, as the results of the expansion of the early 2000s will be reflected in the statistical figures of the following years).

We cannot report on any substantial progress in the field of lifelong learning.