Fazekas Mihály Gimnázium

The Fazekas Mihály Gimnázium (in English: Mihály Fazekas High School; full official name: "Fazekas Mihály Fővárosi Gyakorló Általános Iskola és Gimnázium"; also known as -among alumni- the "Fazekas") is a high school in Budapest, Hungary. Over the past 40 years it has built up a reputation for excellence, especially in mathematics and in the exact sciences.

History

Early years

The school's history reaches back to 1911 when the mayor of Budapest opened an elementary school at the site to meet the increasing demand for education in the expanding city. A year later the Pedagogical Seminary has found a temporary accommodation in the building. The purpose of this institution was to provide guidance and later supervision for all teachers and schools of the city. It was "training school" where teachers could become acquainted with the latest pedagogical techniques. The seminars have become enormously popular between the two World Wars; Zsigmond Móricz has often praised them in Nyugat.

The building has been severely damaged both in World War II and again in the 1956 revolution. From 1957 the Seminary enjoyed its most successful period ever.

The beginnings of the high school are to be found in the St. Benedictus High School run by Benedictine monks since 1923 at a site very close to the present location. After the Communist takeover the school has been nationalised and continued under the present name. The proximity of the Pedagogical Seminary allowed for a close and increasing cooperation. In 1960 the high school was transformed into a training high school to extend the model already successful for elementary schools for the entire 12 years of education. The high school moved to the present building and the full, official name became Fazekas Mihály Fővárosi Gyakorló Általános Iskola és Gimnázium.

The rise of an elite school

The prestige if not fame of the school is linked to the special mathematics classes started in 1962. Imre Rábai collected some promising talent who achieved world fame for the school.

The eight-strong Hungarian team participating in the 1966 International Mathematical Olympiad consisted solely of Fazekas students and five of them (István Berkes, Miklós Laczkovich, László Lovász, József Pelikán and Lajos Pósa) returned with gold medals. This and other results in both national and international competitions have ranked the school top among its peers in Hungary and even today no national competition or Olympiade team exists without students from the Fazekas.

Notable alumni

* Babai, László - mathematician, Gödel prize winner
* Zsolt Baranyai - mathemathican, Baranyai's theorem
* Csirmaz, László - mathematician
* Csörnyei, Marianna - mathematician, won a 2002 Whitehead Prize and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award that same year
* Draskovits, Tibor - economist. Former Minister of Finance
* Hajdú, B. István - sport commentator
* Hiller, István - politician. Former Socialist party leader, minister of education
* Király, Júlia - economist. Vice-president of the National Bank of Hungary
* Kovács, Ákos - singer, composer
* Laczkovich, Miklós - mathematician
* Lovász, László - mathematician, winner of the Wolf Prize in Mathematics and of 3 gold medals at the IMOs
* Magyar, Bálint - politician, former Minister of Education
* Négyesi, Károly - Top contributor to Drupal, an open source project.
* Pósa, Lajos - mathematician, IMO winner
* Pelikán, József - mathematician, 3-time IMO winner
* Pintz, János - mathematician
* Thürmer, Gyula - Communist party leader
* Waszlavik, László - musician

External links

* [http://www.fazekas.hu Official site]