STUDYING THE PUBLIC OPINION OF GEOGRAPHY AS A SUBJECT AND ITS KNOWLEDGE ELEMENTS: A CASE OF HUNGARY

Despite the long history of the science of geography, its current educational position is uncertain. Meanwhile, it offers knowledge elements useful in everyday life, required for literacy in natural sciences. The subject is unique in giving information necessary for orientation in the social-economic field and reveals the relationship between the society and the environment. In Hungary the public educational requirements for a subject include the incorporation of social scientific results or the transfer of integrated knowledge founding such results. This requirement is met fully in the curriculum of geography, however, continuously decreasing the number of lessons reduces its efficiency. The questionnaire survey covering 1218 respondents focuses on the position of geography as a subject in public education and on the opinion regarding the knowledge it provides and assesses the depth of geography people have from what they learnt in school.