The inclusion of the Roma in the educational process is one of the problems which the European Commission highlighted in its Country Report Slovakia 2019. The Commission stated that current measures to support integration and equality had not yet met expectations. In its reaction, the Education Ministry told TASR that a ban to send children to 'special' schools and 'special' classes solely based on the fact they were raised in a socially-disadvantaged environment took effect as of January 1, 2016. "As a result of the adoption of this legislative provision, the number of newly-admitted pupils in the first grade of 'special' primary schools dropped by 37% in 2017 compared to 2015," stated the ministry.
EC also pointed to other education-related challenges. These are, for example, low investment in education, low salaries of teachers and big differences between the east and the west of the country in the nation-wide testing of elementary school pupils.
