Some secondary schools receive money for 'Dead Souls'

The first grade of secondary schools appears to feature more students than the number of pupils who left primary schools last year. This means that some secondary schools are reporting non-existing students in order to get extra money from the state, said Education, Science, Research and Sport Minister Juraj Draxler on Wednesday. According to him, the difference in students has been around 3,500 which cost the state €5 million annually. Draxler explained that primary school leavers frequently apply to two secondary schools, they might be accepted by both schools and choose only one of them. And when later they change their minds and opt for the other school, the first school doesn't remove them from their records. "The school then receives the yearly normative amount of around €1,500 for this pupil, even though they don't actually attend the school," said Draxler, adding that some schools make such moves deliberately. Legal action has already been taken in some cases. Allegedly the ministry doesn't have proper tools to deal with the situation and spot such duplicates.