On Monday, approximately 671,000 Slovak schoolchildren are taking their seats behind school desks after the two-month-long summer vacation. For approximately 60,000 kids, this is their first day in school, and the first time to hear the education minister's speech. This time the speech was delivered by Agriculture Minister Gabriela Matečná, who is now acting Education Minister until the Coalition finds a replacement for Peter Plavčan.
"It has always been the case that schools stand and fall on their teaching staff. Without you, dear teachers, your dedication, which often exceeds your official duties, the system could hardly work," said Matečná, adding that "good teachers deserve an adequate reward. Therefore I am glad that a significant shift is about to happen in this very field during this school year."
As the independent opposition MP Zuzana Zimenová pointed out, the school system lacks assistant teachers, special needs teachers and school psychologists. "Schools have asked for finances for almost 4,000 assistant teachers and received money only for less than a half," said Zimenová. According to her, Slovakia is not able to integrate smoothly children with health or social disadvantages or with learning or behaviour difficulties. As Zimenová added, their number is still growing, but schools are unable to help them to catch up with the others.
According to the Slovak Teachers' Committee, beginning the new school year without an education minister and postponing the start of the school reform stirs up worries that the school system is of marginal political interest for the governing coalition. The committee's president, Vladimír Crmoman, expects the new Education Minister to be an expert with a clean moral profile, accepted by the wide public who will ensure the start of a reform.
