Slovak teachers agree that it was only a matter of time before the low state investments in education would translate into bad results for Slovak pupils. More than 5,000 children taking part in the international PISA tests revealed that the performance at Slovak schools is significantly lower than the OECD average.
“State spending on education between 1995-2007 declined from 4.7 percent to 4 percent of GDP, which was the largest drop among OECD countries. It was only a matter of time before this cut was also reflected in the results of our schoolchildren,” representatives of the Slovak Chamber of Teachers, New School Unions (NSO) and the 'The Government Says There Is No Money, So Teachers Will Help Them to Find It' initiative wrote in a statement.
Teachers also pointed out that the majority of EU funds go to the institutions of the Education Ministry while money should be directed directly at schools, teachers and pupils instead. In their statement teachers also criticized the new report on the state of education produced by the Education Ministry in September. According to them, the Ministry should prepare a new one as the current report is based on old data based largely on PISA measurements until 2009.
