More than 43,100 students from 706 high schools will undertake a series of written school leaving exams, also known as maturita tests, starting on Tuesday, 12 March. Traditionally, the first test is for Slovak language and literature. On Wednesday, students will write tests for foreign languages. More than 36,200 students have chosen to take an English exam, which accounts for around 84 percent of all high school graduates. English is followed by German and Russian. Tests in Mathematics, which are not compulsory, will take place on Thursday. Students with Hungarian or Ukrainian as their native language will take their tests on Friday.
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There are big differences in the results of testing pupils in the east and west of the country. This stems from the country report on Slovakia published by the European Commission at the end of February. Moreover, according to the Commission not only are the educational outcomes weak and worsening, they also reveal significant regional and socioeconomic disparities.
"The education performance at secondary level, the lack of relevance of education for the labour market and the rather low appeal of universities on an international scale should make education reforms and better funding of this area a key political priority," notes the report, adding that even though the salaries of teachers had been slightly raised, it was not enough to make the teaching profession more attractive in Slovakia.
