More maths and less extremism in Slovak schools

On Wednesday September 2, Slovak pupils and students started school again after a two month long holiday. With the new school year come changes to both the system and teaching. Secondary school students will be accorded more time for the written parts of their final examinations, while the number of hours of mathematics and science subjects taught per week will increase as well. According to mathematics teacher Jan Žabko, more hours of mathematics won't make any difference, however. He'd rather focus how mathematics is taught and not how long. Initiatives for making mathematics an obligatory graduation subject haven't been followed through, and the subject is still voluntary. University lecturers deem mathematics an important graduation subject, however, reads the Sme daily.

On the first day of the new school year the Pravda daily published an interview with the country's chief school inspector Viera Kalmarová. Kalmarová noted that one of the main issues being discussed in schools at the moment is bullying. One of the difficulties related to this is the fact that the old rigid school hierarchies are still very much in place and that it is therefore difficult for pupils to approach teachers with their problems. The chief inspector also conceded that extremism in schools is also a matter of concern and that the problem has been intensifying. She noted that teachers sometimes encourage this phenomenon. One concern is that schools are allowing extremist groups to come in and speak to their pupils, often under the cover of lectures on self-defence or some other invented reason. Kalmarová stated that schools should in no way allow "anybody off the street" or "without education" to start teaching pupils about Slovak history, for example.