miroslav michalko [email protected]

Letná 9042 00 Košice, Slovenská republikahttp://www.elfa.sk

Miroslav [email protected]

National Overview of Educational System

in Slovakia


Content

• Vocational schools in Slovakia

• ICT in Education

• Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics

• Problems

• Future plans – Curricula reform 9/2008


Vocational schools

• secondary professional school (stredná odborná škola) – usually age 16 to 19; usually also prepares for higher education,

• secondary vocational school (stredné odborné učilište) – usually age 16 to 19; training center,

• 'grouped' secondary school (združená stredná škola) – usually age 16 to 19; rare.


Vocational schools – numbers

Secondary professional schools + professional schools • "public": 191 (74258) state, 35 (3974) private, 6 (1223) church, -

(1178) external st. at these schools, 4 (2778) external schools; comprise:

in terms of school type: 81 industrial, 98 economic, 20 agricultural, 3 forestry, 1 librarian, 11 pedagogical, 10 conservatories, and 12 girls's professional schools;

• professional schools of the Ministry of Health: 22 (6637) state, 8 (1441) church, - (2693) external st. at these schools

• professional schools of other ministries: 3 (1014) state, 1 (715)

external school


Vocational schools – numbers

• "Grouped" secondary schools (združené stredné školy):

105 (62772) state,

3 (1310) private,

1 (656) church,

(1248) external st. at these schools;


Vocational schools - numbers

• Secondary vocational schools + vocational schools (stredné odborné učilištia + učilištia):

202 (63886) state,

26 (8433) private,

5 (1206) church,

(3848) external st. at these schools;


Types of schools

• Public schools of higher education are the basic case. They are established by law. The vast majority of schools of higher education is of this type. They are financed by the government and possible business activities.

• State institutions of higher education are all military, police and medical schools. They are established through the corresponding ministries of the government. They are financed by the government and possible business activities.

• Private institutions of higher education are established and financed by non-government institutions, but approved by the Ministry of Education. This type of school is still quite rare.


Structure of Education

• “superstructure” studies (nadstavbové štúdium): 2 years

• 4-years school with a maturita • 5-years school with a maturita • 2-3-years school without a maturita • specially adapted curricula (zvlášť upravené

učebné plány, ZUUP): 1-3 years • gradual preparation (stupňovitá príprava): 1-3

years


Financing

• state (central),

• self-governmental region,

• local governance

• own business activities


ICT & schools

• Primary schools: 537 000 pupils

(PC users - 335 000 (62 %))

• Secondary schools: 317 000 students

(PC users - 260 000 (82 %)

• University level: 199 000 students

(PC users - 147 000 (74 %)

45 000 PCs at school


ICT in education

• Situation in ICT using is not very well balanced and differs from school to school:– There are innovative schools very well equipped with

ICT and video-conference systems– On the other hand the number of pupils or students

to one computer is not positive:• Primary schools (18,8 : 1)• Secondary schools (10 9,2 : 1)• Universities (11,5 : 1)


Internet access - situation• ALL SCHOOLS IN SLOVAKIA HAVE ACCESS TO INTERNET

SINCE 2007BUT

• Critical point: different and very often insufficient quality (especially primary schools):– ISDN, 128 kbps – cca 37 % connected schools– ADSL, 1536/256 kbps – cca 63 % connected schools– Secondary schools – 30% - SANET (goal – 85%)

Universities: all of them are connected to SANET (min. 100 MB)

Generally: - expensive internet connection- Internet connection does not bear the parameters required for the future innovative interactive teaching- only 5% of primary and secondary schools meet such parameters.


SANET


Institutions responsible

Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic – using its institutions:

• 1, National Institute for Education – curricular guidance

• 2, State Vocational Education Institute – support for teachers, improvement of teachers skills and further education

• 3, Institute of Information and Prognoses of Education – Infovek is part of this institute, HW and SW support for schools


Mathematics & Chemistry & Physics

• Mathematics: 4 hours per week

• Physics: 3 hours per week

• Chemistry: 2 hours per week

Maximum number of hours for all topics is set to 33 per week. Ratio to other subjects is for Mathematics 12%, Physics 9% and Chemistry 6%.


Mathematics & Chemistry & Physics

PHYSICS• fundamentals – 81 hours in total• extended lessons using modules – 93 hours in total (extra for schools with more than

3 hours of physics per week)• laboratory works (theoretical and practical) – 18 hours in total

CHEMISTRY• Essentials – min. 40 hours• Selected (advanced) classes – max. 20 hours• Laboratory works – min. 6 hours

MATHEMATICS• Plan is based and accommodated to this two variants:• Variant A – 12 hours per week• Variant B – 8 hours per week


Problems

• insufficient promotion of independent thinking and student initiative

• complete absence of creative learning • unreformed and outdated teaching material • methods and syllabi inherited from the former

communist educational system • relatively low remuneration of teachers, leading

to a decrease of the number of qualified (and of well qualified) teachers


National Program of Training and Education (digital curriculum)

Project goal:• Launch of the Slovak National Digital Curriculum into the

Slovak educational system in accordance with its content reform.

• Increasing of the education quality and preparation of new teachers competence.

• Utilisation of Slovak NDC for the public lifelong education• Establishment of deposit for the national digital content

Project target group: • Students, Teachers from all school levels, parents, public


National Program of Training and Education (digital curriculum)

Goals:

• 5 students per 1 PC in secondary schools• not more than 2 teachers per 1 PC• Priority: till 2010 to achieve the situation that the

graduate of pedagogical university who starts and continues working in education system will be equipped with notebook,

• To arrange the broadband internet connection through academic network SANET: till 2010 to arrange access for cca 85 % students of secondary schools

miroslav michalko [email protected]

Documents

schools professional

external schools

innovative schools

medical schools

vast majority of schools

years school

type of school

terms of school type