Slovakia is implementing a curriculum reform after the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) showed a significant decline in the skills and performance of Slovak children, which Education Minister Tomáš Drucker has called a ‘national tragedy’.
Slovakia is committed to a new way of teaching in its recovery plan, with more than 300 experts working on the reform’s conception. A large part of the Slovak school system consists of memorisation.
“We were used to the fact that the teacher spoke 80% of the time in class and children only 20%,” says Erika Fabiánová, a director of elementary school in Rožňava, for Denník SME.
Fabiánová’s school started following the new curriculum back in September. She feels it is crucial for children not to be “the passive recipients” of the facts anymore.
As the director said during an interview, their first-graders started to learn “thematically and holistically”. They acquire information through interaction, discussion and practice, making children more curious and proactive.
Slovakia hopes the new system will help improve children’s learning, especially as the country’s latest PISA assessment was well below the OECD average.
In 2022, Slovakia scored its lowest-ever result in mathematics and had one of its lowest results in reading and science. Overall, it ranked 38th and placed 22nd amongst EU member states.
During the pandemic, Slovakia administered one of the longest school closures globally. As full-time education was interrupted, distance learning was introduced.
Besides its efficiency, which is still being questioned, distance learning was also not equally accessible to everyone, which possibly resulted in Europe’s first “digital divide verdict”.
A point also made evident by the latest OECD results, as Slovakia has been “singled out as the country with the greatest impact of socioeconomic background on student results,” said Iveta Pichaničová from the Slovak National Institute of Education and Youth (NIVaM).
(Natália Silenská | Euractiv.sk)
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Source: euractiv.com
