Drucker: Ministry Proposes Set of Measures for Minority Language Schools (2)

Komarno, 7 July (TASR) - The main topic of a round-table discussion in Komarno (Nitra region) attended by Education Minister Tomas Drucker (Voice-SD), Slovak Towns and Villages Association (ZMOS) representatives and other professional organisations on Monday was a vision for education in the ethnically mixed territory. The discussion focused on developing regional education in ethnically mixed regions with significant proportions of Hungarian, Roma and other minorities. Its aim, according to the minister, was quality and fair education for for all children, regardless of the language that they speak at home. Schools that provide education in minority languages, most of which are in southern Slovakia and use the Hungarian language, are already struggling to survive economically in many local governments due to demographics, stated Drucker during a press conference after the event, adding that there are also schools that teach in Slovak that are struggling to survive. "We discussed the quality of education, we spoke about where we're lacking teachers, what we should do to do find them ... We really have a significant shortage of quality teachers, especially those who teach in the Hungarian language," stated Drucker. Commenting on upcoming legislative changes, the minister said that they were drawn up based on the results of a spending review and an analysis of the availability of education in mother tongues. The study revealed a number of issues, such as the poor geographical accessibility of schools for children from Hungarian-speaking families and the lack of support for teaching in the Romani language. The Education Ministry presented a set of measures to create fair and high-quality educational conditions for all children, regardless of their language or nationality. Key measures include the abolition of the so-called size coefficient for small schools, replacing it with a support contribution for schools that adopt rationalisation measures, the creation of school clusters to share resources and staff more efficiently and targeted support for small schools in line with the curriculum reform. NOTE: This story has been updated to include the 5th paragraph. lin/df