Schools Financing Act Expands Reasons for Reducing Normative Contribution

Bratislava, 21 October (TASR) - The range of reasons for reducing the normative contribution to schools will be expanded, with private and church schools seeing a 20 percent reduction, unless registered as public education providers, according to the new law on the financing of schools and school facilities, which was approved by the Slovak parliament on Tuesday. "The reason for reducing the normative contribution is to equalise the conditions for the financing of schools founded by different types of founders, in particular as regards the criterion of providing education in the public interest," explained the Education Ministry, which drafted the legislation. Schools that are registered as public providers but fail to comply with their obligations will receive a reduced contribution as well. Depending on the number of calendar months during which shortcomings remain unaddressed, a 15 percent reduction will also apply to founders of counselling and prevention centres if they fail to comply with standards in terms of performance and content in educational counselling or with requirements concerning the minimum number of professional staff. The new legislation also adjusts the calculation of the normative contribution for nursery, primary and secondary schools in that it will be based on the number of children or pupils and the relevant per-student normative. jrg