Education Ministry: Opposition Misleads Over School Safety Changes

Bratislava, 2 October (TASR) - Opposition politicians are lying about the extent of changes implemented following the attack in Spisska Stara Ves, the Education Ministry's press department declared on Friday, describing such conduct disgraceful. According to the press department, Education Minister Tomas Drucker (Voice-SD) briefed MPs in Parliament on Thursday (1 October) and provided a detailed account of the planned changes. The ministry spoke in response to opposition MPs who called for systemic changes in youth protection. "Over the past two years, an additional €210 million has been allocated to support measures, school support teams have been significantly strengthened, schools have been linked with counselling and prevention centres, a new directive on preventing and addressing bullying has been introduced, as has a new crisis management system. Important legislative changes have been adopted concerning risky behaviour among children and the transfer of information between schools and counselling facilities, while parental responsibility and teacher protection have been strengthened. Training and methodological support for schools are continuing. In cooperation with the Police Corps, extensive training has been carried out in schools, and specific police officers have been assigned to schools," the ministry said. It pointed out that the bill on radicalisation currently before Parliament was not drafted in response to the attack at a primary school in Staskov. The ministry said it had been preparing the bill with experts for more than a year. "Over the past two years, the ministry has shown that it does not merely want to talk about children's safety, but is taking concrete measures. It expects the same from others. There is room for comments and proposals. Now is the time to present concrete solutions, not to engage in politics on the serious issue of children's safety," the ministry underlined. Opposition politicians are calling for systemic changes in the area of youth protection, as they do not consider the bill drafted by the Education Ministry and currently before Parliament to be sufficient. They believe it will not, by itself, resolve the problem of violence in schools and also criticised several statements by coalition politicians, which they described as aggressive and confrontational. They called for less aggression in the public sphere and for positive role models for young people. The statements were made by MPs Beata Jurik (PS), Veronika Remisova (Slovakia-For the People), Andrea Turcanova (KDH), Vladimira Marcinkova (SaS), and Monika Podhorany Masarikova of the non-parliamentary Democrats party. mf