The biggest challenge for Slovakia is increasing competitiveness and the issue of sufficient qualified labor force. Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) stated this at a press conference on Tuesday after a visit to the Department of Education. He supported several proposals in education.
"In Slovakia, we lack about 100,000 qualified people who could enter sectors that are crucial for our state and our economy," the Prime Minister pointed out. He pointed to the legislative intentions concerning education, namely pre-primary education, optimization of secondary schools and lifelong education.
According to him, it is important to educate pupils in needed areas, and thus welcomes the optimization of secondary schools. In connection with Wednesday's (August 21) submission of draft laws to the government, he also mentioned a change in the way kindergartens are financed, which, according to him, will ensure significantly greater order. Education Minister Tomáš Drucker (Hlas-SD) pointed out that the Association of Cities and Towns of Slovakia approved this change on Tuesday.
According to the Prime Minister, lifelong learning is also gaining importance. "We also have to legally adjust the entire process of various retraining and requalifying of people, so that those who have some education obtained at university, as well as working somewhere, can retrain, requalify and obtain significantly more information," he explained. He also likes the idea of banning cell phones in elementary schools. He assessed that one cannot be satisfied with the quality of the educational process in Slovakia itself. In the past, according to him, the continuity of the education system was interrupted many times.
Source: TASR
