1. INTRODUCTION

The Foundation has been preparing this document taking into account experience of the National Board of Directors, the Council of Elders, programme co-ordinators and co-workers. Unfortunately no detailed analysis of state of art in the field of education, its development is at present available despite the fact that the Ministry of Education has submitted first drafts of "Millenium" ( vision of educational reform ) and Concept for Higher Education Development . The above documents do not comprise analytical part with regard to neither quantitative nor qualitative review.

2. BACKGROUND – CURRENT SITUATION IN EDUCATION

Supporting the development of education as part of democratic change, is one of the most crucial and important elements which can support the sustainability of democracy and open society in Central and Eastern European countries, to contribute to change by developing well qualified and responsible graduates in the long term.

Thus, in a Government Program Declaration in 1998 (approved by the Slovak Parliament), Section 3 on Social Policy states: "The role of the state is to create conditions for quality of education to ensure equality and compatibility of education with other developed countries."

The government concretely pledged the following:

• Guarantee the right to free education in response to the ability of the citizen, at least until the point when he/she is able to become a legally independent subject in the labour market
• Continuously increase financial means from HDP in order to be comparable with EU countries
• Introduce tax privileges for entrepreneurial activities of secondary and higher education institutions giving them the right to use this benefit for further educational development.

In the pedagogical sphere there were promises to:

• Renew independent school inspection in terms of strengthening quality
• Realise continual change in the curricula of primary and lower secondary schools in order to support creativity.
• Improve the quality of "Maturita" (school leaving exam) and devote attention to standardisation of education
• Focus on the quality of vocational education and training
• Adopt an integrated program for gifted and talented children and young people

The Government Program Declaration gave special attention to higher education under the following issues:

• Increase the number of students in HE institutions without reducing quality
• Use alternative financial sources and pursue a system of non-profit organisation economy in the HE sector
• Prepare a new Higher Education Act with a significant European dimension
• Differentiate HE institutions and support internal diversification
• Support PhD studies
• Support the establishment of foreign university branches in the Slovak Republic.

At present, the education system in the Slovak Republic is in a stage of extensive transformation, identifying solutions and a basis to develop new strategies via a legal framework, the economic efficiency of financial elements and decentralisation of several levels of management. These reform stages are not all appropriately implemented unfortunately, due to a lack of understanding in political parties, state policy and wider society. Twin reasons for this are considered to be: the very high rate of unemployment in most regions in Slovakia; and the general lack of awareness of the population on the role of education for all society.

The development of education takes on a new dimension because of a major effort to access membership of the European Union. Our educational policy, despite many attempts to develop declarations, differs in many parameters from usual education policy in EU developed countries. For instance, our HDP for education and science is about 3.7 %, in comparison with EU countries where the HDP is an average 6%. Another main point is the content of education at all educational levels. This system was closed with no open and centralised approach to the child/learner. Also absent were: access to education; diversification of higher education; development of lifelong learning principles; and the flexibility of a qualified labour force in the labour market in national and broader international terms.

The Ministry of Education set up a number of working groups dealing with the preparation of conceptual proposals for strategic changes across the education system. First draft reports are almost ready for public discussion. The most important feature discussed will be Higher Education Development for the 21st Century in Slovakia, and the Millennium Project . The Millennium Project is concentrated on the education system with philosophical visions and ideas on how to prepare a consistent modern system of education in terms of a "learning based society".

Any changes manifested by national authorities cannot be seen as a guarantee of real reform changes at this stage.

3. NEEDS ASSESSMENT

The following needs assessment section is based on inputs and feedback received from the National Board members, Expert Committee and Council of Elders. Several other education specialists that co-operate with the OSF Slovakia also provided their comments.

• Lack of crystal clear concept of education concentrated on child as a central body in education process taking into account his/her abilities, conditions, social, physical, mental handicaps or preferences and appropriate didactical means, creating suitable and fruitful atmosphere meeting individual needs of children
• Need to conduct a comprehensive and qualified audit of current conditions in the system of education that would identify strengths and weaknesses of education provision and analyse the needs of the system. The system analysis should include evaluation of financial costs.
• Guided public discussion and involvement of wider society (such as teachers, education specialists, parents, employers, local community, and learners) need to be promoted to discuss the needs and challenges of education reform.
• There is a significant need for effective and permanent pre- and in-service teacher training. Regular guidance and support on the improvement of teaching and learning methods need to be provided.
• The current school-based, knowledge oriented examination system need to be replaced and new national, standardized and objective school leaving exams (Maturita) need to be introduced. This need to be linked with the overall reform of quality assurance system.
• The new education reform needs to promote a more focused approach to marginal groups. In particular, changes on systemic, school and community levels are needed to prevent discrimination of the most disadvantaged groups including children belonging to Roma and other minorities; indigenous communities; disabled children; children of migrants; displaced children; and children who are living or working on the street.
• There is a massive need to improve and develop effective management of schools and increase active parental and community involvement in schools and education.
• Diversification of ways to achieve qualifications for the labour market needs to be encouraged.
• There is still a need to promote innovate approaches in education, provide professional training and develop professional expertise on various education issues.

Higher education needs:

In the area of higher education we see a very negative situation, mainly as following:

• insufficient level of scientific, research and educational activities and innovations,
• resistance of old style structuring of specialisations,
• large scale of study programs in comparison with other countries (at least twice as many as in the EU ) - no compatibility
• insufficient or non existing diversification of HE institutions
• brain drain of young academics
• inappropriate legal conditions according to the Degree for PhD studies
• politically motivated establishment of new universities (a recent example is approval for the establishment of a Catholic University) across Slovakia with consequences for financial cuts for experienced universities
• no equal access to higher education
• lack of communication between secondary and tertiary institutions,
• weak social services for students
• reluctance of political parties to introduce fees for university education to improve access to education
• despite an increase in the number of students enrolling in higher education, almost one half are not accepted ( in 1998 only 23% of students were accepted for study)
• a lack of alternative methods of teaching/learning to overcome the above handicap
• a lack of subjects taught in foreign languages
• very limited mobility of students and no compatible transfer and /or recognition of achievements in home institutions
• inadequate quality assurance and accountability of higher education institutions to society and tax payers.

There is no concise assessment of need. However, most of these are mentioned in the vision of the Open Society principles and objectives.

The Foundation continues to co-operation with the Delegation of the European Union to the Slovak Republic. This should be stressed as a highly appreciated initiative of Mr Soros and Mr Verheugen, in co-operation on the accession process, where education plays a significant role.

New projects within the scope of the work of the Foundation, as well as totally new initiatives, will be developed and supported together from both sources. Mainly co-operation via the PHARE program, but also those comprised in the Fifth Framework Programme and other programs of the European Union to create a framework for funding activities of common interest.

The Foundation has been continuing to work in co-operation with the Ministry of Education. A framework agreement on mutual co-operation was proposed. The Ministry of Education, together with the Government has undertaken responsibility for core funding of the INFOVEK project. In addition, the program "Maturita " will be co-financed with national sources.

A third group of donors are representatives of other non-governmental organisations and foundations which operate in the area of education.

Local communities and entrepreneurial organisations (i.e. travel agency CKM 2000, TESCO, EuroTel, British Airways) are also partners who are able to support financially selected educational projects to a limited extent. They are mainly focused on the integration of marginal groups and support for civil organisations to broaden democratic principles.

At present the Slovak Open Society Foundation sees its role firstly in stabilising social instability accompanied with development in the national economy, and supporting civic and professional initiatives and humanistic values and attitudes characteristic of developed and civilised societies.

Learning how to respect individuals and social groups, and how to protect human rights with the principles of democracy must be an imperative for all non-governmental organisations operating throughout the country. This must be implemented in the everyday life of educational facilities, schools and universities. As centres of excellence they can share and disseminate outcomes from research and investigations to all learners and participants of the education process. This issue is one of the main elements for implementation in our strategy as a pre-condition to enhance, ensure and develop strategic change in the educational system. Last but not least the European accession is one of challenges significantly motivating education sector to tailor European dimension in curricula, overall atmosphere in education environment.

The Foundation is willing to assist major change in education, in keeping with the internal goals stressed above.

It is possible to see our position formulating the main aims in education as follows:

1. to support the development of priority areas by concrete project funding
2. to contribute to strategic change enhancing the European dimension and a more global vision of the internationalisation of education, and at the same time to enhance conditions for social cohesion, cross-cultural education and understanding among different social groups
3. to facilitate the process of strategic change by creating a public discussion forum focused on education to benefit the wider society.

The Open Society Foundation in the Slovak Republic has operated in terms of supporting the main areas compatible with the major aims of Open Society.

We cannot view the role of the foundation as a body which can solve all problems faced and presented by professionals in schools, experts and decision making bodies. Our strategy comes from the national framework and describes the main elements for education reform.

We benefited from the experience of several programs run by the foundation, which have been evaluated with regard to successful achievements implemented and used by schools, teachers, pupils and students. Naturally, public opinion was also taken into account.

Our focus is mainly on areas where state administration was unable to make progress due to bureaucracy and lengthy procedures, as well as the strict and rigid attitude to change. (Concrete examples are the activities of Wide Open School Foundation focused on internal school reform, following our own vision according to local and community needs and the requirements of the European Union accession framework, and the programme Internet for High Schools which was an incentive to set up a national project INFOVEK).

Education is a figurehead for societal development, but it is not possible to cover all educational areas, fields, and priorities which need support. As we mentioned we have focused our efforts on areas in which we have experience taking into account the urgent needs of the national education system with regard to the wider objectives of the European dimension, accession processes and tasks connected to this issue.

8.A CRITERIA TO IDENTIFY PRIORITY AREAS

The following criteria have been used by the Foundation to identify its priority areas in education.

• We would like to support those actions which are still not covered and subsidised by state or public institutions.
• On the other hand there is the intention to assist in priority areas of the common national / international interest which could not be fully developed by the state, public and or community.
• The great initiative of the Foundation is to prepare a space for joining particular levels and stages of educational sector, especially in solving the main objective being very closely related to the Open Society mission which means : orientation on human being - on pupil, student or adult learner.
• The Foundation is willing to continue in some long-term programmes which considerably contributed to our credibility.
• There are some "phase out" strategies for programmes coming soon to the end but still they have to be supported in order to encourage external partners to help educational sector as such as well as to individual students and to become sponsors and donors for different purposes.
• When deciding whether to support education initiative the replicability possibilities and diverse funding have been taken into consideration.
• The Foundation is committed to continue supporting unique projects that are close to the Open Society Mission and receive no support from other donors.

8.B PRIORITY AREAS

With regard to the above mentioned criteria the Foundation identified the following three main priority areas:

1. Education policy and reform support; and European Union accession

The principal focus of the Foundation in next three years will be the continued support, for the foreseeable future, of policy development by the Ministry and systemic initiatives by other national bodies.

2. Education Quality for all; and Support to disadvantaged groups, particularly Roma

The second priority area includes initiatives to create change and capacity in the level of national regional and local education institutions; schools and communities to promote access, quality and equity for all. In particular, the educational opportunities of identified disadvantaged and marginalized groups will be supported.

3. Support to new initiatives in education and on-going programs with exit strategies

The third area will include a number of development programs that will support the other two priority areas. Grants and scholarships will be given to projects targeting groups which particularly required such initiatives.

Foundation will continue in supporting several existing programs that are planned to phase out in next years, such as English Language Program (ELP) and Soros Professional English Language teaching Program (SPELT).

 

 

8. C STRATEGIC APPROACH

In implementing the strategy the OSF Slovakia will focus on:

1. Education policy and reform support; and European Union accession:

• dissemination and sharing experience on best practice in education among Slovak authorities and representatives in the educational sector and stimulation to introduce progressive changes;
• promoting the European dimension and global vision of education;
• engagement of the wider community in a discussion on education;
• enhancement and improvement of staff responsible for education (teachers, academics and also managers and administrators) - human resources development and capacity building;
• supporting the transformation of universities in selected areas, internationalisation of university education through mutual co-operation with other countries;
• creation of an objective, reliable and valid system for school leaving exams ("Maturita")

1. Education Quality for all; and Support to disadvantaged groups, particularly Roma:

• promotion of change via the internal reform of the education system in order to achieve quality of education and the prevention of discrimination of any disadvantaged group
• support to community schools
• integration of children with special needs
• school improvement
• development of new courses at Universities promoting child centred pedagogy, anti-bias, multicultural and community approach to education
• support in-service teacher education that introduce new methodologies encouraging learner centred approach

1. Support to new initiatives in education and on-going programs with exit strategies:

• enabling mobility of secondary and university students
• promote access for Roma students to secondary and higher education by providing 1-year preparatory courses
• promoting innovation projects on course development in humanities and social sciences
• supporting publishing initiatives in areas such as social work
• offering expertise and experiences of the ELP and SPELT to promote education change, particularly in Maturita reform and teacher training

1. The Internet Programs will also contribute to education change through:

• extension of possibilities for access to higher education via the use of new technologies
• development of communication technology implementation in a larger number of schools.

Each of the identified priority areas will be address by a set of program areas. Below we provide a brief description and budget indication for each program are. For the detailed program description and budget breakdown, please see the appendix 1 (Programs Description).

1. 1. Education Policy and Reform Support

This activity will create one of the main topics related to education policy reform and enhancing the European accession.

The main feature is to give a space for public discussion with main representatives responsible for the reform steps in education sector. Confronting main issues with foreign partners and enrichment of ideas taking use from international perspective is one of the aims in the programme.

Moreover there is a tendency to give chance to meet experts from different educational levels in order to reflect continuity in education, social cohesion, equal opportunities and meeting needs of community and employer organisations. (budget for 2001 – 50 000 USD)

1. Maturita Reform

This programme is focused on ensuring systemic change in school leaving exams at the completion of study at secondary school. The main aim is to create comparable and compatible exams with developed countries which will be accepted without great exception by national and international higher education institutions. It is very important to promote publicity of this reform, disseminate information and support activities to provide reform as soon as possible. Close co-operation is underway with the British Council.

(budget for 2001 – 60 000 USD)

1. Wide Open School Foundation:

1. Institutional Change (teacher training; community support; University course reform)
2. Integration of Children with Special Needs (teacher training; longitudinal study; school support, community support, course development)

The main work of this Program is Roma education under the change program and Community Education and Integration of Children with Special Needs, to create space for the functional support of the whole programme. The main goals are to: foster open lifelong learning and support learners to reach their full potential; provide full access to education, as well as quality of learning and teaching in different levels of the school system; and prevent discrimination of disadvantaged groups (physically, mentally and socially handicapped ). The local implementation of internal school reform will represent a bottom -up approach which will be an example for other initiatives at a regional and national level. Communication with professional educational institutions will be regularly provided and presented.

(budget for 2001 – 255 000 USD)

1. 1. Secondary School Scholarship Program

By means of the scholarship program, opportunities are provided for secondary school students to improve language skills and also contribute to the mutual understanding of the similarities and differences in the school system, social environment and culture of respective countries. This programme can diminish the gap which exists in the mobility of secondary students in our country.

(budget for 2001 – 20 000 USD)

2. HESP – Higher Education Support Program

This program aims to support a smoother transformation of Slovak higher education institutions in the areas of curriculum reform, changing and innovating methods of teaching and learning, increasing levels of education, quality, and supporting international co-operation. A very important aspect is the international dimension which will be crucial in terms of expansion, massification and quality assurance in broad terms.

The programme is well known amongst the higher education community. It is comprised of a number of sub-programs focused on textbook publishing activities, course development, Roma education, and small grants to develop, introduce and implement innovative ideas in the teaching and learning process. (budget for 2001 – 86 000 USD)

3.1) Soros Professional English Language Teaching Program (SPELT)

The program provides qualified English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers - native speakers to gymnazia and universities. It is planned to offer the financing of the SPELT program, its expertise and experience to the Ministry of Education MoE). Negotiations with the Ministry of Education are planned to present and offer the program to MoE (the program is run this way in Slovenia) so that the MoE can take over the program from September 2001. The EFL teachers – native speakers have been involved in the Maturita reform and they contribute to the project as well (trainings of markers, trainings of teachers, dissemination of information among schools, teachers, and students).

3.2) English Essay Competition

The competition has been succesfully run annually since 1995. Its aim has been to motivate secondary school students for studying English (as a future EU language) and to support creative writing and critical thinking of talented students. We plan to develop material on English essay writing as teachers and students need to know how to write an English essay as it will be one part of the new standardized written English language test for the Maturita exam.

3.3) One Year Internships for Young Slovak Teachers at Independent Schools in Great Britain (HMC)

This program enables young teachers to teach and intern at schools in other EU educational systems in order to implement best practises in Slovak education. At the same time it supports and improves English bilingual education in Slovak secondary schools. It also helps to improve English language proficiency of teachers of other subjects.

3.4) ESP Course of Medical English and Teacher Training

We plan to organize English for Specific Purposes (ESP) – Medical English course for doctors and Public Health workers – this serves as a support program for the foundation’s Health Programs. There have been teacher training courses for requalified English teachers along with this course; e. i. this experience is planned to be used also for teacher training seminars as part of the Maturita reform project.

SELP – Soros English Language Programs: (budget for 2001 – 23,000 USD)

 

Program areas will complement each other. We do not distinguish programmes according to educational levels but according to their priority areas and main objectives. In addition some of our educational programmes can be considered as playing two-fold position, for example the activities of Wide Open School Foundation fulfil tasks for supporting education policy reform and also for Roma program.

A number of new initiatives run by the Foundation under other Programs (e.g. Internet program) are closely related to education. These are mainly INFOVEK and Internet Distance Education programs. (see Appendix II - Internet Strategy – INFOVEK and Internet Distance Education Programs) In this education strategy we make a brief summary of these initiatives, explaining in particular their connection to education change.

INFOVEK Strategy Participation Programme

Internet for High Schools was the title of a previous project run by the Foundation. It has given the incentive for the establishment of the INFOVEK program, supported by the Government. The goal of the above initiative is to connect all primary and secondary schools in Slovakia to the Internet using digital lines within 5 years, and provide computers in classrooms and appropriate training for the use of new technology.

The role of the Foundation is to help to developing a strategy for INFOVEK through meetings, analysis, improvement of international contacts and the use of previous projects benefiting schools and experts.

Internet Distance Education Programme

In principal, this program is based on the similar experience of the HESP and Internet programs. It can be used for lifelong learning, benefiting from distance learning methods of teaching and learning. The main provision is from the Multi-Country PHARE program which is setting up regional distance learning centres. The main objectives of the program are to spread information and knowledge on modern forms and methods of distance education, to support enlargement of university studies for greater number of students to help them complete their education by different means with a relevant and compatible study program content.

Each programme has been governed by a programme co-ordinator who holds a permanent position in the Foundation. One exception is the governance of the Wide Open School. In this case, an independent foundation has been established for specific purposes connected to the main aims of the open school. Permanent monitoring and submission of regular reports guarantees good co-operation with the Foundation.

11. ARRANGEMENT FOR EVALUATION

Each programme has identified criteria and indicators which will be used for evaluation of particular programme. There are, for instance:

• use of published textbooks
• success rate of Roma participants of preparation courses in school entrance examinations
• increased number of extracurricular activities organised by students who attended study stay abroad
• success of marginal groups in education
• teachers trained and using new methods
• number of visitors to the web-page
• number of multi - media courses created within the program

All program proposals are integral to the strategy of the Slovak Open Society Foundation. They are devised in response to specific directives with detailed elements necessary for further evaluation and monitoring.

Each education system is in fact, part of cultural heritage and represents national conditions, social environment and economical and financial circumstances.

On the other hand we have to be aware that the European process and increasing globalisation of all human activity has become a concrete and relevant reality for citizens both in European Union accession, and other countries in Europe and across the world.

The importance of education and educational co-operation in the development and strengthening of more stable, peaceful and democratic societies, is universally acknowledged to be paramount.

Owing to the increasing international competitiveness of the European system of education we have to secure positive conditions for education. The Foundation is willing to share good practice in Slovakia and promote exchange of Slovak and foreign experts in international meetings focused on education.

The Foundation is willing to support all processes to assist education institutions and national authorities to make strategic steps, and contribute to the compatibility and comparability of the education system in Slovakia, with other developed countries.