BRATISLAVA, February 2, (WEBNOVINY) – Parliamentary deputies plan to contest with the Constitutional Court unequal funding of public, church and state-run educational facilities. The initiative was signed by MPs from SDKU-DS, SaS, KDH and MOST-HID parties. Equal attitude to funding of educational facilities is one of the points of the governments program statement, which has not been fulfilled due to early elections. Presently, self-governments are obliged to re-distribute to church and private educational facilities 88 percent of finances they obtain from the state for fund such facilities. In the previous electoral period they did not have to give private founders anything. “We ask the Constitutional Court to say whether there is or there is not discrimination in this,” KDH Deputy Chairwoman Jana Zitnanska told a news conference on Thursday.
SaS MP Martin Poliacik drew attention to the fact that the role of private and church schools is not defined in Slovakia. “We have to bring new wind to content of education in Slovakia,” he said. In his opinion, private and church schools are beneficial to the society and therefore the state should support them equally. “We do not prevent church schools from developing. They achieve excellent results. They have proved with their quality that they should be equalized,” he said. At the same time he emphasized that children should be supported equally in various types of schools as parents contribute to state coffers equally.
SDKU-DS Deputy Miroslav Beblavy does not see a reason to put private, church and public schools against each other. “They are not better or worse. They are not supposed to show they are better in order to be granted equal conditions,” he said. The MP opines that a motion to the Constitutional Court is important because the court will decide whether non-fulfillment of equality principles is all right.
According to President of the Slovak Association of Private Schools and Educational Facilities Saskia Repcikova, the unequal principle in funding entities with identical tasks is discriminatory. “If the Constitutional Court issues a verdict it will be a guideline for formation of a new act on funding,” she said. According to President of the Catholic Schools Association Jan Horecky, the state should guarantee conditions in which a plurality system can work.
SITA