BRATISLAVA, April 19, (WEBNOVINY) — Slovakia finished at the bottom of the EU chart of financing of education. This information stems from the new report on progress in education released by the European Commission on Tuesday. “The Slovak Republic is the only country in the EU that invests less then four percent of its GDP in education. The best results in this criterion were achieved in Denmark (7.83 percent), Cyprus (6.93) and Sweden (6.69),” informed Andrej Kralik of the European Commission’s representation in Slovakia. EU Commissioner for Education Androulla Vassiliou urged EU member states not to cut their education budgetary spending despite facing difficult situations due to the crisis. “Spending on education is a good investment for jobs and economic growth and in the long term pays for itself,” stated Vassiliou.
According to the report, apart from the public finance allocated to education, Slovakia has a problem with its alarmingly low number of teachers. This number decreased by 17 percent between 2000 and 2008. “Unfortunately, alongside Denmark, Iceland and Turkey, we are among the countries with the lowest number of teachers in continuing education,” said Kralik. On the other hand, Slovakia showed the second best performance in completion of secondary level education by young people aged 20 to 24 years. Slovakia also achieved good results within increasing number of graduates in science and technology, he continued. The report also revealed that Slovak students often study abroad, as Slovakia placed fourth in the category of mobility of students within the EU.
SITA
