(source: SME)
The Initiative of Foreign Students to Support Teachers has already collected 500 signatures, which is the biggest initiative of foreign students calling for change in Slovakia, according to the information provided to The Slovak Spectator.
“The level of education was one of the important reasons of our departure from Slovakia,” starts the letter. “Thus we support protesting teachers: in order to prevent other talented people from leaving, to motivate us to return, to avoid the situation in which we will have to send our children abroad for better education.”
Since the very beginning of the teachers’ strike on January 25, students abroad have actively supported them by publishing letters, pictures and videos on the blog of the Denník N daily. They also organised demonstrations in London, Brussels and Brno, while other protests are planned to take place in Prague and Berlin, the letter reads.
“We are all connected by the desire to express our honest thanks to teachers who helped us make it to the prestigious schools,” the letter reads. “We want to express our support also during the strike alert as we are convinced that their effort to improve conditions in education is well-founded and meaningful.”
The students plan to continue in their activities also when the strike is over, so the problems in education are not forgotten by the general public.
The signatories of the letter also stressed they are part of the so-called brain drain which “has a negative impact on the future of our country”.
“Thanks to studies at prestigious world universities we can appreciate the quality and level of education,” the signatories claim in the letter, adding that this is the reason why they consider it their duty to point out scandalous neglect of education in Slovakia.
