Archive of articles - October 1999, page 8

Foreign grants fill school gaps

Slovak universities seem to be in permanent crisis. Teachers' salaries are among the lowest of any state employees, meaning that few young graduates return to university staffs as professors. Computers and other expensive classroom equipment are scarce, and teaching methods antiquated. Even university buildings themselves are crumbling, emblematic of the school sector's deep and systemic problems.And yet, as richer western schools embrace the computer age with well-funded programmes and highly-trained staffs, Slovak students are somehow managing to keep up with their foreign peers. Despite a desperate shortage of funds and technology, Slovak universities are still winning awards.

American murderer may be hiding in Bratislava

Total trade gap down to 30.3 billion Sk in August

Quote of the Week

Eichler elected chairman of VSŽ Board of Directors

Testifying is Mečiar's "basic civic duty"

Slota vows to fight leadership ouster

The far-right Slovak National Party now has two leaders. Or one. Or none. No one is sure.At a full-day party congress September 25, a majority of the 403 SNS regional delegates voted to oust controversial Ján Slota from the post of chairman he has held since 1994. Slota, however, refused to recognise the vote. Instead, he shut off the lights at the meeting and declared the recall vote invalid.Though she was not officially elected in the ensuing confusion, First Vice-Chairwoman Anna Malíková then stepped forward as the party's new head. Slota has refused to recognise her leadership, and Malíková has refused to recognise his.

Welfare cuts bring few savings as jobless rate soars

PB bank owners offer olive branch

Finance Minister Brigita Schmögnerová said on September 29 that she was considering putting the Košice-based Priemyselná Banka under a caretaker administration to ensure the security of deposits at the bank. Schmögnerová, who was embarrassed two weeks ago by a snap privatisation at Priemyselná that cost the state its majority share in the bank, said that the bank's new owners had now offered the state a chance to recover its lost influence."We'll talk about it," Schmögnerová said of a September 29 offer by Priemyselna's four new owners to strengthen the state's share in the bank either by increasing the volume of share assets or by allowing the entry of new state entities into Priemyselná.

Černák survives non-confidence vote

For the fourth time in a year, opposition MP's from the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) last week called for a vote of non-confidence against a minister of the current government. For the fourth time, they failed.The latest motion was brought against Economy Minister Ľudovít Černák, who is accused by opposition leaders and critics of clientelism, if not outright corruption, in the handling of a number of important economic deals made under his watch.The list of bungled operations includes the sale of gas storage firm Nafta Gbely, a non-transparent tender for a mediator to settle the Russian debt to Slovakia, and the loss of the state's majority in the Košice-based financial house Priemyselná Banka.