The underachievement of Slovak children in the international PISA and PIRLS literacy tests – in which Slovak youngsters up to age 10 ranked 26th and those up to age 15 came in at 23rd among children living in OECD countries – was discussed by dozens of educators at a two-day conference in Tatranská Lomnica in the High Tatra mountains that ended on April 23, the TASR newswire wrote.
“This is serious; we’ve finished below the average of OECD countries. We need to look for solutions so that we can perform better in future,” said Miron Zelina, sponsor of the event entitled “The Development of Literacy in the Context of PISA and PIRLS Studies” to TASR.
According to Zelina, it will be necessary to overhaul the country’s entire teaching system. The findings of the conference, in his opinion, will form a basis for creating new teaching methodology and 67,000 teachers in Slovakia need to be gradually retrained accordingly.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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