News digest: US Ambassador Brink to leave Slovakia, off to Ukraine

Good evening. The Monday, April 25 edition of Today in Slovakia is ready with the main news of the day in less than five minutes.

Teachers want more freedom in schools

Teachers want to see more freedom in schools, they tell The Slovak Spectator. (source: TASR/AP)

Lucia Mitterová, a teacher since 2004, has always seen teaching as a calling rather than a job. Today she teaches History, Geography and English at a private vocational school in Rimavská Sobota.

“My goal is to educate young people to select from a wealth of information, make arguments and decisions, and bear the consequences of their decisions,” Mitterová said. Critical thinking, soft and digital skills, as well as integrating theory and vocational skills, are all important qualities and capabilities students must possess to succeed, she believes.

“However, for students to acquire these skills, today’s entire education system would have to be changed, and schools would have to be given more freedom,” Mitterová noted. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the rigidity of the current system, in her view.

Here is what another three teachers approached by The Slovak Spectator believe that schools need to ready young people for this century.

For a deeper insight into current affairs, check out our Last Week in Slovakia piece published earlier today. You can sign up for the newsletter here.

Slovakia's aid to Ukraine among largest

In March 2021, Slovakia hosted the Saber Strike 22 military exercise. (source: Sme/Marko Erd)

Slovakia has come out as one of Ukraine’s biggest supporters when its economic output is compared to other countries.

Out of 31 Western countries, compared by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in Germany, Slovakia came fourth, show the institute’s data collected since the start of the war to March 27.

Estonia and the USA topped two different rankings that are part of the institute’s new database, the Ukrainian Support Tracker.

“There are surprisingly strong differences, both in terms of the absolute amount of support and when measured as a percentage of donor country GDP,” the institute’s research director Christoph Trebesch said.

Reed the full rankings here.

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CORONAVIRUS UPDATES IN SHORT

370 people were newly diagnosed as Covid positive out of 1,888 PCR tests performed on April 24. The number of people in hospitals is 1,015; and 13 more deaths were reported on Sunday. The vaccination rate stands at 51.29 percent; and 2,820,890 people have received the first dose of the vaccine. More stats on Covid-19 in Slovakia here.

WHAT TO WATCH

EU's chief prosecutor Kövesi: Police need people's support

WHAT TO LISTEN TO

A Ukrainian teacher who fled the war helps pupils from Ukraine in central Slovakia

The war in Ukraine did not stop Ganna Konovalenko from teaching children, which she has always seen as her calling. The Ukrainian teacher fled the conflict with her son and found refuge in Zvolen, central Slovakia.

On the Spectator College podcast, she talks about the conflict, her arrival in Zvolen, and her new job as a teaching assistant at a local primary school.

IN OTHER NEWS

The Defence Ministry has denied that Slovak T-72 tanks were involved in the fighting in Ukraine. Several posts claiming that Slovak tanks were supposed to be involved, for example, in the fighting in the Luhansk region, appeared on social media.
US President Joe Biden has nominated US Ambassador to Slovakia Bridget Brink to serve as the new US ambassador to Ukraine, the White House informed.
The Antimonopoly Office has approved the purchase of 16 Lukoil filling stations in Slovakia by the Hungarian oil company MOL. The owner of the Slovnaft refinery will thus strengthen its position on the Slovak market, but will have to sell four Slovnaft stations.
Slovak experts, including three forensic technicians, an anthropologist and three medical examiners have arrived in Ukraine to assist the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office in documenting the evidence needed to investigate war crimes, President Zuzana Čaputová announced.