ICT in the Education System: A View from Slovakia

Abstract

This chapter will provide information about the education system in Slovakia, major education policy documents and priorities, the current ICT (Information and Communications Technology) infrastructure, open educational resources, data about ICT competencies and skills of students, teachers’ skills and professional development and finally about the outcomes and challenges. The introductory part will give an overview of the education system in Slovakia as a whole. The policy perspective section will look at the institutions, legal acts and newly developed National Programme for Upbringing and Education Development in the Slovak Republic until 2027 (called “Learning Slovakia”). It was published in September 2017 and focuses on ICT issues. In the infrastructure section, the situation in the field of ICT (hardware, software, connectivity) at different educational stages will be described. The ICT indicators in education in Slovakia will be compared with the EU average. The next part will look at educational resources in Slovakia at the EU, national and university level. This will present different initiatives, projects and portals with case studies. The part related to students´ ICT competences will outline ICT use for learning purposes in comparison to the EU average in addition to initiatives and activities towards ICT skill development. In the section looking at teachers´ professional development, there will be a comparison of teachers’ ICT skills and needs with EU countries and the OECD average. In the final part, digital literacy challenges will be addressed.