Slovakia

Partners situated in Slovakia

None.

Slovakia in a nutshell

The Slovak Republic - short form: Slovakia; Slovak: Slovensko - long form Slovenská republika - is a landlocked country in Central Europe with an area of about 49,000 square kilometres (almost 19,000 square miles).

It borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south.

It has a population of over five million.

The largest city is its capital, Bratislava.

Slovakia is a member state of the European Union, NATO, UN, OECD, WTO, UNESCO and other international organizations.

Slovakia is a high-income advanced economy with the fastest growth rates in the EU and OECD. It joined the European Union in 2004 and joined the Eurozone on the 1st of January, 2009. The Slovak economy is considered a tiger economy, with the country dubbed the "Tatra Tiger". Slovakia transformed from a centrally planned economy to a market-driven economy. Major privatizations are nearly complete, the banking sector is almost completely in private hands, and foreign investment has risen.

Slovakia's has recently been characterized by sustained high economic growth. In 2006, Slovakia achieved the highest growth of GDP (8.9%) among the members of OECD. The annual GDP growth in 2007 was estimated at 10.4% with a record level of 14.3% reached in the fourth quarter.

Unemployment, peaking at 19.2% at the end of 1999, decreased to 7.51% in October 2008 according to the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic. In addition to economic growth, migration of workers to other EU countries also contributed to this reduction. According to Eurostat, which uses a calculation method different from that of the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic, the unemployment rate is still the second highest after Spain in the EU-15 group, at 9.9%.

Inflation dropped from an average annual rate of 12.0% in 2000 to just 3.3% in the election year 2002, but it rose again in 2003-2004 because of increases in taxes and regulated prices. It reached 3.7 % in 2005.

Demographics

The majority of the inhabitants of Slovakia are ethnically Slovak (85.8%). Hungarians are the largest ethnic minority (9.7%). Other ethnic groups, as of the 2001 census, include Roma with 1.7%,[29] Ruthenians or Ukrainians with 1%, and other or unspecified, 1.8%.[1] Unofficial estimates on the number of Roma population are much higher, around 9%.

The official state language is Slovak, a member of the Slavic Language Family, but Hungarian is also widely spoken in the south of the country and enjoys a co-official status in some municipalities; and many people also speak Czech.

The Slovak constitution guarantees freedom of religion. The majority of Slovak citizens (68.9%) identify themselves as Roman Catholics, although church attendance is much lower than this percentage. The second-largest group are people "without confession" (13%). About 6.93% indentify as Lutherans, 4.1% Greek Catholic (affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church), and 2.0% Calvinism. Other and non-registered churches account for 1.1% of the population and some 0.9% are Eastern Orthodox. About 2,300 Jews remain of the large estimated pre-WWII population of 90,000.

Politics

Slovakia is a parliamentary democratic republic with a multi-party system. The last parliamentary elections were held on June 17, 2006 and two rounds of presidential elections took place on April 3, 2004 and April 17, 2004.

The Slovak head of state is the president, elected by direct popular vote for a five-year term. Most executive power lies with the head of government, the prime minister, who is usually the leader of the winning party, but he/she needs to form a majority coalition in the parliament. The prime minister is appointed by the president. The remainder of the cabinet is appointed by the president on the recommendation of the prime minister.

Slovakia's highest legislative body is the 150-seat unicameral National Council of the Slovak Republic (Národná rada Slovenskej republiky). Delegates are elected for a four-year term on the basis of proportional representation. Slovakia's highest judicial body is the Constitutional Court of Slovakia (Ústavný súd), which rules on constitutional issues. The 13 members of this court are appointed by the president from a slate of candidates nominated by parliament.

Regions

Slovakia is subdivided into 8 krajov (singular - kraj, usually translated as "region", but actual meaning is "county"), each of which is named after its principal city. Regions have enjoyed a certain degree of autonomy since 2002. Their self-governing bodies are referred to as Self-governing (or autonomous) Regions (sg. samosprávny kraj, pl. samosprávne kraje) or Upper-Tier Territorial Units (sg. vyšší územný celok, pl. vyššie územné celky, abbr. VÚC):

1. Bratislava Region (Bratislavský kraj) (capital Bratislava)
2. Trnava Region (Trnavský kraj) (capital Trnava)
3. Trenčín Region (Trenčiansky kraj) (capital Trenčín)
4. Nitra Region (Nitriansky kraj) (capital Nitra)
5. Žilina Region (Žilinský kraj) (capital Žilina)
6. Banská Bystrica Region (Banskobystrický kraj) (capital Banská Bystrica)
7. Prešov Region (Prešovský kraj) (capital Prešov)
8. Košice Region (Košický kraj) (capital Košice)

(the word kraj can be replaced by samosprávny kraj or by VÚC in each case)

The "kraje" are subdivided into many "okresy" (sg. okres, usually translated as districts). Slovakia currently has 79 districts.

In terms of economics and unemployment rate, the western regions are richer than eastern regions; however the relative difference is no bigger than in most EU countries having regional differences.

Slovakia education policy

Lifelong Learning

The main goal of the Strategy of Lifelong Learning and Lifelong Guidance of Slovak republic (passed by the Government of the Slovak republic in April 2007) is the completion of the system of lifelong learning and the system of lifelong guidance in such a way that the system would make the access to repeated and flexible obtaining of new qualifications for the citizens easier through good-quality education obtained apart from formal also in non-formal system of education and in the system of informal learning with the assistance of complex counselling and guidance services during the entire life of the man and hence to help people to sustain highest possible employment level as well as to increase the participation of the population in lifelong learning.

Source: The Ministry of Education web page on Lifelong Learning

Download the Strategy of Lifelong Learning and Lifelong Guidance (DOC)

Slovakia education system

The Ministry of Education

The ministry is the central body of the state administration of the Slovak Republic for elementary, secondary and higher education, educational facilities, lifelong learning, science and for the state's support for sports and youth.

Source: The Ministry's web site (SK/EN)

A graphic of the educational system can be found on the The Ministry's web site (SK/EN)

For more information see Infomobil Country Profile on Slovak Republic and Infomobil's Overview of Preschool, Primary and Secondary school

Quality assurance

The Accreditation Commission

The Accreditation Commission was established by the government of the Slovak Republic in the year 1990 as its advisory body. The Commission is accountable for its activity to the government of the SR, to which it submits a report on its activity every two years.

Essential tasks of the Commission are to monitor and independently evaluate the quality of education, research, development, artistic and other creative activity of the universities. The Commission comprehensively reviews conditions under which these activities take place at individual universities. Based on independent evaluation, the Commission contributes to improving the efficiency and quality of the education provided at the universities and develops recommendations to improve the operation of the universities.

The Commission's activity is governed by applicable provisions of the Act on universities.

Source: Ministry's web page on the Commission

Virtual Initiatives in Higher Education

• Open Management Int. is the regional partner of Open University Business School (OUBS) in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

References

For more information see:

• Infomobil Country Profile on Slovak Republic
• OECD's page and documents on Slovak Republic
• NML-NIB im internationalen Kontext Länderbericht: Slowakei (PDF - DE) by FNM-Austria

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