Home | First lady | Activities of Silvia Gašparovičová | Year 2010 | First Lady met foreign teachers
First Lady welcomed on 3rd December 2010 in the Presidential Palace teachers from Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Poland, Sweden and Bulgaria. Part of the participants was also Slovakia, in particular the Primary School Malokarpatské námestie in Bratislava-Lamač. In the meeting teachers informed First Lady about the project entitled "Building Friendships through Festivals“, which takes place within the Comenius programme. As the head of the participating slovak school Mrs. Alena Petáková stated, "this is a two-year project, where nine schools from 8 countries are participating. Each country presents their festivals, holidays and traditions. Through these traditions we show children how the culture and practices in these countries are. Our guests came here to Slovakia because of the feast of St. Nicholas and today with our children we tried to show them in English and Slovak our traditions."
The First Lady is pleased that also Slovak schools participate in this international program. According to her these meetings are of great importance especially in this time of world globalization. "Young people travel a lot for getting a good education, and valuable primary education is the first prerequisite for their further education or employment. In Slovakia, we have a good level of education, but there is always room for improvement. Also the Slovak education system has undergone reforms. The big change problem is lack of textbooks. I must commend our teachers that they can handle that very well. The information they obtain through the internet and often at the expense of their leisure time," said at the meeting Silvia Gašparovičová.
During the meeting the First Lady of Slovakia also mentioned that she would welcome a change in the physical education curriculum. "Children spend bulk of their free time with computers and then they do not reach the required exercises in the physical education lessons and prefer exemption from this lesson. It is necessary to change the curriculum to make it more interesting," said the First Lady of Slovakia.
Teachers informed the First Lady also about project plans for the future. Project Co-ordinator Mr. Richard Camp from Great Britain said that "after this project we plan to implement an another project, which should also be running for two years and fits into those activities that you have, Mrs. Gašparovičová. It will cover the sport and is related to the Olympic Games that will be held in the UK. In it, the children from various countries will participate in various sporting activities."
The project "Building Friendships through Festivals“ lasts for two years. Participants have already finished the first year. In the next year they will visit Turkey, Bulgaria and Poland. |
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