Slovakia likely to abolish Gandhi secondary school

The Banska Bystrica Region will probably discontinue the residential eight-year secondary school for socially weak children in Lucenec, attended mainly by Romanies, due to unfavourable inspection results, regional spokeswoman Iveta Kurekova has told CTK.

Regional deputies approved the abolition of the loss-making school in April, but assigned regional head Milan Murgas with negotiating the possibility of transferring the Gandhi school to another founder with the state administration.

"With regard to the inspection results, it is probable that regional head Milan Murgas will propose to the Education Ministry to delete the secondary school from the network of schools and school facilities," Kurekova said.

She said the state school inspection concluded the level of education at the school is not satisfactory.

Most of the pupils will return to elementary schools though the school has existed for four years.

Some parents have also doubted the quality of lessons and said the pupils could not continue at another eight-year secondary schools due to insufficient knowledge.

The school has moved several times during the four years of existence. It has lacked money for a long time and it has gradually been losing pupils.

Out of the original 70 children, almost a half have left. Some of them left when the school moved from Zvolen to Lucenec, others because of the school’s unclear future.