| SO | Sexual orientation |
|---|---|
| GI/E | Gender identity/expression |
| SC | Variations of sex characteristics |
| GR1 | Legal gender recognition without self-determination |
| GR2 | Legal gender recognition with self-determination (over 16) |
| GR3 | Legal gender recognition with self-determination (under 16) |
| FPN | LGBTI focal points network |
| CA | Ministerial call to action |
The Act on Equal Treatment in Certain Areas and Protection against Discrimination (365/2004) was adopted in 2004 and has been amended many times since. The current version of the Act has been in force since 2 January 2016. It includes a provision banning discrimination in education on the basis of several protected grounds, including gender and sexual orientation. Furthermore, the Education and Training Act (245/2008) explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of all protected grounds and calls for equality when accessing education and training, and equality of status between schools, without distinction based on school founders. It also contains a provision calling for responsible education of individuals which addresses freedom, tolerance, equality between women and men, friendship among nations and ethnic groups, and tolerance to other religions.
The National guidance on the prevention and resolution of harassment of students in schools and school facilities (No. 7/2006) does not include any provisions related to diversity or protected grounds. While this document does not have the force of a normative document such as a legal act, it serves as a soft-law strategy. The document provides general information on the topic of bullying and harassment. It also provides basic guidance to schools on solving cases of bullying and harassment, while adopting a zero-tolerance policy. The document also assigns each primary and secondary school with the task of building up a school strategy on preventing and tackling bullying and harassment, which is annually monitored by the State School Inspection).
Furthermore, the Slovak Ministry of Education annually issues Pedagogic and organizational instructions for primary and secondary schools which focus on numerous topics. These also include the prevention of harassment and bullying, as well as the demand for an intersectional approach towards human-rights education. The 2017/2018 instructions call for the introduction of compulsory subjects related to the field of human rights including equality between men and women, prevention of discrimination, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, intolerance, extremism and racism, and migration issues. However, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, andvariations in sex characteristics are not included.
According to civil society organisations, an analysis of the legal and strategic documents shows that the topics of bullying (harassment) and diversity (non-discrimination) tend to be separated without any inter-relation. The National Guidance no. 7/2006, Art. 2 states that “bullying is defined as any bullying behaviour of pupils or students, whose intention is to harm another student or the students, including to intimidate them. This is a targeted and repeated use of violence to such a pupil or group of pupils who for various reasons cannot or will not defend themselves.” As such, bullying is portrayed as a question of violent behaviour of individual students. The causes or contributing factors of bullying are never made clear and never feature as issues related to the diversity of learners.
While the legal and strategic documents call for an intersectional approach to education on human rights and tolerance, through various advocacy and educational activities, this is never related to bullying and harassment in class. Furthermore, while several protected grounds are implicitly mentioned (such as “racism”), when it comes to human rights education, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and variations in sex characteristics are not mentioned.
Starting in September 2015, the Slovak Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport launched the Upgraded State Educational Programme for secondary grammar schools. This programme has been tested since 2015, starting with the 1st grade. In September 2016, the 2nd grade was included, and this will continue to the following years to include higher grades. All three of these upgraded programmes (4-year, 5-year and 8-year programme) include new curricula for biology classes and require teachers to introduce a discussion on the topic of healthy lifestyle in relation to reproduction. Within this discussion, students are to focus on “the ethical principles of partnership and planned parenthood” – as such, questions of homosexuality and heterosexuality are to be discussed with regulation from the teacher.
The Methodological and Pedagogical Centre in Bratislava issued a number of methodological publications for teachers of Ethics at secondary schools. These include: Lenka Rovňanová (2014): Výchova k manželstvu, rodičovstvu a etike intímnych vzťahov, časť 1.(Education to marriage, parenthood and the ethics of intimate relationships, Part 1), Lenka Rovňanová (2014): Výchova k manželstvu, rodičovstvu a etike intímnych vzťahov, časť 2.(Education to marriage, parenthood and the ethics of intimate relationships, Part 2), and Alena Molčanová, Jarmila Verbovská (2015): Výchova k manželstvu a rodičovstvu v edukačnom procese(Education to marriage and parenthood in educational process). These publications mention homosexuality in a non-stereotypical manner and also call for a discussion about the harm of gender and sexuality stereotypes. Gender identity is also mentioned, but in a rather neutral way (trans persons are not mentioned). Sex characteristics are also mentioned, but as something that are always clear from birth and clearly determines the sex of an individual.
Furthermore, the Pedagogic and Organizational Instruction of the Ministry of Education 2015/2016 calls for the inclusion of secondary schools in the National Olympics of Human Rights, which is organised annually. The competition has a regional and a national round which consists of a number of questions and cases which the participants have to solve. The competition is organised in cooperation with UNESCO and the Comenius University in Bratislava. The 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 editions of the Olympics did not contain any cases or questions related to LGBTQI rights.
Finally, the Pedagogic and Organizational Instruction of the Ministry of Education 2015/2016also calls for primary and secondary schools to “involve children and pupils in activities in the field of human rights education by organising conferences, competitions, meetings, thematic exhibitions, visits to theatre performances on the theme of human rights”. However, within this context, LGBTQI issues are not mentioned explicitly.
There is currently no mandatory teacher training on LGBTQI awareness. Teacher training at universities and colleges in Slovakia is very subjective, as it is dependent on particular lecturers and their courses.
For example, university students in Slovakia can choose to study tutorial courses (e.g. Slovak language, foreign languages, geography, history, etc.) and non-tutorial courses (e.g. psychology, anthropology, IT and technical courses). Tutorial university courses provide students with the disposition to become teachers after gaining their university degree. Non-tutorial courses require students to seek the so-called Additional Pedagogical Studies in order to become teachers and this usually takes four semesters (2 years) when pursued full-time. The content of the training related to the Additional Pedagogical Studies is individual and depends on a particular university lecturer and their planning of lectures. There are no nation-wide guidelines for the Additional Pedagogical Studies, so the plans are prepared by individual universities.
The Faculty of Education at the Comenius University in Bratislava includes a number of courses for students of pedagogy on the topic of gender, sexual orientation and gender identity. These courses include: Rodové aspekty vzdelávania a výchovy (Gender aspects of education), Úvod do rodových štúdií (Introduction to gender studies) and Sociálne otázky sexuality a rodu (Social questions of sexuality and gender).
The Personal Identification Numbers Act (301/1995) establishes legal provisions to change the gender marker on an individual’s identification number. Such changes are made by the Ministry of Interior and are based on a written declaration of the person concerned and the presentation of a medical certificate stating that the person in question has undergone a sex change. The legislation is unclear in regard to specific medical requirements and the age limit for this procedure. According to ECRI and TGEU, “many doctors interpret this requirement in a strict manner and in order to provide a certificate require proof of permanent change of the original reproductive organs or that the person has been diagnosed as permanently infertile”.
Data on homophobic, biphobic, transphobic or interphobic bullying is not collected by the government. However, the State School Inspection addresses bullying and harassment in schools and also conducts surveys on this topic. While the data is not collected nationally, the Inspection conducted in recent years a number of surveys among students of primary and secondary schools. Individual small-scale surveys are also conducted in the academic sector. The latest survey was published as a monograph in 2012 by Miroslava Adamík Šimegová and Peter Szeliga under the title Výskum šikanovania v prostredí školy (Research on bullying in educational settings).
The National Guidance no. 7/2006 also calls on primary and secondary schools to prepare a school-wide strategy on prevention and elimination of bullying and harassment of students. This provision is annually monitored within the national report of the National School Inspectorate. This is a monitoring document based on the soft-law National Guidance 2006, and as such, it is not a strong normative document. However, it is taken into consideration by the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport. Within the 2014-2015 report, the Inspection disclosed the inability of some primary and secondary schools to present the school-wide strategy on prevention and elimination of bullying and harassment. As schools are not obliged, there is currently no reliable register at their disposal.
The government provides no specific support systems for LGBTQI learners or their families. However, primary and secondary schools are advised to contact the Pedagogic and Psychological Guidance Centres which are present in all eight regions of Slovakia. According to the National Guidance 2006, primary and secondary schools are also required to employ a guidance counsellor who is also trained on the topics of harassment and bullying. In most cases, schools employ one teacher who is also trained as a guidance counsellor. This individual is also in contact with the regional Pedagogic and Psychological Guidance Centre.
There is generally a number of methodological tools available for teachers on the topic of bullying and harassment. For the purposes of their training, the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport launched a website, where teachers, parents and students can find information. Nevertheless, the information and materials available on this website rarely mention the topic of diversity. For example, the Methodological Material for Head Teachers issued in 2008, and promoted by the national institutions working within the area of education, focuses on bullying and harassment as a particular issue of aggression and violent behaviour of individuals. Within this material, under the “reasons for bullying”, issues of diversity are not mentioned at all. Instead, boredom, the need to gain power, peer pressure, and individual cruelty are cited as the main causes.
Information is available to teachers through the work of the NGO sector. The non-governmental counselling centre for LGBTI persons Q-Centrum, for example, devotes a section of its website to the topic of homophobic bullying and harassment in schools. Here they explain the characteristics of homophobic harassment and provide examples of how to deal with individual cases. The website also contains testimonies of young LGBT persons who have experienced homophobia and transphobia in schools.
Civil society organisations are able to gain funding through national grant schemes, including in the area of education. In recent years all of the aforementioned organisations have received funding to conduct programmatic and advocacy work on education.
– Slovakia has not signed the Call for Action by Ministers – Inclusive and equitable education for all learners in an environment free from discrimination and violence.
– Slovakia is a member of the European Governmental LGBTI Focal Points Network.
In June 2014, the draft National Strategy for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights in the Slovak Republic was submitted for inter-ministerial consultation and was as such also commented upon by the Slovak Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport. With regards to the Annex No. 8: The Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex People, the Ministry provides the following (oppositional position):
‘…Other requirements of education in schools are defined by the School Act, § 151. Regarding education about human rights, we draw your attention to paragraphs (3) and (4), which state that “in schools and educational institutions the following shall not be permitted: advertising which is in contradiction with the principles or content of education, or with other negative activities connected with education, advertising or sale of products that threaten the health, psychological or moral development of children or pupils”, and also “in schools and educational institutions, it is prohibited to provide or make available information, or to abuse informational means in such a way, which could lead to the disruption of morality…’,
‘…And as the Ministry of Education is the guarantor of a healthy educational environment, it strongly disagrees that gender ideology and issues of LGBTI people to be introduced into the education process in schools in the Slovak Republic…”,
‘…The foregoing suggests the forced sexualisation of children and youth by state institutions, according to which the (Slovak) state should—through education and teaching—scarify/swing their (born congenital) gender identity. From the scientific, medical, psychological and pedagogical perspective, any experimentation with a child’s mental development is immoral and unethical. This is particularly true in such a sensitive area as sexuality. Moreover, questionable interventions in the natural development of a child may induce undesirable mental disturbances or behavioural disorders, anxiety, depression etc. According to the experts who endorsed the Statement and Appeal of Doctors, Psychologists, and Other Professionals on the Impact of Gender Ideologies on the Mental Health of Children, it is an experiment whose “biggest risk is the deformation of children’s psychosexual development”’.
Civil society organisations report that the National Strategy has yet to be adopted for the lack of political interest.
Prevention of homophobia and transphobia via education, by Iniciatíva Inakosť
In 2015, the NGO Iniciatíva Inakosť published a monograph titled Predchádzanie homofóbii a transfóbii prostredníctvom vzdelávania (Prevention of homophobia and transphobia via education), which was aimed at teachers, parents and anyone interested in the topic of LGBTI rights in schools. The main area of the publication is the schooling system – the publication familiarises the readers with the core issues of homophobia and transphobia and further provides the readers with interesting incentives and suggestions on how to tackle core issues within classrooms. The monograph is available in Slovak and can be provided by Iniciatíva Inakosť upon request.
Covers: SO, GIE and SC
Methodological and Pedagogic Centre in Bratislava
In 2013, Ingrid Šoltysova published a study titled “Homofóbne šikanovanie na strednej škole na hodinách etickej výchovy” (Homophobic bullying during high school classes on ethics). The study was issued with the help of the national Methodological and Pedagogical Centre in Bratislava (supervised by the Ministry of Education). The study is presented as a methodological tool for teachers, while it presents specific cases of homophobic bullying and gives advice on how to tackle this issue. The tool also provides teachers with general information on LGB rights and raises awareness on the issue of homophobia in schools. The study is promoted by the Methodological and Pedagogical Centre in Bratislava and is available online.
Covers: SO
Non-governmental counselling centre Q-Centrum
[https://qcentrum.sk/sluzby/psychologicke-poradenstvo/]
Non-governmental counselling centre Q-Centrum in Bratislava provides social, psychological and legal counselling to LGBTI persons, including LGBTI youth and their families. Within psychological counselling, they provide counselling on various topics, including homophobia and transphobia in family environment or at school.
Covers: SO, GIE and SC
