Slovak education is about to undergo its biggest digital overhaul in years: 224 million euros from the Recovery Plan are to go toward procurement and approximately 200 million toward ten-year sustainability. The goal is simple yet ambitious – equal access to technology for every child and every school, regardless of region. The key is a combination of modern equipment, licenses, and above all reliable infrastructure.
Tailor-made, not central templates
After years of unfinished initiatives and criticism from auditors, the project team got to work in “crisis” mode and started from the reality of schools. They found a very uneven starting point, so the ministry collected detailed inputs directly from schools and set up tailor-made deliveries with the smallest possible administrative burden. The budget was the biggest challenge: it’s not possible to fulfill every wish, so reasonable compromises were sought (for example, a shorter warranty on robust devices). For connectivity, a service with guaranteed enterprise-level parameters is being procured, not ordinary “home internet”, and according to preliminary surveys the price should be significantly lower than is usual for comparable solutions.
From technology to practice: teachers, content, and inclusion
Teaching practice shows that technology works where it has a clear purpose. Experienced teachers were teaching in a hybrid format years ago, and the pandemic moved the digital skills of the whole staff to a basic standard: using interactive whiteboards, online tools, and guiding students toward safe behavior on the internet. Regional support centers, school digital coordinators, and practical solutions such as mobile tablet classrooms or school licenses for digital content (including AI tools) help. A reliable network is key – ideally, coverage across the entire school so it is possible to teach outside classrooms as well, for example in the schoolyard.
Inclusion is addressed very practically as well: schools give disadvantaged students access to technology after classes and provide individual catch-up training. Sustainability has clear boundaries: managed connectivity is contracted for seven years, licenses are for three years, with further purchases guided by actual usage, and hardware is being procured with a shorter (2–3-year) warranty but with the aim of lasting 4–5 years. The position of school digital coordinator is intended to continue after 2026/27, the ministry is seeking funding for it; the role of a “digital janitor” is not separately funded for now, and part of network management will be taken over by suppliers. The vision for the near future: to deal less with “what it runs on” and more with “what runs on it” – that is, quality digital content and modern teaching for everyone.
