Slovakia

Now that Slovakia has achieved independence and autonomy, the question as to whether or not it will survive long-term is still to be answered. Slovakia's most obvious need is to require more years of compulsory education of all of its children. In a technical age of rapid change and growth, leaving a large spectrum of the population with just an elementary education diminishes the ability of the country to respond to economic change. Slovakia needs to abandon the old Austro-German template with its innate verticality that points the way towards the re-stratification of society. Even after decades of the ideology of egalitarianism, which was a part of communism, that Slovakia has turned the clock back. The old German system, as well as the current Slovakian system, does not serve late bloomers well. Slovakia needs to retain the academic rigor of its old system while at the same time incorporating flexibility and experimentation. While literacy rates are not available, it is probable to assume that they are quite high, with the exception of the Roma (Gypsies) who have traditionally had a high rate of illiteracy.

Slovakia's general fiscal situation remains weak, saddled with structural problems originating in the first years of the second republic under the leadership of Vladimir Meciar, which included inefficient enterprises, banking insolvency, high inter-company debt, and declining tax and social support payments (CIA 2000). University students are finding themselves paying more and more of their own costs, which is very unsettling in a context where the state once paid the entire subsidy. The future of Slovakia is hopeful, yet tenuous, as in most of Eastern Europe.