Introduction
The scope and tasks of municipal bodies in the field of state administration in education and school self-government are regulated by Act No. 596/2003 Coll. on state administration in education and school self-government and on changes and supplements to certain acts in the wording of later regulations (hereinafter referred to as “the Act on State Administration in Education”).
Under § 6 of the aforementioned act, it is necessary to distinguish the status of a municipality as founder depending on whether it exercises its founder competences as part of delegated state administration or under its original self-government competences. In both cases, establishing and abolishing schools and school facilities is carried out by the municipality by way of generally binding ordinances.
In delegated state administration, the municipality establishes and abolishes primary schools according to the network. In self-government, the municipality establishes and abolishes according to the network: a) basic art schools, b) kindergartens, c) children’s school clubs that are part of the primary school, d) youth recreation centers, e) school catering facilities for primary school pupils and kindergarten children, f) language schools attached to primary schools, g) school support centers, h) school boarding schools.
In matters concerning schools and school facilities, the municipality performs state administration in both first and second degree. In first-degree proceedings, it decides on issues concerning endangering the upbringing and education of a minor child or neglect of care regarding a pupil’s compulsory school attendance. In second-degree proceedings, it decides if it has the status of a school office. In that case, it decides in matters where, in the first degree, the decision was made by the principal of the primary school of which the municipality is the founding authority. Whether a municipality has or does not have the status of school office depends on how many pupils attend primary schools within the municipality’s founding competence. A municipality is a school office if it is the founder of primary schools with a total of at least 1,000 pupils. A school office comes into being from 1 January of the calendar year. The decisive date for determining the number of pupils is 15 September of the previous calendar year.
In addition, municipalities are also regarded as school offices if, pursuant to an agreement under the Municipal Establishment Act, a joint municipal office professionally carries out functions and activities in education, youth and physical culture, and the total number of pupils in schools in those municipalities is at least 1,000.
A municipality does not automatically become a school office by merely meeting legal conditions. It must submit to the regional school authority an application for issuing a decision confirming the status of school office. If the regional school authority does not confirm the municipality as a school office, it performs the activities of a school office itself.
Municipalities also determine by generally binding ordinances the school districts of primary schools within their founding scope, and also catchment-area kindergartens in the municipality for children with permanent residence in the municipality who fulfil compulsory pre-primary education. If a municipality is the founder of more than one kindergarten, its generally binding ordinance specifies, for each catchment kindergarten, a part of its territory. If a municipality does not have a kindergarten, it may conclude a written agreement with another municipality on the catchment kindergarten. Such designation is also used for determining the local competence of a kindergarten under § 28c of Act No. 245/2008 Coll. on Education (the School Act) and on amendments and supplements to certain acts in the wording of later regulations.
The municipality as founder of kindergartens
A kindergarten provides pre-primary education. It is usually established for around ten children. A child obtains pre-primary education by completing the final year of the education programme branch in kindergarten. The document evidencing this educational level is a certificate of completion of pre-primary education.
Pre-primary education has undergone several changes in recent years. Since 1.9.2021, it has been mandatory for children who reach the age of five by 31.8. The School Act amendment increased capacity requirements for kindergartens. From the effective date of this amendment, children who otherwise would have stayed at home with a parent, or would have attended private kindergartens not included in the network, also have to attend pre-primary education.
Capacity requirements for kindergartens increased again in 2022, when the conflict in Ukraine began and many Ukrainian citizens found temporary shelter in Slovakia. The Slovak government therefore adopted Decree No. 109/2022 Coll. on certain measures in the field of social services during a state of emergency, state of emergency, or extraordinary state declared in connection with the mass arrival of foreigners on the territory of the Slovak Republic caused by the armed conflict on the territory of Ukraine, which regulated the conditions for services supporting the reconciliation of family and working life in the form of child care in a children’s group. “This form of care is provided in a small children’s group, at most four children, and is provided in a domestic environment (or another environment similar in space and equipment to a domestic environment). Child care supporting the reconciliation of family and work life in a children’s group can be provided to a child from birth until the start of compulsory pre-primary education in a kindergarten.” 1
Care in a children’s group is provided exclusively by a natural person as a continuous activity performed independently, under her or his own name and responsibility, based on registration to provide this social service in the register of social services kept by the competent higher territorial unit. A natural person may not employ employees and must therefore personally provide care to children herself or himself. This person is subject to requirements of good conduct and full legal capacity, and must be at least 18 years old. No professional qualification requirement in the form of a certain educational level is required for this natural person. The natural person is the provider of the social service and simultaneously provides care to children in a specific children’s group. The authority to provide this social service is tied to a specific location (specific address of where it is provided). 2
The most difficult task for municipalities as founders of kindergartens was brought by the 2023 amendment to the School Act, which introduced a legal entitlement to admission to pre-primary education. In § 3(b), the School Act enshrines the right “to admission to pre-primary education in a kindergarten from the school year following the school year in which the child reaches the age of three.” 3 The School Act amendment set a right for every three-year-old child to be admitted to pre-primary education in a kindergarten regardless of the type of founder if the child’s legal representative or caregiver applies to the kindergarten.
This right can be claimed by the legal representative or caregiver in a kindergarten founded by a municipality or a regional school authority in accordance with the new § 59b of the School Act. The legal representative or caregiver may exercise this right in a private kindergarten or a church kindergarten based on his or her own free decision.
The relevant amendment placed municipalities as the most important kindergarten founders before a major challenge. It set new tasks for municipalities. The Act on State Administration in Education was also amended; under § 3(b), it set the obligation for municipalities to create conditions for “fulfilling compulsory pre-primary education and for admitting children to pre-primary education who have the right to admission under the School Act in the kindergartens for which the municipality is the founder.”
To prepare for this task, under § 6(20) of the Act on State Administration in Education, a municipality is required to prepare and annually update an estimate of the number of children aged three to five with permanent residence in the municipality for the next three years. “If the head of a catchment kindergarten decides for the relevant school year not to admit at least ten children who will turn at least three years of age by 31 August following the issuance of the decision, and at least ten appeals were filed against at least ten non-admission decisions, the municipality shall without delay ensure that, with the consent of the regional public health authority, the head of that kindergarten establishes a new class for the relevant school year. If it is not possible to establish a new class in that kindergarten and it is necessary to admit children who have the right to admission to pre-primary education for the relevant school year, the municipality shall without delay, with the consent of the regional public health authority, ensure capacity for their admission in other kindergartens founded by the municipality or conclude an agreement on admitting the children into a kindergarten founded by another municipality or the regional school office.” 4
Since the capacities of existing kindergartens in many municipalities were insufficient even before this amendment was adopted, it was necessary to address what should happen if the right to admission to kindergarten could not be exercised for capacity reasons. In this context, Amendment to Act No. 571/2009 Coll. on parental allowance and amendments to certain other laws in the wording of later regulations was adopted, which established entitlement to parental allowance also for the person who provides regular care for a child up to six years of age, for no longer than the beginning of the school year in which the child begins compulsory pre-primary education. This entitlement arises for an eligible person if it is proven by a decision of a kindergarten founded by a local education state authority or local self-government (hereinafter only “state kindergarten”) that the child was not admitted to a state kindergarten according to the child’s permanent residence, and this decision is no older than 12 months. The condition of non-admission is proven in each school year.
A parent is entitled to parental allowance after the above conditions are met even if the parent is employed and places the child in a private kindergarten. A parent’s income level is not decisive for receiving this allowance. The only exception, when parental allowance for a child not admitted to the catchment kindergarten for capacity reasons cannot be received, is when the parent is caring for another child under the age of three; in this case, entitlement to parental allowance arises only once, that is, it can be paid for only one child. 5
By these legal changes, an interesting practical situation arose. Repeated annual problems with admission of children to kindergartens for capacity reasons were supplemented by attempts to use the changes to receive parental allowance for a longer period. In various online discussion forums, questions appeared such as whether and how one can obtain a kindergarten decision of non-admission so that the parent can continue to receive parental allowance. This suggests that some parents would rather receive extended parental allowance than secure a place for the child in the catchment kindergarten.
At present, children are admitted to kindergartens according to the following rules:
- first, children fulfilling compulsory pre-primary education are admitted on a priority basis,
- next, children with a right to admission under § 59b of the School Act are admitted,
- finally, other children are admitted.
Provision of special educational needs of children and pupils
The School Act defines special educational needs in § 2(i) as a requirement determined by diagnosis in counseling and prevention facilities for the provision of support measures in education to a child or pupil:
- with health disadvantage,
- with disability,
- ill or in poor health,
- with developmental disorders,
- with behavioural disorders,
- from a socially disadvantaged background,
- gifted,
- whose health status, social conditions, language abilities, giftedness, behaviour, cognitive abilities, motivation, emotionality, creativity, or skills require the provision of a support measure.
In accordance with inclusive education principles, the specific features of the upbringing and education of children with health disadvantages, pupils with health disadvantages, gifted children and gifted pupils are part of the State Education Programme.
The upbringing and education of children and pupils with health disadvantages takes place in schools for children with health disadvantages and pupils with health disadvantages (such schools are special schools), or in other schools either in special classes, usually established for children with the same type of health disadvantage or pupils with the same type of health disadvantage. Part of the educational process may take place in the same class as other children or pupils of the school, and certain subjects or activities may be completed by the child or pupil outside the special class, or in classes or developmental groups together with other children or pupils of the school.
If a school educates children with special educational needs or pupils with special educational needs, it creates conditions for them on the basis of recommendations from counseling and prevention facilities through an individual educational programme, educational programmes for children with health disadvantage or for pupils with health disadvantage, educational programmes focused on the relevant giftedness, or provided support measures. 6
Placement of a child with health disadvantage is decided by the principal of the kindergarten on the basis of recommendations from a general practitioner for children and adolescents and a counseling and prevention facility, and with the prior discussed informed consent of the legal representative or caregiver. Placement of a gifted child is decided by the principal of the kindergarten on the basis of a recommendation from a counseling and prevention facility and with the prior discussed informed consent of the legal representative or caregiver. A pupil with special educational needs can be assigned to a regular class in a primary school.
Thus, in kindergartens and primary schools within municipal founding scope, the upbringing and education of children with health disadvantages or pupils with health disadvantages also takes place. It is carried out with special teaching aids and compensatory aids, which, together with special educational publications corresponding to the child’s or pupil’s special educational needs, are provided free of charge by the school where the child or pupil is educated. 7 In such schools, a special education teacher, therapy teacher, school speech therapist, school psychologist, social pedagogue or social worker works if more than 20 pupils with health disadvantages are educated, excluding pupils with health disadvantages educated in special classes. Education and upbringing in such schools should also be adapted to the special educational needs of children and pupils, on the basis of which such schools may differ internally according to the type and degree of health disadvantage.
In primary school, there should again be one educational assistant, one social pedagogue, or one social worker per 50 pupils from a socially disadvantaged background.
Financing of schools and school facilities in the municipality’s founding scope
All of the above facts increase funding demands for schools and school facilities. These are especially the costs of increasing kindergarten capacities and salaries of pedagogical and non-pedagogical staff. The financing of schools and school facilities is regulated by Act No. 597/2003 Coll. on the financing of primary schools, secondary schools and school facilities in the wording of later regulations (hereinafter the Act on the financing of schools).
Between the financing of kindergartens and primary schools within the municipality’s founding scope there is a major difference stemming from the fact that municipalities establish primary schools under delegated state administration, while they establish kindergartens as their original self-government competence. Under § 1(1)(b) of the Act on the financing of schools, municipalities receive:
- financing for primary schools,
- a contribution to partially cover the costs of upbringing and education of children in kindergartens included in the school network where pre-primary education is mandatory or where children are members of households receiving social assistance and the child’s legal representative proves this to the kindergarten principal,
- a contribution for the interest education of primary school pupils,
- a contribution for specificities (costs that cannot be predicted or that have a specific character),
- financial resources for implementing development projects,
- subsidies.
In addition, the state budget may also contribute to financing a school facility within a municipality’s founding scope, and it also ensures financing of the contribution for upbringing and education for municipalities as founders of kindergartens. Kindergartens, however, are primarily financed by municipalities from shared taxes.
Since September 2023, the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic has been allocating through regional school authorities financial resources to each school founder as personal costs for teaching assistants for pupils with health disadvantages under § 9p(1) of the Act on the financing of schools, in line with proposals of regional school authorities and depending on the state budgetary resources.
Conclusion
Municipalities regularly point to the long-term insufficient financing of their tasks in education. Representatives of the Association of Towns and Municipalities of Slovakia spoke openly about these issues at a press briefing in August 2023. “The mayor of Zvolen, speaking specifically from experience in regional schooling, was the vice-chair of the Chamber of Towns and the mayor of Zvolen, a city among the twelve largest in Slovakia, Mayor Vladimír Maňka. Zvolen has to contribute 1.9 million euros to primary schools, plus fulfilling other obligations from the previous year for private and public schools of fine arts. The city pays 600 thousand euros more than it did two years ago. Retirement of teachers costs municipalities another 10 thousand euros from original competences. The city pays around 2.6 million euros in total for schools so that they can operate.” 8
Persistent problems with kindergarten financing could in practice lead to decentralization, where these municipalities would also have these institutions established by municipalities within delegated state administration. Under Article 71 of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, by law specific tasks of local state administration may be transferred to a municipality and higher territorial unit. The costs of this delegated state administration are paid by the state. Under § 4(1) of Act No. 416/2001 Coll. on the transfer of some competences from state administration bodies to municipalities and higher territorial units in the wording of later regulations, financial means from the state budget are provided to municipalities and self-governing regions for delegated state administration. Even here, in practice, we encounter the long-standing problem of insufficient financing of all expenses arising to municipalities as founders of primary schools. This has been pointed out for several years by the above-mentioned Association of Towns and Municipalities of Slovakia, including within the national project Modernizácia miestnej územnej samosprávy, Výkon a financovanie prenesených kompetencií 2019. The sentence from the general part of the explanatory report to the School Act amendment, which adds new obligations for municipalities, also underlines this: “The draft bill envisages a negative impact on the public administration budget...” 10
Author: doc. JUDr. Miriam Odlerová, PhD. Department of Administrative Law, Academy of the Police Force in Bratislava
List of bibliographic references
Ministerstvo práce, sociálnych vecí a rodiny Slovenskej republiky. Detské skupiny. [online]. [cited 24 November 2023]. Available on the internet: https://www.employment.gov.sk/sk/rodina-socialna-pomoc/detske-skupiny/
Ministerstvo práce, sociálnych vecí a rodiny Slovenskej republiky. Rodičovský príspevok aj pre rodičov detí, ktoré neprijali v spádových materských školách. [online]. [cited 24 November 2023]. Available on the internet: https://www.employment.gov.sk/sk/uvodna-stranka/informacie-media/aktuality/rodicovsky-prispevok-aj-rodicov-deti-ktore-neprijali-spadovych-materskych-skolach.html
Združenie miest a obcí Slovenska. Novela školského zákona sa premietne do zvýšených poplatkov v školách a školských zariadeniach. [online]. [cited 24 November 2023]. Available on the internet: https://www.zmos.sk/novela-skolskeho-zakona-sa-premietne-do-zvysenych-poplatkov-v-skolach-a-skolskych-zariadeniach-oznam/mid/405616/.html
Government Decree of the Slovak Republic No. 109/2022 Coll. on certain measures in the field of social services in a time of emergency, a state of emergency, or extraordinary state declared in connection with the mass arrival of foreigners to the territory of the Slovak Republic caused by the armed conflict on the territory of Ukraine
Constitution of the Slovak Republic
Act No. 416/2001 Coll. on the transfer of some competences from state administration bodies to municipalities and higher territorial units in the wording of later regulations
Act No. 596/2003 Coll. on state administration in education and school self-government and on amendment and supplementation of certain acts in the wording of later regulations
Act No. 597/2003 Coll. on the financing of primary schools, secondary schools and school facilities in the wording of later regulations Act No. 245/2008 Coll. on education (the School Act) and on amendment and supplementation of certain acts in the wording of later regulations
Act No. 571/2009 Coll. on parental allowance and amendment and supplementation of certain acts in the wording of later regulations
1Ministerstvo práce, sociálnych vecí a rodiny Slovenskej republiky. Detské skupiny. [online]. [cited 24 November 2023]. Available on the internet: https://www.employment.gov.sk/sk/rodina-socialna-pomoc/detske-skupiny/ 2Ministerstvo práce, sociálnych vecí a rodiny Slovenskej republiky. Detské skupiny. [online]. [cited 24 November 2023]. Available on the internet: https://www.employment.gov.sk/files/9b4064303479d065b68dc89fc5fbb763 3Novela zákona vychádzala z Plánu obnovy a odolnosti SR schváleného uznesením vlády SR č. 221 z 28. apríla 2021 – ide o ciele reforiem 1, 2 a 3 komponentu 6. 4§ 6 ods. 21 zákona č. 596/2003 Z. z. o štátnej správe v školstve a školskej samospráve a o zmene a doplnení niektorých zákonov v znení neskorších predpisov. 5Ministerstvo práce, sociálnych vecí a rodiny Slovenskej republiky. Rodičovský príspevok aj pre rodičov detí, ktoré neprijali v spádových materských školách. [online]. [cited 24 November 2023]. Available on the internet: https://www.employment.gov.sk/sk/uvodna-stranka/informacie-media/aktuality/rodicovsky-prispevok-aj-rodicov-deti-ktore-neprijali-spadovych-materskych-skolach.html 6§ 7 ods. 5 zákona č. 245/2008 Z. z. o výchove a vzdelávaní (školský zákon) a o zmene a doplnení niektorých zákonov 7§ 95 ods. 3 zákona č. 245/2008 Z. z. o výchove a vzdelávaní (školský zákon) a o zmene a doplnení niektorých zákonov 8Združenie miest a obcí Slovenska. Novela školského zákona sa premietne do zvýšených poplatkov v školách a školských zariadeniach. [online]. [cited 24 November 2023]. Available on the internet: https://www.zmos.sk/novela-skolskeho-zakona-sa-premietne-do-zvysenych-poplatkov-v-skolach-a-skolskych-zariadeniach-oznam/mid/405616/.html 9Bližšie pozri Združenie miest a obcí Slovenska. Modernizácia miestnej územnej samosprávy, Výkon a financovanie prenesených kompetencií 2019. [online]. [cited 24 November 2023]. Available on the internet: https://npmodmus.zmos.sk/download_file_f.php?id=1193191 10Government bill amending and supplementing Act No. 245/2008 Coll. on education (the School Act) and amendments and supplements to certain acts in the wording of later regulations. [online]. [cited 24 November 2023]. Available on the internet: https://www.nrsr.sk/web/Dynamic/DocumentPreview.aspx?DocID=524994