The mockery of education continues in practice in Slovakia (The first historical research on the career practice of doctoral students in Slovakia confirmed the pitiful reward for knowledge)

The mockery of education continues in practice in Slovakia (The first historical research on the career practice of doctoral students in Slovakia confirmed the pitiful reward for knowledge)

The crisis has shown in full nakedness until now, and continues to show, how shallowly we value real values in our society. For example, alongside health, wisdom and education. Slovakia is tiny, it does not have its own raw material base, nor a developed economy. If such is condemned only to the export of quality services, the sale of inventions, patents and the most modern technologies. But where to take them, when instead of at least one science and technology park, it currently has an unnecessarily large number of non-performing industrial parks, some of which are failing? This country needs a knowledge-based economy and high-end highly sophisticated technologies and products for export on the one hand. At the same time, a huge contrast and reluctance to reward knowledge, knowledge and insights within the studied added value (as capacity for creativity and original invention) on the other hand.

Tangled path to the knowledge society For many years, the practice has only pitifully and sadly mocked educated people and highly theoretically trained experts. Slovakia supports the Lisbon Treaty and is proud of the EU by advocating for building a knowledge-based economy. The strongest economies and the best democracies in Europe have the ambition to allocate at least 3% of GDP to science and research and education. Slovakia ridiculously lags behind not only in low investments (not even 0.5% of GDP per year!) in science and research. But above all, in the social ranking of values ​​that has been mistaken for many years. The average salary in the Slovak Republic in 2008 was only slightly above the threshold of Sk 21 thousand per month. A 20-year-old football or ice hockey player in the first league (extra league), who does not add any added value to society apart from entertainment, earns 100-200 thousand kroner a month in our country. On the other hand, a forty-year-old doctor with 2 certifications is not even 30 thousand crowns. I have deliberately given all prices in this article in crowns and not in euros, so that the reader can more easily see the huge senseless contrast. In addition, the historically first research on the career of the application of brains in practice turned out to be disastrous in terms of the disproportion between the level of education and the market's hunger for brains.

Trends That Intelligence Suffers In our country, the brain is not worshiped, but only money, money, money, money, money, dengi, geld, soldi. The market economy and the quality of life in it are highly debatable and disputed, especially from the point of view of inequality and the paradoxes of the eternal conflict between a person's potential and wisdom (intelligence, know-how, ethics, fair play) on the one hand, and the ability to be adequately remunerated and to dispose of an adequate amount of money ensuring the social recognition of the majority of the neighborhood on the other. A family and a country where the material line in the style of "HAVING" pushes out the more valuable plane of the spiritual line in the style of "BEING" cannot function smoothly for a long time. Perhaps it can accumulate more capital and money than the universal, perversely supreme measure of value for most people in a market economy. However, it cannot prevent the decay of humanity, morality, ethics and good interpersonal relations in the family, workplace and surroundings. For example, a college and university-educated and certified teacher or doctor is today deeply financially ridiculed by the majority of entrepreneurs, half of whom have not even completed a high-quality secondary school or high school diploma.

Vision and reality are in conflict The stated situation was caused and permanently continues to be caused by the discrepancy between the words and actions of the government towards adequate and necessary support for the development of knowledge in the country. Previous governments in the country for the years 1990-2008 have almost always declared in pre-election projections of promises to potential voters and subsequently in government programs an extraordinary effort to support education, science and research. In principle, they even agreed that the only chance for tiny Slovakia, without sufficient natural resources, is to develop high added value through the formation of a state with the predominant character of a knowledge-based economy. So many theories, so far from the level of utopian dreams.

Knowing is not enough, you must act A good vision but poor execution cannot lead effectively to the goal. Our ancestors already told us that the road to hell is usually paved with the best intentions. The reality of the practice of fulfilling the path to the knowledge-based economy in the Slovak Republic is pitiful. There are no science and technology parks, the salaries of scientists and researchers are tragic, the strategy of developing the uniqueness and individuality of the two or three specificities that a small country should develop in a globally fast-moving world is absent. Today, if an intelligent person does not have his own house, car, vacation abroad and a cottage every year - then the people around him do not recognize and respect him. He is considered incompetent. Recently, my friend (a mature and solvent person) expressed it aptly in a debate as follows: "Today, people only recognize you when you have money. There is no other alternative in the stupid view of most people in society or in the market. Either you have money (at any price), or you are an incompetent idiot!..."

The first survey on the careers of doctoral students In May 2008, the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic published research number 510-0088/2008, code: 100308, field: science and technology on the topic "Results of an extraordinary statistical survey on the careers of doctoral holders in the Slovak Republic (CDH 2006)". The good news for Slovakia is that the light at the end of the tunnel has finally appeared and the inexorable facts from such research have seen the light of day. This research was created by the fact that in 2007 the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic joined the joint project of the OECD, the European Commission and UNESCO for the first time and conducted a survey on the career progress of persons with a completed doctoral education, holders of academic, scientific and pedagogical titles and scientific ranks. This international project took place in 40 countries of the world with the aim of obtaining data on the basic statistical characteristics of the most highly educated part of the population and creating internationally comparable indicators on the career growth of their holders.

The most educated layer The survey was conceived as voluntary and was carried out in the entire population of holders of the mentioned degrees in the Slovak Republic. It concerned holders of the titles PhD., ArtD., CSc., Dr., ThD., DrSc., associate professor and professor - who worked and lived in the Slovak Republic as of December 31, 2006. The results of this pilot survey are very valuable, they are the first collected and statistically processed information about the most educated stratum of the population, which will enable the Slovak Republic to participate in international comparisons and may contribute to the creation of a base for future surveys. International comparison, also called comparison, is a guarantee and a guarantee of objectivity in conclusions about what our country is doing well and what is not. What is it strong and weak in? Because relying on biased judgments and purposeful conclusions of non-experts tuned mainly by the intervention of politicians are not worth much and they do not give the citizen serious and best information at all.

Unquestionable credibility The informativeness of the mentioned research is not only obvious, but indisputable, as it was carried out on a sample of over 2,600 participants (other common surveys in the Slovak Republic, given the population of 5.3 million, are conducted as sufficient on samples of around 1,000 people...). The structure of holders of titles and ranks in the Slovak Republic is dominated by men, who make up about 65%. The survey showed that in terms of age structure, 61% of degree holders are over 45 years old. From the point of view of nationality, up to 99.2% of the survey participants were Slovak citizens. The overwhelming majority (approx. 74%) of holders of doctorates were married, approx. 16% were single and less than 10% were divorced or widowed. 93% of doctorate holders obtained a scientific degree in Slovakia and 7% obtained a doctorate abroad. Of the doctorates awarded in Slovakia, almost 93% were awarded by universities and the rest by the Slovak Academy of Sciences, respectively. another educational institution.

Experts are employees From the point of view of employment characteristics, 98% of active doctorate holders had employee status. Only about 2% as self-employed persons and entrepreneurs. Of this, 1.6% are self-employed. More than half of the holders of doctorates worked in a permanent employment relationship. The average gross monthly income was determined as an interval value, so the results should be considered rather indicative. In the survey, up to 60.1% of doctorate holders stated that they receive a gross monthly salary of up to 25 thousand Sk. The vast majority of them (almost 57%) are in the range from 20 to 25 thousand Sk. More than a fifth of all doctorate holders are in the lowest salary bands (up to Sk 20,000). In the highest salary bands (above 40 thousand Sk) it is only a minority, i.e. only about 12% of degree holders. From a sectoral point of view, the highest share of low salary evaluation (up to 20 thousand Sk) is in other education (approx. 60%) and in the higher education sector (25%). The highest share of salaries higher than 40 thousand. Sk is in the business (more than a third), non-profit (over 19%) and government sectors (almost 16%).

Dominance of mental workers Despite their high qualifications, up to 69.1% of the youngest scientists (under 35) who hold doctorates receive a salary of up to 25,000 Sk per month. According to the results of the survey, up to 32% of the respondents had a side job in addition to their job as of the reference date of the survey. In the employment structure of degree holders, scientific and professional intellectual workers predominate, accounting for up to 84.5%. A smaller share (4.2%) of degree holders are employed in management and leadership positions, and 12.2% work in other groups of jobs. In terms of job satisfaction, holders of doctorates showed the most significant dissatisfaction with salaries and benefits and job security. The survey also showed that almost a quarter of holders of doctorates work in positions where their qualifications are not used, because a lower education is required there! Opinions on science and research in Slovakia The survey showed different opinions of the participants on the current state of science and research, while almost one in ten is thinking of leaving this country permanently to go abroad (especially to one of the EU countries). In the comments, several respondents very often expressed their attitude towards their profession. They consider scientific work as a mission, where the motivation is mainly interest in research, new knowledge, inner conviction - because science in Slovakia cannot be done for money, but for now mainly for the love of it (as a hobby)... Other opinions were dominated by a strong feeling that creativity and innovation are supported very little. In the Slovak Republic, a university qualification, and certainly not a scientific qualification, is not appreciated. In the Slovak Republic, educated people are completely undervalued, and that is why especially young people go abroad in such large numbers. Even the most capable ones, who for a while were lured by science and academia, after a short time and at the first better opportunity, run away from the academic and scientific environment. Doctoral studies in the Slovak Republic do not really contribute to career growth and certainly not to adequate financial remuneration.

Conclusions:

• The practice of the market dictates harshly that if a person does not know how to use knowledge, it is as if he does not have the knowledge either.
• Pure theoreticians (e.g. university graduates with a red diploma, privates) were always rejected by practice in favor of practitioners (years of experience). That can be understood.
• However, it is impossible to understand the abnormal imbalance between the decline and social lack of education in the Slovak Republic and the declared desire of this country to become a knowledge society.
• And competent people should not only think more flexibly about this, but also act faster according to the proven ancient Roman rhetoric (Acta, non verba = Actions, not words!).

About the author:

Ing. Emil Burák, PhD., 46 years old, educator and economist with various experiences (e.g. 10 years as a top manager – in the private and state sector, tax expert, former banker, analyst, project manager, consultant) and author (financial and tax expert, lecturer of management courses for entrepreneurs, university teacher) 10 monographs and over 1,000 professional articles on economic and consulting topics at home and in abroad. If you are interested in this post and want to know more, take a look at the page Osobnosti.sk where you can find information about the car and its creation.