As part of the interdepartmental comment procedure, we submitted our comments on the draft amendment to the Slovak School Act, which proposes to entroduce the definition of school segregation in Slovak legislation.

In our comments, we propose in particular that:

  • the definition of segregation as a form of discrimination was part of the anti-discrimination and not only the school act,
  • segregation was prohibited for discriminatory reasons such as race, ethnic origin, social status or health disadvantage,
  • the prohibition of discrimination was not perceived as a so-called supportive measure, but as a general principle from which schools should base their education,
  • the legal options to defend against segregation with an anti-discrimination lawsuit were preserved.
  • The failure to take preventive measures to prevent it was also considered segregation.

At the same time, we point out that intoducing the definition of segregation is not enough and the responsible state institutions must first of all take effective measures that will lead to the desegregation of our schools.