Comparison Between Ireland And Slovakia
Transition Year

They have a special one-year programme called Transition Year in Ireland. It's not compulsory but some day it will be.

Transition year gives students

• a chance to study subjects that they will never study again

• a chance to do some more important project work

• a chance to do work experience

Students take on new subjects like Social and Political Studies, Media Studies, Education for Work, Education for Life, Technology, Business Studies, Religion, Art, Woodwork, career Studies.

The timetable is different from the normal timetable. There are more double and even triple classes. The students are let out one day a week to go to a job which they can get for themselves or get from school. Transition year classes spend a lot of time doing project work. Parts of some projects involve Community service e.g. helping out at an old folk's home or at a local library. In Slovakia students don't have anything like the Transition year, though they have seminars in the 3^rd and the 4^th class. In the 3^rd class they can choose one seminar and in the 4^th class three seminars. But those are all subjects we've already been studying and will study again.

First Year Science Projects at St Aidans CBS

This subject is very similar to our science subjects (mathematics. physics and biology). Students at St Aidans do special projects. We loam about these parts of science at biology and at physics.

At biology we learn about dinosaurs. about their life, why they've extinct. The second project about which we learn is Plants. We learn about their life. about each piece of the body and chemical processes. The third project Is Human body. We learn in detail about the Brain, the Lungs the Heart the Skeleton, the Joints and the other parts.

At physics we learn about the planets but not In details. We don't loam about Space travel. We don't learn about automobile. but we have a part of physics - automobile engines. The last project is space in general. We have it as a small part of physics.

Comparison Of Science Subjects
(In Ireland And Slovakia)

In this short essay we would like to compare for you the way of studying science subjects in Slovakia and in Ireland.

Something about school system:

Slovakia: elementary school, then Secondary School

Ireland: Junior Certificate Examination, Leaving Certificate Examination

Length of studying:

Slovakia: Biology: 4 -5 years at elementary school, then 4 years at Secondary Grammar School

Chemistry: 2 years at ES then 4 years at SGS

Physics: 3-4 years at ES then 4 years at SGS

Computers: 4 years at SGS

lreland general science course for 3 years up to the JCE, then senior students are offered courses in Physics, Chemistry, Biology up to the LCE

Places for studying

Slovakia Laboratories for all science subjects 2 for chemistry 1 for physics, 2 for computers, biology - the same place for teaching and practical lessons

Ireland:

3 new and equipped laboratories, able to deliver practical courses in 3

sciences to LCL 60 seat demonstration room

How do we spend our lessons

Slovakia: elementary school: not a big amount of practical lessons for 2 years also fieldwork

secondary school: 2 lessons a week theory, then every 2^nd week 2 practical lessons

Ireland first year: one of the periods they spend in computer rooms, they also carry out a Science Project

third year: they practise Biology fieldwork techniques

I think that everybody is used to their school system, but it is very interesting to read about different school systems. We hope that this short comparison will be interesting for you and will help you to find out how do we work at our schools.

Comparison Between Ireland And Slovakia
Materials Technology

In Slovakia at Secondary Grammar school in Humenne we don't have this subject. We used to have it at basic school but we didn't work on such complicated projects like chairs or medicine cabinets. We did for example pendants from wood. We learnt about wood and iron and how to work with them. We had only an hour a week for a year. 1 think it would be quite good and exciting if we had something like that. So we would not only study but we'd also have a firm grasp of the methods involved in making a piece.

The Physical Education
Comparison With Our System

The Physical Education is important and, of course, very popular among students of both schools, ours and St Aidans

The Irish comprehensive PE programme includes:

Gaelic football, Soccer, Athletics, Basketball, Table-tennis, Outdoor Activity Weekend Hill walking

To compare the, 1st formers at our Grammar School have to do some tests in Athletics e.g. long-jump, long- distance running, clambering for time etc.

And then the programme includes games like Basketball, Volleyball, Football - so the same as in Ireland.

At our school we, neither play Gaelic football nor soccer. Usually the 'ordinary' football is played. And sometimes we do trips in the surrounding forests

Generally both schools have the same opinion on the fact that it's possible that students will develop an interest in some areas that they can pursue outside school as a major leisure activity

St Aidans organises Inter -School golf competitions. It's, true that in Slovakia golf isn't a very usual game so instead of golf competitions students take part in 0ther sport tournaments like basketball volleyball chess etc and they are very successful

The Irishmen do interesting activities, for example Outdoor Pursuits or Hill-walking. These sport activities are not for the faint-hearted, only for healthy sportsmen, because you need to be strong and you have to have a lot of stamina if you've decided 'to conquer' high mountains…

What's interesting, also Irishmen organise athletics competitions as our school does.

So, you can see that the comprehensive programmes of these both schools ore similar. Of course, in things which have to do with the Physical Education. Obviously, there are some differences and some typical activities for the certain state and so for the schools.

Study Art and Music Comparison Between Slovakia and Ireland

We don't have as many things as our friends in Ireland connected with art. We only have subject called Aesthetics in the first class. It's only once a week. We study names of artists, their work, life and their contribution to art. We study them in parts of art. For example Gothic, Baroque... But we don't study how to make sculptures, lino-cut or paintings. We don' work with any subjects connected with music. However we also listen to some cassettes at Aesthetics lesson from all parts, in which music has been developed. We listen to all kinds of music. From Beethoven to Beatles

Music and art are very interesting subjects but if we had more to study about this subjects it would be more useful and lessons would be more interesting.

Differences Between Education in Bratislava and Humenné

Both schools are situated in Slovakia, so there aren't many differences in the education system.

In Bratislava the classes begin at 8.00 in the morning, here in Humenné at 7.45. At both schools there are at most 7 lessons a day. In Bratislava students usually have a lesson before the real beginning of the class (this lesson starts at 7.10) and their classes end at 1.30 p.m. (this time our 6^th, lesson ends). In my school we begin at 7.45 and finish at 2.00 p.m. (time when the 7^th lesson ends).

In both schools teachers have to follow the same topics and to accomplish the process of teaching according to the plans given by the Ministry of Education. However there are still some differences. For example:

Computers: In Humenné we learn how to do programmes in Pascal, in Bratislava they work with Windows and they surf on the Internet. Our school has Internet, but connected to only one computer.

Languages: You can learn three foreign languages at our school: English, German and French. In Bratislava English, German, French and Spanish are taught. Bratislava has 5 English lessons a week of which one is taught by a native English teacher. They often watch films at the lessons. We have three lessons of English and three lessons of German weekly.

These are the differences in education between the Secondary Grammar School in Humenné and Vazovova Secondary Grammar School in Bratislava.

Differences Between Religion Education In Irish School and Our School

The lessons of Religion in our school are almost the same as the lessons in the Irish school, but there are some little differences, for example:

• We don't have to study religion, we can choose between the ethics and this subject. I think it's better, because there are some students in our school who are atheists.

• In our school we don't have religion studies in the last level. It's a pity, because young people always have some problems and the teacher of religion or ethics can give them a good advice.

• In our school religion isn't taught by monks, but priests. I think it's better than in Irish school, because monks might not study psychology and pedagogy

• We learn also history of the church, and for me it isn't good because I don't like history (there are too many dates for me)

These were some little differences between the religious lesson in Irish school and in our school.

Written by Peter Zaremba

Email: aidancbs@iol.ie