There are many teachers and volunteers in Slovakia who have been selflessly devoting themselves to students for decades. Their stories can help to improve the education system in Slovakia and correct the image of the teaching profession. The winner of the first year of the Dionýz Ilkovič Award was Jozef Smrek from the Gymnasium of Pavel Horov in Michalovce. Throughout more than 35 years of teaching he attracted dozens of talented students to physics. Among the finalists were also Miroslav Kozák from the Gymnasium of Vavrinec Benedikt Nedožerský in Prievidza and Pavol Kubinec from the 1st Private Gymnasium in Bratislava.
We will bring more stories from Slovak schools
We want to capture stories like theirs in a video series with other nominated personalities. The aim is to highlight the work and contribution of these people and to transfer the experience from various extra-curricular clubs across Slovakia. At the same time, we want to motivate new nominations of teachers and volunteers who also deserve the award. “We don’t know these clever pedagogues and enthusiasts. There is no adequate reward for their selfless work and efforts in the field of extra-curricular preparation of the most talented students. This award is a form of social recognition for them. They deserve to be talked about more,” explains Marián Marek, General Director of the Slovak technology company PosAm, which initiated the giving of the Dionýz Ilkovič Award.
As part of the project to gather new stories about people who run extra-curricular clubs, we will visit a primary school at Krosnianska Street in Košice, the Gymnasium of J.A. Rayman in Prešov, Žilina Gymnasium Veľká okružná 22, and an educational course for secondary school students, led by a volunteer from the Gymnasium of Juro Hronec in Bratislava. Video stories will be published on our web site www.cenadi.sk and on social networks.
You can also watch the story of the Dionýz Ilkovič Award itself in a short video. This year the award is carried out under the patronage of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sports of the Slovak Republic.
The end of the deadline for sending in nominations is near
In the opening year of the Dionýz Ilkovič Award, 43 teachers, mentors, and volunteers from all over Slovakia were nominated for the competition. Anyone can nominate a head of an extra-curricular club in the subjects Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry or Informatics – students, parents, headmasters, or colleagues. All you need to do is complete the form at http://www.cenadi.sk by the end of July 2018.
The reason for giving the Dionýz Ilkovič Award
Hundreds of teachers and mentors in Slovakia work with students outside of school hours, during their free time and at weekends. They are helping them to develop their potential and preparing them for prestigious international competitions, from which students win medals for Slovakia. However, according to the expert guarantor and chairman of the jury Martin Plesch of the SAS Institute of Physics, the potential in Slovak schools is much higher. “We have two to three times less best students compared to developed countries. I think the only way to motivate talented students and elevate them among the global student elite is to work with them individually. Such an award represents at least some small satisfaction for the people who do this voluntarily to the detriment of their free time.”
The award is named after a prominent Slovak scientist, who laid the foundations of the most important physical science institutes in Slovakia. However, students remember him primarily as a great educator. The Dionýz Ilkovič Award carries not only his name but also his legacy. “Little attention is being paid to the upbringing of future secondary school teachers. If secondary schools fail to deliver high-quality graduates, we will not be able to educate high-quality professionals, engineers, or other new scientists in a reasonable amount of time,” said Professor Dionýz Ilkovič in an interview for Slovak Television in 1967.
CENADI on Facebook:
We continue to search for selfless teachers. The end of the deadline for sending in nominations for the second year of the Dionýz Ilkovič Award is near. Help us discover unknown heroes – enthusiastic teachers as well as non-pedagogues. All you need to do is complete the nomination form at www.cenadi.sk by July 2018.
Nominations: http://bit.ly/chcemnominovat
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