Abstract:

The article contains information about the purpose of the organization and selected conditions of education of children of national minorities in supplementary schools in Great Britain, specifically in Slovak educational centers. The aim of the article is to present findings on external conditions and the organization of teaching in Slovak educational centers in Great Britain, focusing on the number of children and teachers (2016 - 2021), online education during the COVID 19 pandemic, subjects and textbooks, frequency and content of teaching (2019 - 2020). The survey was conducted with an online survey (questionaire). It was discovered that from 2016 to the present, the number of Slovak educational centers and the number of children and teachers in them, had increased. COVID 19 situation had caused the number of children in some Slovak educational centers to decrease slightly. Probably also because in the school year 2019/2020 only half of them received online lessons and some families returned back to Slovakia. The number of children per teacher, except for the last school year, remains stable. On average, there are 8 children per teacher. Teaching in these centers takes place mainly on Saturdays on average 3 times a month for a maximum of 3 hours. In every Slovak educational centre, the subject Slovak language is taught and in almost 50% of them it is also homeland studies. The main subjects also include Slovak history, geography and Slovak realities. This reaffirms the children's national identity, their relationship with the Slovak language and their ancestoral roots.

Keywords:

Complementary schools, Slovak educational centres, Slovak language, Slovaks living abroad.