Abstract:

The pandemic situation that arose as a result of COVID-19 affected all areas of social life, including education. The Slovak Republic also faced many challenges, to which it had to respond promptly. There have been sudden and extensive changes in the education and training system, which have been linked to the transition of the full-time form of education to distance online teaching. The authors point out the fact how the Slovak education system managed the forced transition to distance education, compare the situation at all levels of education in the way of teaching, the control mechanism of pupils'/students' knowledge and pupil/student evaluation. The several months of experience of schools and the circumstances of the course of distance education at primary, secondary and higher education institutions are revealed by the results of the surveys. The results of the surveys also show the degree of readiness of teachers and pupils/students for online teaching and are an incentive to formulate proposals for measures for the future development of Slovak education. As strong mental health is also important in the field of education, the mental health of both students and teachers during the coronavirus pandemic has been the subject of research by scientists at Comenius University in Bratislava, which has yielded worrying results. Based on the analysis of the impacts of COVID-19, presenting the results of several surveys, the authors formulate conclusions and recommendations.

Keywords:

COVID-19, education system, distance education, online teaching, mental health.