International Activities of OZ PSaV of Slovakia
Trade Union of Workers in Education and Science of Slovakia initiated its international activities one year after its foundation in 1991. Our union is one of the organizations that established Education International (Worldwide organization for teachers, trade unionists and non-pedagogical workers). Simultaneously EIE (Education International for Europe) was established and a couple years later ETUCE (European trade union committee for Education) began to operate.
In relation to our participation at this historical events on the grounds of common European educational area OZ PSAV of Slovakia attended several projects organized by ETUCE in cooperation with European Commission.
We can mention for example:
1) Social dialogue in education (lasted for three years and its final conference was held in Bratislava in 2006 with the attendance of all member organizations of ETUCE). According to requests of all participants and EC the application for extension of project covering the negotiations with employees in education sector was submitted. Successfully this project still continues under the name Higher social dialogue at European level.
2) OZ PSaV of Slovakia is also a regular participant of international seminars regarding the area of vocational education and training and at the same time it is being represented at the European online platform for vocational education and training and in the ETUCE Advisory panel for vocational education and training.
3) Project named Quality in education of Roma children was organized by ETUCE together with Netherland trade union of teachers with the support of EC. Project lasted for three years and included representatives from Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia. Final conference took place in Bratislava with the attendance of high-level representatives of ETUCE and national governments.
4) OZ PSaV of Slovakia is also a member of project named Innovation Norway which provided us with a grant financially supporting the lectures aimed at social dialogue and life-long learning of Slovak teachers and other pedagogical staff.
The president of OZ PSaV of Slovakia is a member of ETUCE Committee which decides on the most important actions and strategies influencing common direction of European teachers´ trade unions. The representatives of the union regularly actively participate at the most important seminars and conferences trying to find solutions on current problems and challenges in educational sector.
Apart from the above mentioned OZ PSaV of Slovakia maintains close bilateral cooperation with many European trade unions of teachers, namely Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Germany, Netherlands, Slovenia, France and others.