PREDIL National Report Slovakia finalpredil.iacm.forth.gr/docs/report/PREDIL_D4_NR_SK.pdfTHE...

Lifelong Learning Programme

Sub-Programme COMENIUS

PREDIL

Promoting Equality in Digital Literacy

Project Number: 141967-LLP-1-2008-GR-COMENIUS-CMP

THE NATIONAL REPORT SLOVAKIA

Report

With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union

PREDIL – Promoting Equality in Digital Literacy

141967-LLP-1-2008-GR-COMENIUS-CMP of 102

Work Package: WP3

Authors:

Contributors:

Peter Nemec, Lukáš Laš

Ján Gunčaga, Róbert Janiga

Catholic University in Ruzomberok,

Faculty of Education

Authors email addresses: [email protected], [email protected]

Task Responsible: CU

Contributors: N/A

Status, Version No. Final, Version 21/12/10

Submission date: 21/12/2010

Start Date of Project: 01 December 2008

Duration: 24 Months

Dissemination Level: Public

Project coordinator: Kathy Kikis-Papadakis, FORTH/IACM

Project coordinator email address: [email protected]

Financing: Project funded by the European

Commission, Lifelong Learning

Programme (2009 - 2010)

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.



SUMMARY

In the qualitative part of the study, there were questioned ICT teachers, university students of teaching degree in Informatics and ICT professionals. The main findings have revealed that the teachers of informatics have opposite opinions about curriculum either as being either adequate or already outdated in content. Teachers see future in application of digital curricula. From the perspective of gender differences in class, teachers think that male and female students have comparable digital competences. Gender digital divide is not that obvious. Nevertheless there exist some differences in e.g. using hardware and software, or in installing applications, etc. Boys are more skilled in hardware and installing of new software on PC, and in playing games. Girls are more focused on solving problems and exercises using ICT. To a large extent it is on individuals, as well as on ICT popularization and explanation of what ICT is and how important is it going to be in future. Women representations in uptake of ICT as university degree choice and career path are notably very low. Earning potential is seen as quite high in comparison to other industries. Students of informatics seem to be fully satisfied with their study choice and have no doubts about their future work placement. Female ICT professionals feel they cannot reach higher positions, on the other side, they feel IT industry was a good career choice for them after all. At the level of secondary schools there are no significant differences in uptake of ICT between male and female students according to the PREDIL quantitative study which surveyed more than 1100 students. 18 secondary schools with at least 20 respondents across Slovakia have participated in the study. Students were asked questions regarding their use of ICT at school and at home. The questions were analysed in 3 groups: using packages, educational and social. In using packages boys report using spreadsheets more than girls while girls report using presentations more than boys. In the educational part only little differences between genders can be observed, girls do slightly more reseach for school and boys do programming and download data slighly more often than girls. In the social part the biggest differences between genders can be observed in playing games where boys are leading. Girls use email, chat and social networks slightly more than boys. The most visible gender difference in students’ career choice inclinations can be observed in the field of engineering and technology with 34% of male and only 8% of female students interested. There are gender differences in the main purpose for connecting to the internet: social networks (51% of girls, 31% of boys), downloading data (4% of girls, 16% of boys), searching information for school (15% of girls, 8% of boys), searching information for hobbies (8% of girls, 17% of boys). Girls, but also boys to certain extent lack knowledge about freely available software alternatives. Perception of male and female students at using computers was close, as well as in their representations of ICT boys and girls. The students associated informatics with a prospective career. As PREDIL quantitative research results in Slovakia show, there are no major differences in ICT use by secondary school students, but there are differences in career paths which are created mainly by stereotypes of typical men and women professions.



TABLE OF CONTENTS

SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................................ 3

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................................... 6

LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................................... 7

INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 10

1 Context of Slovakia ......................................................................................................................... 11

1.1 General context on employment ........................................................................................ 11

1.2 IT sector .............................................................................................................................. 13

1.3 IT related professions and gender wage gap ..................................................................... 15

2 Computer and Internet Usage in Slovakia...................................................................................... 18

2.1 Internet usage in Slovak households .................................................................................. 18

2.2 Digital literacy and disparities ............................................................................................ 21

2.3 Promoting information society ........................................................................................... 25

3 Education in Slovakia from Time, Institutional and Gender Perspectives ..................................... 27

3.1 Education from the temporal and institutional perspectives ............................................. 28

3.2 Gender differences within educational institutions and fields of study ............................. 29

4 ICT and Gender from Educational Perspective .............................................................................. 33

4.1 Media educational programme for primary and for secondary schools ............................ 33

4.2 Education in subject informatics ........................................................................................ 35

4.3 Informatics curriculum for secondary schools .................................................................... 37

4.4 National projects supporting ICT education ....................................................................... 39

4.5 Further education of primary and secondary school teachers in the subject Informatics . 40

4.6 ICT and gender from a university perspective .................................................................... 41

4.7 STEM , R&D and Gender Differences .................................................................................. 42

5 Qualitative Study ............................................................................................................................ 45

5.1 ICT teacher focus group, self reflective tools and interview ............................................... 45

5.2 ICT university students focus group and interview ............................................................. 47

5.3 ICT professional focus group and questionnaire study ...................................................... 47

5.4 Summary of qualitative study ............................................................................................ 50



6 Quantitative Study ......................................................................................................................... 51

6.1 Pilot testing phase, paper version ...................................................................................... 51

6.2 Pilot testing phase, online version ...................................................................................... 52

6.3 Online questionnaire results from the quantitative survey ................................................ 53

6.3.1 General information about respondents ....................................................................... 54

6.3.2 Experiences about ICT/Computing, at home and at school ........................................... 55

6.3.3 Attitudes towards ICT and gender ................................................................................. 63

6.3.4 Career intentions ............................................................................................................ 65

6.3.5 Internet and free software ............................................................................................. 66

6.3.6 ICT and gender word cloud representations .................................................................. 67

6.4 Summary of quantitative study .......................................................................................... 69

7 PREDIL Conference and Workshop Proceedings ............................................................................ 70

7.1 Conference organization .................................................................................................... 70

7.2 Conference presentations and posters ............................................................................... 70

CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................................... 73

REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................... 76

ANNEXES ................................................................................................................................................ 81



LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CEDEFOP European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training

DOI Digital Opportunity Index

DLI Digital Literacy Index

EC European Commission

ECDL European Computer Driving Licence

EU European Union

EURYDICE European Education Information Network

FCFOS Figure Copied From Other Source

GDP Gross Domestic Product

ICT Information Communication Technology

IT Information Technology

ITAS Information Technology Association Slovakia

ITU International Telecommunication Union

NUTS Nomenclature of Statistical Territorial Units

OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

OPIS Operation Programme Information Society

PISA Programme for International Student Assessment

PREDIL Promoting Equality in Digital Literacy

R&D Research and Development

SET Science, Engineering, Technology

SR Slovak Republic

SARIO Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency

SOSR Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic

ŠPU National Institute for Education

STEM Science Technology Engineering Mathematics

UIPŠ Institute of Information and Prognosis of Education of the SR

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol



LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1 Regional map of Slovakia, NUTS III – regions 11

Figure 1.2 Unemployment rate according to NUTS IV - regions in Slovakia, November 2010 11

Figure 1.3 Citizens in employment by economic sectors in 2009 12

Figure 1.4 Average monthly salary in 2009 & 2010 in selected fields 12

Figure 1.5 Comparison of the IT companies’ highest added value in Slovakia, years 2008 and 2009 13

Figure 1.6 TREND’s annual price for Outstanding Business Results for non-financial corporation in

SR (2008-2010) 13

Figure 1.7 Providers of IT products and services in Slovakia according to sales (in thousand Euro) 14

Figure 1.8 Share of IT services in Slovakia in 2008 14

Figure 1.9 Monthly income of IT-related professions in Slovakia in December 2010 (Euro) 15

Figure 1.10 Gender Wage Gap EU 16

Figure 1.11 Gender wage gap (in %) 17

Figure 1.12 Evolution of legislative framework regarding gender equality 17

Figure 1.13 Career options in the field of it according to level of education achieved 17

Figure 2.1 Internet Usage and Population Statistics Slovakia 18

Figure 2.2 Slovak Academic Internet Network 19

Figure 2.3 Share of households with access to hime computer and internet in Slovakia in 2005 -

2008 19

Figure 2.4 DSL national and rural coverage across Europe, December 2009 20

Figure 2.5 Percentage of Internet users by gender, EU countries 2008 20

Figure 2.6 Households with internet access, broadband connections and access by type of

household, Slovakia (%) 21

Figure 2.7 Use of internet for communication, Slovakia 2010 (% of internet users) 21

Figure 2.8 Percentage of students of SR at specific levels of mathematical literacy according to

gender (comparison PISA 2003, PISA 2006 and PISA 2009) 21

Figure 2.9 Digital Literacy according to the Slovak regions in 2005 and 2007 23

Figure 2.10 Digital Literacy according to the Slovak regions 23

Figure 2.11 Digital literacy according to categories of employed 24

Figure 2.12 Average successfulness in IT Fitness test at secondary school level according to type of

school and year of study 24

Figure 2.13 Map of digital opportunity in Europe 2005/2006 25



Figure 2.14 Evolution of legislation framework regarding information society 26

Figure 3.1 Organisation of the initial education and training system 27

Figure 3.2 Phases of compulsory education 28

Figure 3.3 Post-compulsory/upper and post secondary education level 28

Figure 3.4 Types of institution of higher education 28

Figure 3.5 Students in the academic year 2009/2010 29

Figure 3.6 Proportion of women and men graduates of general secondary schools, secondary

vocational schools and of university I and II degree (academic year 2008/2009,

students numbers and in %) 30

Figure 3.7 Bachelor and master students share in school year 2010/2011 by gender 31

Figure 3.8 PhD students share in school year 2010/2011 by gender 32

Figure 4.1 Media education for 9th grade of primary school 34

Figure 4.2 Subject Informatics Lesson plan general secondary schools 39

Figure 4.3 Under-representation (less than 20% share) of male and female students in study

disciplines at university level in the academic year 2009/2010 42

Figure 4.4 Evolution of the proportion of women studying at universities in the full-time study

form according to fields of study (in % 2009, 1999,1989) 42

Figure 4.5 Share of women among tertiary students. Women among students in ISCED 5-6 and

STEM as % of the total students at this level 43

Figure 4.6 Share of male and female students in STEM fields at BACHELOR AND MASTER university

degree in the academic year 2009/2010 43

Figure 4.7 Share of male and efmale students in STEM fields at PhD. university lvel in the

academic year 2009/2010 43

Figure 4.8 Evolution of the proportion of women among men by occupation (2009, 2002, 1994

in %) 44

Figure 4.9 Share of women researchers, Slovakia 1997-2008 44

Figure 6.1participating secondary schools in pilot testing phase, paper version 51

Figure 6.2 participating secondary schools in pilot testing phase, Online version 52

Firuge 6.3 Map of participated secondary schools on the PREDIL online survey in Slovakia 53

Figure 6.4 Participating secondary schools in PREDIL study, Slovakia 54

Figure 6.5 Respondents according to gender, type of school and residency 55

Figure 6.6 Age profile of respondents 55

Figure 6.7Using packages: Word processor, Spreadsheet, presentation, database and graphic arts 57

Figure 6.8 Educational use: Educational software, school research, programming, creating web

pages, downloading data 58

Figure 6.9 social use: surfing the web, email, VoIP, chat. forum, blogging, playing games and social

networking 60



Figure 6.10 Social network activities 61

Figure 6.11 ICT use in school subjects 63

Figure 6.12 Attitudes: boys better than girls, family effects motivation in ict, treatment of boys

and girls 64

Figure 6.13 University study choice disciplines 65

Figure 6.14 University study choice -disciplines 65

Figure 6.15 Umiversity study choice according to sciences 66

Figure 6.16 Main Reason for connecting to internet 66

Figure 6.17 Daily time spend on Internet in hours 67

Figure 6.18 Knowledge of open source and freeware software 67

Figure 6.19 Boys and girls describe ICT boy 67

Figure 6.20 Boys and girls describe ICT girl 68

Figure 6.21 Boys and girls opinion about ICT study 68

Figure 6.22 Boys and girls opinion about ICT career 68

Figure 7.1 PREDIL Conference and Workshop website (SK, EN) 70



INTRODUCTION

The following report was written in context of the Comenius project PREDIL – Promoting Equality in Digital Literacy and provides information about Slovakia. Its main focus lies on the issue how the relation between gender and ICT develops during school, university and professional careers and which initiatives aim at supporting gender balance in these areas. As stated in the PREDIL application form (2008, p.23), “PREDIL is built on the premise that evidence based pedagogical strategies can prove catalytic in increasing both the quality of educational provisions and the educational outcomes as well as foster pupils’ motivation to STEM and related choices for careers. In light of that the project goal is to articulate a gender sensitive pedagogical strategy for technology enhanced teaching/learning for the upper secondary level of education. Such a pedagogical strategy is to be founded on the process that underpins the great imbalance in take up of ICT by boys and girls at school and university levels“. The theoretical part of report begins with the chapter 1 which presents a broader context of Slovakia. The employment rate according to regions and sectors of economy is followed by generalities about Slovak IT sector and IT related professions, as well as gender wage gap from a general point of view. The chapter 2 deals with computer and internet usage in Slovak households, digital literacy and regional ‘digital’ differences in take up of ICT, and with political and legal contexts presenting progress of Slovak legislation in promoting information society. Education system in Slovakia from various perspectives is described in the chapter 3 while the focus is placed on gender differences according to fields of study. The chapter 4 introduces the ICT and gender from education perspective dealing with media and informatics education in Slovakia, further education of primary and secondary teachers of Informatics, presenting some national projects and describing ICT and STEM fields’ representation from a gender perspective. The empirical part of report starts with the chapter 5 which refers to a qualitative study of the PREDIL project; presenting result from opinion survey conducted with three focus groups – ICT teachers, ICT university students of teaching degree Informatics and ICT professionals in Slovakia. This part reveals ICT related opinions at various levels and is followed by a quantitative study of the PREDIL project whose results are analysed in the chapter 6. From the survey in which 18 secondary schools (with at least 20 respondents) from across Slovakia had participated (1111 inputs) are the results presented in comparative graphs and word clouds. The last chapter 7 provides information about the PREDIL conference and workshop that was held in Spišská Kapitula, Slovakia in September 2010. There has to be noted that information and data in this report give only selective insights to the current situation in Slovakia related to the PREDIL study. For further context illustration, were number of Figures Copied From Other Sources (FCFOS), including annexes and all of the sources used are stated. The rest of the figures and annexes were developed with the use of available data.



1 Context of Slovakia

1.1 General context on employment

In the year 2008 the population of the Slovak republic counted almost 5.4 million inhabitants, living on the area of 49.035 sq km. There live the Slovaks (86%), the most represented ethnicity is the Hungarian minority (10%). Other minorities include the Czech, Ruthenian, German and Ukrainian minorities. The estimated number of the Roma ethnicity in Slovakia is around 400,000.

Source (FCFOS): Wikipedia (2010) FIGURE 1.1 REGIONAL MAP OF SLOVAKIA, NUTS III – REGIONS

The NUTS3 regions in Slovakia are: Bratislava, Trnava, Trenčín, Nitra, Žilina, Banská Bystrica, Prešov and Košice. These regions are divided into 79 districts (NUTS IV regions).

Source (FCFOS): Centre of Labour, Social Affairs and Family (2010) FIGURE 1.2 UNEMPLOYMENT RATE ACCORDING TO NUTS IV - REGIONS IN SLOVAKIA, NOVEMBER 2010



The highest unemployment rate is presented in regions of: Rimavská Sobota, Revúca, Rožňava, Kežmarok with over 25 %, regions of: Veľký Krtíš, Lučenec, Trebišov with 20-25% and across regions of East Slovakia and other regions of Banská Štiavnica, Brezno and Komárno with 15-20%. Further data on employment in SR for years 1999-2009 according to gender is presented in Annex 1.

Source: Statistical Office of SR, Slovstat online (2010) FIGURE 1.3 CITIZENS IN EMPLOYMENT BY ECONOMIC SECTORS IN 2009

Source: Statistical office (2010) FIGURE 1.4 AVERAGE MONTHLY SALARY IN 2009 & 2010 IN SELECTED FIELDS



According to Statistical Office of SR latest available data the highest average monthly salary is in the field of Information and Communication Technologies. In Slovakia there is also a growing number of International IT companies present in Slovakia; which includes e.g. IBM, Dell, AT&T, T-Systems, SAP, Hewlett-Packard, Accenture, Lenovo, Siemens and ESET, etc.

1.2 IT sector

The most important direct foreign investments in ICT sector according to Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO) were: Siemens PSE (1990), Soitron (1991), Accenture (2000), IBM (2000), DELL (2002), HP (2003), Lenovo (2005), NESS (2005), T-systems (2006). Dynamics of growth in revenues of IT service providers has decreased last year. Their volume grew by 5.7 percent (in 2008 it was just over 13% percent). Fifty providers that provide data earned 499.8 million € for services provided. Roughly half of this amount fell to six of the largest - Siemens PSE, IT services division of Siemens, T-Systems, Tempest, Asseco and Ness. Outsourcing thus expands. In 2009 TREND has conducted a survey on a considerable focus group for orientation customer segmentation of Slovak IT market. 46 companies with total revenues of 656 million € supplied data (after deduction of IT distributors provided all the date to business segment). Data analysis revealed that the most powerful segment of IT market is the public sector as a year ago, with most deliveries to this sector in 2009 (31%), up 5% from previous year. 1

1 2 3 4 5

20092 Eset T-System Slovakia Datalan Soitron Siemens PSE

20083 Eset Siemens Program and System Engineering

Soitron Siemens IT Sollutions and Services

Assesco Slovakia

FIGURE 1.5 COMPARISON OF THE IT COMPANIES’ HIGHEST ADDED VALUE IN SLOVAKIA, YEARS 2008

AND 2009

This indicates also a view at ranking of the most successful non-financial corporations in Slovakia compiled by TREND and based on a comparison of their economic achievements. From top 5 companies, 4 companies from ICT sector occupied the positions within the ranking.

2010 2009 2008

1 Eset Eset Eset

2 T-System Slovakia Xella Slovensko Semikron

3 Datalan Asseco Slovakia Xella Slovensko FIGURE 1.6 TREND’S ANNUAL PRICE FOR OUTSTANDING BUSINESS RESULTS FOR NON-FINANCIAL

CORPORATION IN SR (2008-2010)

1 IT-News. Outsourcing expands. Online at: http://www.itnews.sk/tituly/infoware/free-clanky/2010-08-11/c135190-iw-rebricek-it-a-telekomunikacnych-firiem-na-slovensku-za-rok-2009 2IT-News. Online at: http://www.itnews.sk/tituly/infoware/free-clanky/2010-08-11/c135190-iw-rebricek-it-a-telekomunikacnych-firiem-na-slovensku-za-rok-2009 3 SARIO. Important Slovak companies in the ICT sector, p.9. Online at: http://www.sario.sk/userfiles/file/sario/pzi/sektorove/ict/informacne_a_komunikacne_technologie.pdf



In the IT branch, the T-Systems represents a segment that in addition to software development appropriately characterizes the potential of Slovakia as a destination for investment in the knowledge economy: provision of services through customer centres. Similar activities in Slovakia are developed by Dell, IBM and Accenture, from domestic companies it is Soitron. While these focus human capital in Bratislava, T-Systems had chosen the Eastern Slovak metropolis of Kosice.4

FIGURE 1.7 PROVIDERS OF IT PRODUCTS AND SERVICES IN SLOVAKIA ACCORDING TO SALES (IN

THOUSAND EURO)

Presented above on figure 1.7 are 11 IT companies with sales over 40 million Euro in year 2009. On the figure 1.8 below is displayed share of IT services in Slovakia in year 2008, with the highest share of services developed to specific software order (38%), followed by support of introduced applications (24%) and outsourcing (18%).

FIGURE 1.8 SHARE OF IT SERVICES IN SLOVAKIA IN 2008

4 E-Trend. Online at: http://technologie.etrend.sk/it-biznis/eset-je-jednotka-do-tretice.html [2010-12-11]



1.3 IT related professions and gender wage gap

The Statistical Yearbook of SR does not provide information on income of IT-related professions. The following figure 1.9 provides information from www.naseplaty.sk and www.platy.sk. These portals provide information to IT graduates when searching for IT career in Slovakia. The highest salaries are at positions of IT manager and IT project manager, above 2000 €. The lowest salaries in IT sector are on positions of web-designer, web-master and service technician.

Source: www.platy.sk & www.naseplaty.sk FIGURE 1.9 MONTHLY INCOME OF IT-RELATED PROFESSIONS IN SLOVAKIA IN DECEMBER 2010 (EURO)

According to a study by PayWell 20105, the highest salary growth in Slovakia resides in the ICT sector, where the salaries increased by 4,4% at an average. Generally the slowest salary growth in Slovakia was in banking industry and energetics with around 2% on average. Commencing salaries depend according to sectors or regions, which is on average 595 € at secondary school absolvent and 796 € at university graduate. Almost 3/5 of companies apply increase in commencing salaries after 3 moth of practice while the average growth here is 11,1 %. For the year 2011, the companies plan to increase salaries for 2,7% on average. Reward per performance is characteristic for the flexibility of remuneration according to a category of employee. In 2010 PayWell study observed the highest share of variable constituent in categories of experts; from 24,5 % to 39,1 %, high management for 23,8 % and middle management for 23 %; declares PayWell 2010. Commencing salaries move out between IT administration from 1500 € to business analytic with 2000 €, and in specialised positions as e.g.

5 Ekonomika, SME.sk (2010). Online at: http://ekonomika.sme.sk/c/5678300/najlepsie-platy-su-vo-farmacii-it-a-v-bankach-tvrdi-studia.html#ixzz199XTDsVy%20[ 10-12-10], Paywell 2010 is seriately the 18th edition of remuneration survey in Slovakia



web-architect above 2500 €. With the growing competition in labour markets salaries might freeze in growth mostly in International IT companies in Slovakia6. Gender equality can contribute to economic development in a number of ways: firstly, through quantitative improvements in female participation, as envisaged in the European Employment Strategy, but also through qualitative improvements in terms of the effective use of their investment in human capital; secondly, in women’s contribution to growth through greater economic independence and their contribution as consumers of goods and services; thirdly, in the integration of women into the fiscal system as net contributors to the welfare state; and, fourthly through the establishment of a sustainable system of social reproduction that is essential for economic growth, future labour supply and sustainable public finances7. According to the Report on Gender Equality by the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family (2009); in the EU comparison, Slovakia is a country with a strong gender labour division in families and in the labour market with historically persistent vertical and horizontal gender segregation in economic sectors and classes of occupations, with low representation of women at all levels of management. Unmodified gender wage gap is a comparative indicator within EU-27. It reached 20,9% to disadvantage to women in 2008. Comparing to preceding year there was a decline by 2,7 Relative gender gap, which is calculated from gross monthly salary, women earned by 24,1 % less than men on average. In comparison to 2007 a decline took place here as well.

Source (FCFOS): EC (2007). http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=689&langId=en FIGURE 1.10 GENDER WAGE GAP EU

According to Eurostat8 (2010) economic independence of women is significantly endangered by the differences in wages, not only in their basic rate, but also in other parts. The gender pay gap in its

6 Ekonomika, SME.sk (2009). Online at: http://www.sme.sk/c/4280308/platy-v-it-sektore-mrznu-na-tisicoch-eur.html#ixzz199XLzgFe [10-11-5] 7 Smith, M., Bettio, F. (2008): Analysis Note: the Economic Case for Gender Equality (p.2). Online at: http://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=3971&langId=en 8 Eurostat (2010), Retrieved from: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&plugin=1&language=en&pcode=tsiem040



unadjusted form, based on the difference in average hourly wages between women and men was in 2002: 27.7%, in 2006: 25.8%, in 2007: 23.6% less, in 2008: 20,9% and in 2009: 21,9%/ The gender wage gap in its unadjusted form, based on the difference in average monthly wages between women and men was from 2001 to 2009 between 24-29%. Since 2005 gender wage gap in Slovakia is narrowing according the figure 1.11.

Source: Statistical Office of the SR (2009) FIGURE 1.11 GENDER WAGE GAP (IN %)

Gender segregation of the labour market also applies presence in enterprises and organizations in which women and men are working. Among public sector employees are significantly more represented women than men, as the proportion of women in the public sector is over 50%. Dominance of women in the public sector does not mean that they have in this sector a decision-making preference. A specific barrier of economic independence for women and gender discrimination in the labour market is largely unpaid work performed by women.

FIGURE 1.12 EVOLUTION OF LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK REGARDING GENDER EQUALITY

Figure 1.12 identifies laws together with important documents implementing gender equality in legislation in SR. Further information on gender inequality in SR is presented in Gender Gap Index profile Slovakia (Annex 2) where SR in year 2010 ranked 71th from 134 countries and in Gender Equity Index World and Slovakia (Annex 3) where SR in year 2009 ranked 79th from 156 countries. Integrated System of Typical Positions9 developed for Centre of Labour, Social Affairs and Family includes Catalogue of Positions which provides information about work positions in the Slovak labour market, the following figure provides information about career options in the field of IT.

Jobs requiring vocational or general secondary education

IT Operator, Programmer, Application Administrator, IT Technician and Web designer

Jobs requiring higher vocational or university

education Bachelor degree

Independent programmer, Independent application administrator, Independent IT technician, Administrator of operating systems and networks

Jobs requiring Master or PhD. university education degree

Engineer of IT and of management systems (IT engineer, system engineer managing the IT system), IT architect, IT Project Manager, IT tester, Programmer of Analytics, System Engineer of Application Management, Specialist of management of operating systems and networks, Specialist web designer, Web Architect

FIGURE 1.13 CAREER OPTIONS IN THE FIELD OF IT ACCORDING TO LEVEL OF EDUCATION ACHIEVED

9 Integrated System of Typical Positions–Catalogue of Positions (2010). Retrieved from: http://www.istp.sk/ktp/



2 Computer and Internet Usage in Slovakia

2.1 Internet usage in Slovak households

The SR is lagging behind the EU average in the number of households connected to the Internet; according to a report by the Attorney for Information Society in Slovakia (TASR 201010). While in Europe on average there is almost 65% of population connected to the Internet, only 62% of population is connected in Slovakia. Within fast Internet connections, the EU average is 56% while only 42% of population uses fast Internet. The report reveals that almost all the business subjects (98%) have Internet connection. More than ¾ from business subjects have the broadband connection. Slovakia belongs to countries that have developed information society with above average growth mainly in developing e-services of public administration, e-government. Among other assets, it is an overall growth rate in using the Internet and e-services. The main shortage refers to online e-Government Access, which stays around 55% which is notably below EU average. Only 26% of citizens communicate with public institution via Internet. According to ITU data, UN agency for information and communication technologies can be observed steady rise in internet use in Slovakia. According to latest data (2010), over 74% of citizens in Slovakia use internet. Rise in use over past 10 years can be observed thanks to wider availability of internet services and affordable prices.

Year Users % Population 2000 650,000 12.1 % 2004 1,375,800 25.6 % 2005 2,276,100 42.3 % 2006 2,500,000 46.5 % 2010 4,063,600 74.3%

Source: ITU (2010). Internet World Statistics http://www.internetworldstats.com/eu/sk.htm FIGURE 2.1 INTERNET USAGE AND POPULATION STATISTICS SLOVAKIA

There were 2,500,000 Internet users in Slovakia in 2006, 46% of the population, according to the International Telecommunications Union. There are over 4 million Internet users in year 2010 in Slovakia which accounts for 74,3% of Slovak population. (ITU, 2010) According to Alexa.com, there are 1,540,960 Facebook users in Slovakia. According to results of IT skills test (2010), 89% of respondents use social networks. Results from IT skills week test show that social networks are very popular among young adults as main group of participants were secondary school students. There is still place for growth and in use of social networks for awareness rising in general. According to Eurostat survey (2010), 80% of young internet users in the EU 27 is active in social networking. Infrastructure is essential in order to perform objectives of informatization of society. It directly affects the development of e-services in information society. Infrastructure creates conditions which stimulate supply as well as demand for i-society services.

10 Slovak IT Association (2010). Online at: http://itas.sk/spravy/pristup-k-internetu-ma-62-percent-slovenskych-domacnosti [10-02-25]



Source (FCFOS): SANET (2010). http://www.sanet.sk/ FIGURE 2.2 SLOVAK ACADEMIC INTERNET NETWORK

The figure 2.2 presents the map of the Slovak Academic Internet Network (SANET) which connects 25 Slovak towns. The infrastructure is formed from optical cables with the speeds up to 10Gbit/second. All universities have access to the network for a monthly fee of 50 €. It is expected that all general secondary schools, vocational schools and associated secondary schools together 515 schools will be connected to SANET in the future.

Source: OECD (2010). http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=CSP2010 FIGURE 2.3 SHARE OF HOUSEHOLDS WITH ACCESS TO HIME COMPUTER AND INTERNET IN SLOVAKIA IN

2005 -2008

In the year 2005 over 45% of households had home computer with about half of the households having access to the internet. Steady rise in internet access at home can be observed as almost all households that own computer have access to the internet. Internet monthly fees declined, there are more providers offering variety of internet access which include mobile 3G internet (up to 7,2 Mbit/s), fibre optic internet (up to 70 Mbit/s), and cable bundle (digital TV, phone, fast internet).



Source (FCFOS): Idate, "Broadband developments in Europe", a study for the EC FIGURE 2.4 DSL NATIONAL AND RURAL COVERAGE ACROSS EUROPE, DECEMBER 2009

According to I-date study presented in the figure 2.5, rural DSL coverage is among the lowest (over 53%) and national DSL coverage 82%. There is place for improvement in order offer online services to all citizens.

Source (FCFOS): ITU (2010). http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/material/graphs/2010/Internet_users_gender_08.jpg FIGURE 2.5 PERCENTAGE OF INTERNET USERS BY GENDER, EU COUNTRIES 2008

According to ITU in the year 2008 there were in Slovakia 70% of female and just above 70% of male population active users of internet. Top countries with most male and female internet user representation are Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Netherlands, as displayed in the figure 2.6. According to Eurostat, household and individual survey (2010) on the figure 2.7, 67% of respondents have internet access and 49% have broadband connection. One can observed constant increase since the last survey 2006. Survey results show that more households with children (86%) than households without children (60%) have internet access. The youngest generation of the age 16-24 makes most use of the internet services where 94% use email, 86% use social networks and 61% of internet/video calls.



Internet access

2006 27%

2010 67%

Broadband

connection

2006 11%

2010 49%

Internet access by

type of household

(2010)

Households with

children 86%

Households

without children 60%

E-mail

Aged 16-24 94%

Aged 25-54 92%

Aged 55-74 86%

Posting messages to

chat sites, blogs,

social networking

Aged 16-24 86%

Aged 25-54 46%

Aged 55-74 18%

Internet

phone/video calls

Aged 16-24 61%

Aged 25-54 52%

Aged 55-74 49%

Source: Eurostat (2010) 11 FIGURE 2.6 HOUSEHOLDS WITH INTERNET ACCESS, BROADBAND CONNECTIONS AND ACCESS BY TYPE

OF HOUSEHOLD, SLOVAKIA (%)

FIGURE 2.7 USE OF INTERNET FOR COMMUNICATION, SLOVAKIA 2010 (% OF INTERNET USERS)

Top visited web sites in Slovakia according to Alexa.com, the web information company (2010) are: Google, Facebook, Google, YouTube, Azet.sk, Zoznam.sk, SME, Centrum, topky.sk, Atlas, CAS.sk, Wikipedia, Aktuality.sk, Pravda, Yahoo!, Bazos.sk, Autobazár.eu, Blogger.com, Slovak Hydro-Meteorological Institute, Profesia.sk. Additional information on state of ICT in Slovakia is presented in annex 5: ICT profile Slovakia, and annex 6: Network Readiness Index Profile Slovakia, where Slovakia ranked in years 2009-2010 55th from 133 countries.

2.2 Digital literacy and disparities

Human potential is a pillar in building the information society (as stated also in the Strategy for Informatization of Society in Slovak conditions). Informatization process affects both the potential use of electronic services, but also the process of creating and operating infrastructure services. Only qualified people are able to use information society opportunities. However there exist differences in take up of ICT in society among individuals, groups but also regions. This chapter provides selected characteristics on digital literacy in Slovakia from available resources and begins with math literacy.

FIGURE 2.8 PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS OF SR AT SPECIFIC LEVELS OF MATHEMATICAL LITERACY

ACCORDING TO GENDER (COMPARISON PISA 2003, PISA 2006 AND PISA 2009, (FCFOS): NUCEM12)

11Internet Usage in 2010 – Households and individuals, Survey.



According to PISA 2009 results, the Slovak students have comparable skills in mathematical literacy to their peers from other OECD countries, on the contrary, in reading and science literacy the students are lagging behind. The figure 2.10 presents PISA results from 2003, 2006 and 2009, it shows the results on Slovak students’ mathematical literacy according to gender. The highest numbers of students reach the math literacy level 3 and 2 at both genders. Mathematical skills are seen as one of factors of digital literacy, in particular programming. According to the Assessment Methodology of the Knowledge Society (Metodológia hodnotenia znalostnej spoločnosti) in the World Bank Institute report13, the information society in Slovakia was lagging behind in comparison to overall development of the EU, to which refers a number of benchmarks and indicators below the EU average. According to a report in 2004, Slovakia had strategic advantages for development in the future. Among main benefits there was included: a strong ICT sector and one of the fastest growth rates of Internet use. An adaptation barrier in Slovakia was broadband development. Slovakia benefits from a strong ICT sector, and particularly a high number of skilled labour force, despite the fact that research in ICT lags below the EU average. Slovakia has placed on 34th position in the ranking of IT sector competitiveness elaborated by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The Slovak IT market is at an average level comparing to the markets of countries in Central and Eastern Europe. According to Gartner’s survey14, the SR belongs to 30 countries with the best conditions for companies which plan to move their IT services to countries with lower costs. However from the category of “excellence” Slovakia falls to category “good” which represents the third from five levels of attractively scale. The reason of decline was expenses strain caused by economic impairment and rising stress on limited resources whereby Slovakia does not belong to the most remunerative countries. The work force in Slovakia is recognized for knowledge in the fields of science and mathematics as well as for language and computer skills. Regional disparities in digital literacy among Member Countries and absence of women in technical fields at schools present the main problem. In Slovakia, an analysis in the field of digital literacy was conducted by the Institute of Public Affairs (IVO – Inštitút pre verejné otázky). According to a representative study by IVO in Slovakia, in description of the project "Interactive Map of Digital (Il)literacy15" there is stated that unequal access of different groups of society to ICT and its associated digital illiteracy begin to deepen social divisions in Slovakia“. In the horizon of next few years, the "digital divide" may become a new engine of poverty, because the digital illiteracy reduces the chances for quality education, better paid jobs, for career and specialization development, for property acquisition or higher social status (Velšic 2009). According to study reports from 2005 and 200716, a challenge for Slovakia is in solving digital regional disparities. Results from 2009 confirm a conversion and bridging of the digital divide. There is a prospect of convergence between the region of Bratislava and the rest of Slovak regions in the long turn, there is still disparity considering the overall difference between these two regional units. Digital Literacy Index of the citizens from Bratislava region is still above the average of the rest of Slovak regions.

12

NUCEM (2010). Retrieved from: http://www.nucem.sk/documents//27/medzinarodne_merania/pisa/publikacie/Narodna_sprava_Slovensko_PISA_2009.pdf 13 Chatzinikolaou, A. (2004) “Benchmarking Slovakia’s Readiness for the Knowledge Economy” http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/109275/SlovakiaBenchmarkAssessment.pdf 14 Ekonomika. SME.sk (2010). Online at: http://ekonomika.sme.sk/c/5126080/medzi-najrychlejsie-rastucimi-it-firmami-su-aj-tri-zo-slovenska.html#ixzz19AIcVaDu 15 IVO(2009) Digital Literacy in Slovakia, http://www.ivo.sk/4590/sk/vyskum/digital-literacy-in-slovakia 16 Velšic, M. Project Digitál literacy in Slovakia (2007)



Source (FCFOS): VELŠIC, M. (2009), Digital literacy in Slovakia in 2009. IVO. FIGURE 2.9 DIGITAL LITERACY ACCORDING TO THE SLOVAK REGIONS IN 2005 AND 2007

From the regional point of view, while in 2005 ‘digital disparities’ were significant, in 2007 there was an improvement in digital literacy, especially in the regions of across Slovakia. By contrast in East Slovakia - Kosice and Prešov regions remained below national average likewise in 2005. Neither situation was improved in western Slovakia. Nitra and Trnava regions in achieving higher rate of digital literacy are just below the average level (Velšic 2007). According to IVO study (Velšic 2009), the digital literacy is characterized by Digital Literacy Index which includes 27 indicators (questions) divided into four general dimensions: work with hardware, work with software, work with information in virtual space, communication ability through ICT. These represent partial (sub) indices from which a general level of the digital literacy index is calculated. Values are placed from 0 = digital illiteracy to 1 = a maximal level of digital literacy. From the year 2005 to 2009 the overall digital literacy of population in the country has raised by 0.11 DLI. Overall trend on the NUTS I and II level is represented by convergence of digital literacy level.

Source (FCFOS): Velšic, M. (2009), Digital literacy in Slovakia in 2009. IVO FIGURE 2.10 DIGITAL LITERACY ACCORDING TO THE SLOVAK REGIONS

More detailed analysis of IVO’s results on digital literacy presents differences according to categories of the employed, where rise in digital literacy can be observed from 2005 to 2009 in all categories. According to the figure 2.13, the white collar workers have the highest digital literacy followed by entrepreneurs. On the contrary, blue collar workers have the lowest digital literacy followed by unemployed.



Source (FCFOS): Velšic, IVO (2010). http://www.ivo.sk/buxus/docs//vyskum/subor/DG_a_trh_prace.pdf FIGURE 2.11 DIGITAL LITERACY ACCORDING TO CATEGORIES OF EMPLOYED

Other study – IT Fitness Test by E-skills – initiative by the EC17; that was oriented at IT competences of Slovak population brought some further insights into digital literacy (competences and knowledge) in Slovakia. 55 380 participants took part in the study from which 39 920 people had completed all parts of testing. According to presentation results by F. Jakab18 (IT Association Slovakia) from the E-skills week Slovakia 2010 at IT summit 2010; 79% of respondents were students, 3% were teachers and18% were other respondents. Regarding gender 59% were men and 41% women. The highest representation is from the age group from 15-19 years. The figure 2.14 presents successfulness in IT-fitness test at secondary schools according to a type of school and a year of study, with highest in 4 and 8-year gymnasium (general secondary school) in Slovakia. The successfulness rate rises with age.

Source (FCFOS): IT fitness test (2010) (PowerPoint presentation) IT Summit FIGURE 2.12 AVERAGE SUCCESSFULNESS IN IT FITNESS TEST AT SECONDARY SCHOOL LEVEL

ACCORDING TO TYPE OF SCHOOL AND YEAR OF STUDY

According to results, an ordinary Slovak is an IT apprentice. According to the IT Fitness Test results, the Slovaks managed with 38,49% on average. The biggest gaps they have in knowledge of information security, different graphical formats, and difficult tasks in spreadsheets. The best results they achieved in using PC software. The test also had revealed that as much as 89% of people use social networks. The most widely used online services are Internet banking (29%), booking events tickets (25%) and reservation of flight tickets and accommodation (14%). Digital technologies in 17 Slovak IT Association (2010). Online at: http://itas.sk/spravy/it-fitness-test-vieme-pouzivat-pocitac-a-pracovat-s-internetom-problemom-je-bezpecnost 18 IT Fitness Test e-Skills Week Slovakia 2010. Online at: http://itas.sk/ict-trh/it-summit-2010



Slovakia are used at various places, at home / at work / at dormitory on the contrary from OECD countries where people use digital technologies mostly at home.

Source (FCFOS): ITU 2006: http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/newslog/content/binary/Europe%20_WISR07-blog1.jpg FIGURE 2.13 MAP OF DIGITAL OPPORTUNITY IN EUROPE 2005/2006

One of referential frameworks can be mentioned; the Digital Opportunity Index (DOI) developed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) from 2005/2006. It is an index based on internationally-agreed ICT indicators. It is a valuable tool for benchmarking indicators for measuring the Information Society. The DOI is a standard tool that governments, providers, development agencies, researchers and others can use to measure the digital divide and compare ICT performance within and across countries. DOI is based on 11 ICT indicators, grouped in 3 clusters: opportunity, infrastructure, utilization. In 2005/2006 the Slovak republic reached on the scale - 0.1 to 0.8; the value of 0.4 - 0.5 as neighbouring Visegrad countries. According to DOI from 2007 (ITU), Slovakia ranked at the 44th position in the world with the score of 0.55 DOI. The top performing countries were South Korea, Japan, Denmark and Iceland. It should be added that since 2007 transition in digital opportunities across Slovak region has happen across regions, at least on the level of individual Internet connections as the ICT and faster Internet connections are more and more available. Digital divide in Slovakia in relation to the EU does still exist despite of overall regional convergence trends in Slovakia in 2009. Information society is being promoted progressively.

2.3 Promoting information society

According to the EC report “Europe’s Digital Competitiveness Report Main achievements of the i2010 strategy 2005-2009“; information society in Slovakia is lagging behind in comparison to the



EU. On the other side, “Slovakia has strategic advantages for future developments: important ICT exports, a high level of adoption of internet by the population, and a high take-up of eBusiness applications by enterprises. The slow development of broadband, however, remains a constraint. The SR is behind in the eCommerce with all indicators below average. This is associated to low diffusion of broadband. The picture is more positive for eBusiness. Applications are implemented more than on average. The contribution of the ICT sector to GDP and employment is similar to the average situation. For ICT exports and specialist, Slovakia is even one of the highest scoring countries”19. According to Information Society Strategy, information society is seen as a conceptually driven process aimed at maximum utilization of the potential offered by ICT in all relevant areas of social, political and economic life. In 2005 the Slovak Government has approved by resolution the Competitiveness Strategy of the Slovak Republic until 201020. The strategy focused at four areas: information society, science, research and innovations, education and employment, business environment. The Competitiveness Strategy states that one of the ways how to achieve the transformation of Slovakia into a dynamic knowledge economy is the ‘computerization’ of society. Over the years, it is necessary to ensure that nearly every citizen would be information literate, would have access to the Internet and would feel the benefits of the information society. This will result in an increase in overall education, productivity and employment, inclusion of disadvantaged people in society, improve services, reduce environmental burdens and make the use of public funds more effective (p. 9). There has also been implemented various projects.21 The Slovak Government for the years 2006 – 2010 considered Informatization as a phenomenon which cross-intervenes the whole society and bears fundamental qualitative influence. The ability to use the IT efficiently was seen as a key for economic success. However, absence of coordinated approach at the level of central institutions is seen as one of the reasons of weak development of the knowledge society in Slovakia, according to the Programme Statement of the Slovak Republic for the period 2010-2014. Figure 2.14 presents evolution of legislation framework for development of information society. For further information on legislation process please see Annex 7. Further information on performance of SR in ICT indicators is presented in ICT profile Slovakia (Annex 5) and Networked Readiness Index profile Slovakia (Annex 6).

FIGURE 2.14 EVOLUTION OF LEGISLATION FRAMEWORK REGARDING INFORMATION SOCIETY

19 Europe’s Digital Competitiveness Report Main achievements of the i2010 strategy 2005-2009; Retrieved from: http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/i2010/docs/annual_report/2009/digital_competitiveness.pdf 20 Stratégia rozvoja konkurencieschopnosti Slovenska do roku 2010. Lisabonská stratégia pre Slovensko, 2006 21 There can be mentioned e.g. the project “Internet for Everybody“ (Internet pre všetkých) in 2006 that encouraged the penetration of broadband Internet connections. The result of the project was a support for 40 000 households and the increasing penetration of broadband Internet access, while fostering the improvement of information literacy of young people. It had a positive impact for the households on improving digital literacy and awareness within information society. Internet pre vzdelanie „podpora penetrácie vysokorýchlostného pripojenia na internet“, Ministry of Finance of the SR http://www.finance.gov.sk/Components/CategoryDocuments/s_LoadDocument.aspx?categoryId=7275&documentId=3613



3 Education in Slovakia from Time, Institutional and Gender Perspectives

Source (FCFOS): EURYDICE. Structures of Education and Training Systems in Europe, Slovakia (2009) FIGURE 3.1 ORGANISATION OF THE INITIAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING SYSTEM

According to Eurydice report (2009), in 2007 the number of people aged 29 or under was 2 142 683 (39.7 % of the total population). The number of children of compulsory school age (6-15 aged) was 607 686 (11.3 % of the total population). The official language of instruction is the Slovak language. Pre-primary education is considered to be the first level of the education system and caters for children from 3 (and sometimes even younger) to 6 years of age. Attendance is not compulsory. The compulsory schooling takes ten years and lasts until the end of the school year in which the pupil reaches the age of 16. Compulsory school attendance starts at the age of 6. The pupils start the attendance in primary school (základná škola), which takes nine years and provides the primary education (grades 1-4) and lower secondary education (grades 5-9). A predominant part of the pupils complete the compulsory schooling in the end of the first year of upper secondary education in secondary school (gymnázium, stredná odborná škola, konzervatórium).The higher education sector provides higher education courses at three levels: three to four-year study leading to Bachelor (BA) degree, Master (MA) study programmes at second level (magister, inžinier, doktor medicíny) which may last between one and three years and PhD study programmes at the third level.22 The following figures represent: figure 2.2 phases of compulsory education, figures 2.3, 2.4 types of educational institutions, and figures 2.5, 2.6, 2.7 engagement of students in particular disciplines according to gender – overview of students in the academic year 2009/2010, Bachelor, Master and PhD. students’ share.

22 National summary sheets on education systems in Europe and ongoing reforms by Eurydice, February 2009. Online at: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/ressources/eurydice/pdf/047DN/047_SK_EN.pdf



3.1 Education from the temporal and institutional perspectives

Phases of compulsory education

Základná škola (single-structure; primary and lower general secondary education)

Primary education (first stage, from the first to fourth grade): 6-10 years of age; lower general education (second stage, from the fifth to sixth, eighth or ninth grade): 10-12/14/15 years of age

Gymnázium (general lower and first year or first and second year of upper secondary education)

10/12/14/15-16 years of age

Stredná odborná škola (first year of vocational upper secondary education)

15-16 years of age

Konzervatórium (vocational lower secondary education and vocational upper secondary education)

Source: EURYDICE, EACEA, EC (2009) FIGURE 3.2 PHASES OF COMPULSORY EDUCATION

Types of institution

Upper secondary education

Gymnázium (second and higher year or third and higher year of general upper secondary education)

16-18/19 years of age

Stredná odborná škola (2nd & higher year or 3rd & higher year of vocational upper secondary education)

16-18/19/20 years of age

Konzervatórium (2nd and higher year or third and higher year of vocational upper secondary education)

16-18/19/20 years of age

Post-secondary, non-tertiary education

Stredná odborná škola (secondary vocational education) 18/19-20/21 years of age

Source: EURYDICE, EACEA, EC (2009) FIGURE 3.3 POST-COMPULSORY/UPPER AND POST SECONDARY EDUCATION LEVEL

Types of institution

Univerzita, Vysoká škola, Akadémia (University, Higher Education Institution, Academy)

18/19-21/22/23/24

Stredná odborná škola – vyššie odborné štúdium (higher professional study)

18/19-20/21/22 years of age

Source: EURYDICE, EACEA, EC (2009) FIGURE 3.4 TYPES OF INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION



3.2 Gender differences within educational institutions and fields of study

Source: Statistical Office of SR (2010) FIGURE 3.5 STUDENTS IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2009/2010



According to Eurydice report (2010) on gender differences in educational outcomes, there is no specific vocational guidance in the years 2008/2009 in place in Slovakia (see Annex 4). Over the last twenty years study of the gender composition at secondary vocational schools has changed significantly. More boys enter into the business secondary schools and schools for librarians, as share of girls over the years at such schools diminished. Gender segregation orientation at vocational secondary schools over the years has deepened. Other chapter is the professional girls' schools, whose establishment in 1990 rendered support of gender stereotypes by focusing on service and home management or professional nurses. The number of girls studying in this type of schools peaked in 1995, when 14 080 girls visited professional girls' schools, but the number gradually declined in 2007 for this type of study chosen by only 598 young women (SOSR a database of secondary schools on the website of Ministry of Education). The main reason for this is a legal EU requirement for qualified nurses to have Bachelor university qualification. Focus of girl's vocational schools is now almost exclusively on business and entrepreneurship. These schools in principle serve as medium for administrative workers and self-employed and they do not longer carry the name girls secondary schools as they are open to both genders. Significantly feminised courses at universities are in the medical and pharmaceutical fields and in social sciences. Over the past twenty years, the dominance of women studying these subjects strengthened. The only departments where women are unable to penetrate and also have less interest are the technical sciences and in particular informatics and computer science. In 2007, women accounted for 24% of all learners of technical sciences.

Source: ÚIPŠ (2010) FIGURE 3.6 PROPORTION OF WOMEN AND MEN GRADUATES OF GENERAL SECONDARY SCHOOLS,

SECONDARY VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS AND OF UNIVERSITY I AND II DEGREE (ACADEMIC YEAR

2008/2009, STUDENTS NUMBERS AND IN %)

According to Gender Mainstreaming for Slovakia (2009), a higher proportion of women studying at universities is reflected in higher share of female graduates in the year 2009 with 59% of all graduates, which represents 18% more female graduates than male. The common idea of the gender principle of equality among men and women is described in the § 12, section 2 of the Slovak Constitution, which is further elaborated in the labour-law legislation (Labour code) and also included in the Civil Service Act and Public Service Act. The following two figures 4.3 and 4.4 present bachelor students, master students, PhD. candidates’ share in fields of study in the academic year 2010/2011 by gender.



Source: Statistical Office of SR (2010) FIGURE 3.7 BACHELOR AND MASTER STUDENTS SHARE IN SCHOOL YEAR 2010/2011 BY GENDER



Source: Statistical Office of SR (2010) FIGURE 3.8 PHD STUDENTS SHARE IN SCHOOL YEAR 2010/2011 BY GENDER



4 ICT and Gender from Educational Perspective

Unlike some of other school systems in EU, the ICT education is directly embedded in the Slovak school curricula on the primary and secondary educational levels. Informatics curricula differ according to a type of school. The mission of the subject Informatics at the general secondary school is to lead pupils to the comprehension of essential concepts, approaches and techniques used at work with data and by stream of information in computer systems (Microsoft Office, etc.). Specialization in Informatics at gymnasia (secondary schools) is realised by an extension of number of IT classes and curricula connected with programming. Media on the one hand offer opportunities for global communication, openness to the world, share knowledge and further development of democracy. In the age of globalization and rapid development of ICT penetrating into all areas of life, innovative technologies, as well as the collective information resources. The society has more than ever to keep pace with these rapid technological changes and learn to deal with the available digital information. Media literacy aims to help people cope with these challenges and to make them conscious users of media. Media literacy means having the ability to use the media to understand the different aspects of media and media content, and critically asses, as well as self explain information in different contexts. In addition to pedagogical aspects is critical the equipment and access to new technologies. Consequently, it is possible to understand media literacy in the broader sense as access to new information technologies and the critical ability to access their content.

4.1 Media educational programme for primary and for secondary schools

Unlike West European countries the media education in the SR does not have any tradition. As a cause there can be seen particularly distinct conditions for development of media environment23. Recently under the constant progress of ICT and its adaptation among youth rises a need for media education. In Slovakia the media education in secondary schools is one of the newest trends nowadays. It is a multidisciplinary category which integrates knowledge of broader spectrum of social sciences and is a subject matter to journalism, psychology, sociology and pedagogy. Its justness increases with the progress of communication technology. According to the Euromedia literacy24, a medially literate individual should be able to:

• Use media technologies effectively • Approach and decide from the choices of a wide spectrum of phenomena • Comprehend why the media contents are being developed and how it is related to technical,

legislative, economic and political contexts • Analyses techniques, language and conventions used in media • Use media creatively for expressing oneself and to communicate ideas, information and opinions

There can be added25: • Identify, prohibit or refuse media contents and services which can have ineligible, offensive and

damaging effects 23 As a specific problem in relation to media in Slovakia can be seen a lack of institutions that would map the development of media environment, summarise the results of partial research projects and on this basis anticipate development trends in order to propose solutions to system problems as well as recommendations. 24 European Charter for Media Literacy (2006). Retrieved from: http://www.euromedialiteracy.net . 25 Retrieved from: http://www.culture.gov.sk/uploads/9z/9U/9z9UuLgW-4Iwh72hQv9adw/vlastny_material.pdf (p. 5)



• Efficiently use media to strengthen democratic rights The following chapter presents information from the National Institute for Education (ŠPU).

Primary Education One of the major factors affecting the value of socializing, the attitudes and behaviour of individuals are the media. To learn skills needed to critically access the media is the goal of media education as a cross-cutting theme. The aim of the cross-sectional issue for students is:

• to better understand the rules of the media world • be able to assess the media presenting the messages and to value them, forming a positive personal

and professional growth, • be able to recognize the negative media influences on their personality and try to eliminate their

sense of responsibility, • to know how to form media products

Lower Secondary Education The aim of cross-theme is to develop:

• ability to apply critical strategies of dealing with various types of media and products, • ability to meaningfully, critically and selectively use the media and their products (which lead

students to better know and understand the rules of "media world", it focuses and selected use of the media and their products as efficiently to meet its functions, including educational and moral),

• ability to create their own opinion as a citizen about the media on the basis of information received, • ability to critically assess the media on the presented messages appears to value them, forming a

positive personal and professional growth, but also their ability to be aware of the negative media influences on their personality and try to eliminate their sense of responsibility.

Lesson plan 9th grade Hours Characteristics of digital media in comparison with other media 4 Internet and its possibilities in the field of mass and personal communication 4 How actual the multimedia reality is? 4 Reverse side of the virtual world 4 Computer games, video games just for fun? 7 Media effects on a human being 7 Reality TV 6 Talk show as a television genre 4 TV genre: series, sitcom. Soap operas. 5 Advertising and its effects 6 Creating advertising poster 6 Creation of custom media product and its publication in the multimedia environment 10

Source: ŠPU (2010). http://www2.statpedu.sk/buxus/docs/vyskum/medialvych/mp9.pdf FIGURE 4.1 MEDIA EDUCATION FOR 9TH GRADE OF PRIMARY SCHOOL

According to the Concept of Media Education26 in the context of lifelong learning; the main objective of media education in secondary schools is particularly:

• to enable young people to adapt strategies of competent treatment of various types of media and their products

• to develop ability to use media meaningfully, critically and selectively; to guide students in better understanding the rules of the world of media for orientation of oneself, to use particular media

26 Retrieved from: http://www.medialnavychova.sk/?p=742



selectively, to learn how to generate proper opinions and to avoid losing one’s way in stream of media information flowing from every side

• to form student’s ability to assess critically messages spread via media, to explore what is valuable and positive about them which forms one’s personal and professional growth, as well as their ability to be aware of pertinent negative influences of media contents (e.g. critical assessing of boulevard information, risks from internet communication, etc.)

Higher Secondary Education The aim of media education as a cross-cutting theme is:

• allow students to acquire competent treatment strategies with different types of media and their products and also develop the capability for students – i.e. media competence meaningful, critical and selective use media and their products, which leads students to better know and understand the rules of "media world". It focuses on the use of the media and of their products as efficiently as possible and carries out their functions.

• train students as citizens capable of creating of their own view on the basis of information received, • shape the ability of children and young people to critically assess the media’s presented messages

and to value them, forming a positive personal and professional growth, but also their ability to be aware of the negative media influences on their personality and try to eliminate their sense of responsibility.

4.2 Education in subject informatics

Subject Informatics has important supporting role in education, like mathematics it develops the thinking of students, their ability to analyze and synthesize, generalize, to seek appropriate strategies for solving the problems and verify them in practice. It leads to an accurate expression of ideas and practices and serves as a general means of communication. At the first primary school level builds the subject on presented information and therefore it focuses on electronic education. The task of teaching computer education leads students to understand fundamental concepts, practices and techniques used when working with data and information flow in computer systems. It builds both computer culture, namely teach effective use of available information resources with respect to legal and ethical principles of the use of information technologies, products and services. This mission is necessary to achieve a common action for digital education and application of information technology in teaching of other subjects. Systematic primary education in subject informatics and use of digital tools will ensure equal opportunities for productive and fruitful lives of citizens in the SR information and knowledge society. Available technologies are provided in teaching information technology using equipped computer training rooms.

Objectives The objective of computer education at lower primary level is to get familiarized with the computer and possibilities of its use in everyday life. Through the software applications which contain the control of appropriate age basic skills, pupils learn how to use the computer. They have begun using various applications in core curriculum of math, foreign languages, gain knowledge to educational programs for the promotion of natural sciences and geography and develop their creativity and aesthetic feelings in different graphic editors. The emphasis is not placed on the control to handle the applications, but to understand the options that can be used in everyday activities. Best suited for pupils is the use of programs designed specifically for students, so they would be familiar with most activities carried out (applications designed for adults are not appropriate due to their excessive complexity). The educational content of computer science in the public education program is divided into five themes:



• Information about us

• Communications through ICT

• Procedures, problem-solving, algorithmic thinking

• Principles of the ICT

• Information Society The thematic area of Information around us is crucial for pupils even at the lower levels of education. The concept of information, the types of information (text, multimedia, etc.) and its application for the processing of specific information is very important for understanding the mechanisms for dealing with various issues through ICT. Students should learn and gain skills in this order:

1. know the basic procedures for working with digital text and simple presentation, 2. acquire drawing skills in graphic processing and graphic information, 3. understand how to record and play back audio and video, 4. understand the representation of basic types of information, 5. use ICT and to be able to implement sub-tasks and learning outcomes in the project.

Another thematic area Communication through ICT presents the use of ICT tools in the Internet communication, in their own learning process and deals with school problems in obtaining and communicating information:

• learn to use email, • understand the mechanisms and information retrieval on the Internet • be aware of safety risks on the Internet. • understand the definition of a keyword, search by keyword • handle the selection of necessary information

Students learn to reflect on various parameters of efficiency of different solutions to problems, learn various procedures and mechanisms for solving problems from different areas. The thematic range of ICT principles of operation is given a description and understanding of the mechanisms of ICT. Students should be familiarized with:

• possibilities of input and output devices, • various areas of software • obtaining the basic skills for work with files and folders • basic functions of local network and the Internet.

Students should become familiar with examples of ICT usage in everyday life, understanding that the use of ICT requires a critical and reflective attitude towards available information that it leads to responsible use of interactive digital media.

Concepts • text document, numbers and characters, words, sentences, simple formatting, text effects • tools: pen, line, brush, fill colour, palette • sound, audio player, recording, effects • animation properties and relationships, practices and procedures • store information in different files (text, image, sound) • simple tools to edit text documents (change the font attributes) • compliance with the basic principles of writing, • a combination of text and image, • basics of drawing in the graphical user interface, update files • creation of simple animations.



The Planet of knowledge (Planéta vedomostí27) is a complex digital educational systems which covers main subjects of primary and secondary schools: mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, natural science. Each subject comprises around hundred interactive lessons that include multimedia presentations, videos, animations, simulations, illustrations, exercises and activities. In the pilot project phase there were over 30 secondary schools from all regions of Slovakia have introduced modern educational methods with the use of digital content of Planet of Knowledge.

4.3 Informatics curriculum for secondary schools

The following chapter presents information from on Informatics curricula from the National Institute of Education (ŠPU).

Informatics at general secondary school / gymnasiums The mission of the subject Informatics at gymnasiums leads pupils to the comprehension of essential concepts, approaches and techniques used in work with data and in flow of information in computer systems. It forms the ICT culture, i.e. it educates to use effectively the means of information civilization with respect to legal and ethical rights of usage of information technologies, products and services. This mission should be achieved by interconnecting the subject Informatics with other subjects. This process of education leads pupils to:

• develop the ability to do algorithms of a given problem, develop programming proficiency, learn to work in the common application software environment, learn to search for information on computer or on the web, learn to communicate through the web;

• develop the abilities for cooperation and communication (learn to cooperate in a group while solving a problem, set up work plan, specify sub-problems, distribute them in a given group, explain a problem to other class-mate, solve sub-problems, gather results, arrange them towards overall solution, refer to it within a group)

• gain abilities necessary for the work of research (realise simple research project, formulate a problem, obtain information from acceptable sources, search for solutions and typical situations, formulate an opinion verbally and in writing, discuss it, make conclusions);

• develop one’s personality, creativity, logical reasoning, responsibility, moral qualities, perseverance, self-critical attitude, endeavour in self-education;

• learn to respect the intellectual property and authorship of IT products, systems and applications

Content The selection of knowledge needed to be acquired is determined in a way to familiarize pupils with essential notions of the information science transformed into a didactic system so they become familiar with the PC work. Content is aimed at knowledge and proficiency acquisition in algorithm development, programming, ICT in software package Office and Internet environments, and ability to be able to apply ICT in other lessons. Pupils learn to master an environment of commuter programs that are at disposal at schools. Emphasis is placed on active method of knowledge acquisition leading to the discovery of generalization and patterns by pupils themselves. In selecting assignments it is necessary to utilise inter-subject relations and to consider previous knowledge and understanding of pupils, their interest and abilities.

27 New digital curricula. Retrieved from: http://www.planetavedomosti.sk/



Theme/topic frame Hours

Introduction • safety at work • rules of use of computer room

2

B.1 Essentials of Programming and Algorithm Development • simple algorithms from common life

• introduction to the algorithm development

16

C.1 ICT in the Internet Environment • basic services of the Internet: e-mail, www

16

D.1 Fields of Usage of Informatics, ICT in other school subjects • multi-media encyclopaedia • informatics in schools and outside of schools • legal aspects of software utilization • educational web pages on the Internet, content, structure and way of utilization

16

E.1 Information Technologies in the Office Environment • text processing (basic tools and options of the text editor, problems solvable through

the medium of text editors)

16

B.2 Essentials of Programming and Algorithm Development • introduction to complex functional structures and data structures

16

F.1 Work with the Graphics • image processing through the raster and vector editors • various image formats

16

D.2 Fields of Usage of Informatics, ICT in other school subjects • robotic kit • utilization in mathematics, physics and other school subjects • research project with exploitation of sources and services of the Internet

16

Project • Presentation of projects

2

E.2 Information Technologies in Office Environment • work with spreadsheets • work with databases

(basic tools and options of a spreadsheet processor and database system, problems solvable by these products)

16

Alternative I.1 Programming for Intermediates • more complex algorithm problems and data structure (in object environment)

16

J.1 Chosen Themes • multimedia, artificial intelligence and expert systems, virtual reality, computers and

art

16

F.2 Work with the Graphics • solving more complex problems • graphics for Internet (static images, animations,...)

16

C.2 ICT in the Internet Environment • computer networks • creation of web pages • non-interactive and interactive communications • (non) etiquette

16


2



E.3 Information Technologies in the Office Environment • presentation software, planners

14

Alternative I.2 Programming for the Intermediates • more complex data structures

14

J.2 Chosen Themes • multimedia, artificial intelligence and expert systems, virtual reality, computers and

art

14

G. Information Society • criminality, sci-fi, cloning, viruses, legal aspects, licences, IT professions • chosen extracts from the history of the information science

14

H. Computer Systems, Peripheries • fundamental architecture of PC • operating systems (network..)

14


2

FIGURE 4.2 SUBJECT INFORMATICS LESSON PLAN GENERAL SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Note: The themes I1 and I2 are for those who would graduate from Informatics, J1 and J2 are for the rest.

Informatics at Secondary Vocational Schools

The mission of the computer science education at secondary vocational schools serves to lead pupils to the comprehension of essential concepts, approaches and techniques used by the work with data and with the flow of information in computer systems. It forms the ICT culture, i.e. it educates to effectively use the means of digital technology with respect to legal and ethical rights of usage of information technologies and products. This mission should be achieved mutually in subject informatics and in IT application in teaching of other school subjects and in organization and school management. The main objective of the subject informatics is to enable elementary concepts and techniques used in work with data and to comprehend the flow of information in computer systems. Due to extraordinary progress of IT, it is therefore necessary to aim more thoroughly at the study of essential universal concepts that transcend current digital technologies. Available technologies should provide wide space for motivation and practical projects in the education of informatics.

4.4 National projects supporting ICT education

The development of ICT culture in Slovakia at primary and secondary schools is supported by the Project Infovek from 1999. It helps to train thousands of teachers in integrating modern ICT teaching and their application into the education process, it develops modern ICT curricula and equips schools with a multimedia classrooms with high speed Internet access. A segment of secondary schools (gymnasia) started with ECDL certification (European Computer Driving Licence) before finishing A level examination in informatics, which gives to students needed qualification to further their careers also outside of Slovakia. The aim of the Infovek Project is to prepare the young generation in Slovakia for life in the information society of 21st century in order to prove qualified in the knowledge economy, to create the preconditions for our young generation to be competitive at the forming global labour market, especially in comparison with youth of the same age from the European Union. School is the most important place where this transformation must take place. In order to be able to provide for this difficult task, the school must change itself from a traditional school to a modern school of the third millennium through the use of information and communication technologies.



The project concept stands on the following pillars: • Equip every primary and secondary school (state, church or private) in Slovakia with a multimedia

classroom with high speed Internet access • Development of a modern education curricula for general and specialised subjects at all types of

schools • Training of tens of thousands of teachers in integrating modern information and communication

technologies and their application into education Building information society in providing Infovek multimedia classrooms, during the time they are not used by schools, to the local community for the development of the digital literacy of citizens of all regions in Slovakia for the purpose of lifelong learning and education. The Infovek project successfully started the process of information technology development not only in the sector of the primary and secondary schools in Slovakia, but it also plays an important role in the change of the entire society to a modern information society. The interest of both experts and wide public in the project in Slovakia and abroad speaks about the necessity of the project. Slovakia as one of the thirty most developed countries of the world and also as OECD member must not stay behind in the area of development of modern ICT and building of information and knowledge economy. Therefore it has to invest in this particular area of education of our young generation. Government of SR at its meeting in Bratislava on 11 November 2009 discussed and approved resolution no.786/2009 document Report about continuation of Infovek. Objective of submitted material is to run Infovek II (5 years), which will supply the following services: connection of all schools to the Internet, VPN (virtual private network), security and tracking of access to internet securely and centrally managed network environment in schools that have access to digital educational content in the data centre of the education sector according to Office of deputy government representative of SR for information society. The Slovak Telecom28 and the Institute of Information and Prognosis of Education (NÚCEM) under the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the SR had signed an addition to agreement to the project Infovek 2. Complex solution of communication platform encompasses WIFI LAN provision. As part of the project guarantees education to school (PC network administrators) and training (in groups) will have new effective form during the installation process of IT at schools. Supplier had decided to decrease the number of schools of type E connection (SANET) that will be connected to the resort communication platform in order to make savings. During the time of contract on the basis of technical resources the Slovak Telecom will search for solutions to improve access speeds of schools that have the slowest connections this will not have influence on charges of invoice services.

4.5 Further education of primary and secondary school teachers in the

subject Informatics

Currently there is a national project Training of Teachers of Primary and Secondary Schools in the Subject of Informatics29 implemented by the National Institute for Education in Slovakia and in total 1500 teachers will be trained. The focus group consists of:

1. Qualified full-time teachers of the lower primary level schools who will teach the computer science education.

28 Press Service PCR 29 ŠPU Further Training of Teachers of Primary and Secondary Schools in the Subject of Informatics. (Ďalšie vzdelávanie učiteľov základných škôl a stredných škôl v predmete informatika). Retrieved from: http://dvui.ccv.upjs.sk/uvod.php



2. Non-IT teachers – qualified full-time teachers of other school subjects of the upper primary level schools who will teach informatics and computer science education. (after 5 semesters, they could broaden their qualification in informatics)

3. IT teachers – qualified full-time teachers at primary and secondary schools with IT qualification who will teach informatics.

The strategic aim of this project is to integrate, develop and implement modern further education of teachers of subject informatics and computer science education at primary and secondary schools, supported by digital technologies. The specific objectives are to develop and implement accredited educational modules for the focus groups of teachers and to equip participants of education with digital technologies which are necessary for their effective formation and which will be applied in educational process. Education within the project comprises 4 fields:

1. Digital literacy of teacher (development of adequate complex literacy), 2. Modern school (new approaches that comes with the IT influence), 3. Proper vocational context of informatics and computer science education, 4. Didactics of informatics and computer science education.

Another important national projects supporting further training of teachers in digital literacy are two projects by UIPŠ the Modernization of the Process of Education in Primary Schools (Modernizácia vzdelávacieho procesu na základných školách) and the Modernization of the Process of Education in Secondary Schools (Modernizácia vzdelávacieho procesu na stredných školách)30. Further education of teachers is carried out in modules:

• Module 1: digital literacy of teacher (6-12 hours) • Module 2: modern didactic technology in teachers’ practice (18 hours) • Module 3: use of ICT in specific subject (30 hours)

It is well known that pupils often have better knowledge of digital technologies and applications than teachers, so such national projects as mentioned above can help teacher to gain knowledge in presenting content to students in digital way, making it more interesting for students than using of backboard and chalk.

4.6 ICT and gender from a university perspective

In Slovak society ICT field is looked at as a predominately male domain. Other technical fields including agriculture have very small representation of women. The same implies to university education. The least represented fields by women are: informatics & computer science (7%), mechanical engineering & metal-working production (16%), electrical engineering (20%). Disciplines with lowest of male students are: pedagogical sciences (10%), psychological sciences (13%), economics, organisation, commerce & services (14%), pharmaceutical sciences (16%), philological sciences (17%), non-medical health sciences (17%), art sciences, biological sciences (18%) of male students.

30 Retrieved from: http://www.modernizaciavzdelavania.sk/



Source: Statistical Office of SR (2010)

FIGURE 4.3 UNDER-REPRESENTATION (LESS THAN 20% SHARE) OF MALE AND FEMALE STUDENTS IN

STUDY DISCIPLINES AT UNIVERSITY LEVEL IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2009/2010

Evolution of university study preferences of women is readable from the figure 4.4 where can be observed low interest in technical sciences (less than 30%) which is slowing declining over time. At the other hand, social sciences together with medical and pharmaceutical sciences are clearly female domains. There can be seen a rise in interest of female students in agricultural, forestry and veterinary sciences, and sciences of arts and culture.

Source: SO SR – Slovstat FIGURE 4.4 EVOLUTION OF THE PROPORTION OF WOMEN STUDYING AT UNIVERSITIES IN THE FULL-TIME

STUDY FORM ACCORDING TO FIELDS OF STUDY (IN % 2009, 1999,1989)

4.7 STEM, R&D and Gender Differences

Among university female students STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) as whole are more popular than the study field of Informatics (see figure 4.3). In figure 4.5 the share of women among science, mathematics and computing fields is fluctuating just above 30%. Over time rising representation of women at university level can be observed.



Source: Eurostat (2009) FIGURE 4.5 SHARE OF WOMEN AMONG TERTIARY STUDENTS. WOMEN AMONG STUDENTS IN ISCED 5-6

AND STEM AS % OF THE TOTAL STUDENTS AT THIS LEVEL

Source: Statistical Office of SR (2010) FIGURE 4.6 SHARE OF MALE AND FEMALE STUDENTS IN STEM FIELDS AT BACHELOR AND MASTER

UNIVERSITY DEGREE IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2009/2010

From the STEM university study disciplines in figure 4.6 we can see in Slovakia increasingly higher interest in physical-mathematical sciences than the rest of the STEM fields. The lowest representation of women is in the fields of informatics & computer sciences (7%), mechanical engineering & metal-working production (16%), electrical engineering (20%), special technical fields (31%), civil engineering (31%), geodesy & cartography, physical-mathematical sciences (46%). In some cases the low representation in the fields of SET is compensated with various initiatives, e.g. Project Motivation31.

Source: Statistical Office of SR (2010) FIGURE 4.7 SHARE OF MALE AND FEMALE STUDENTS IN STEM FIELDS AT PHD. UNIVERSITY LEVEL IN THE

ACADEMIC YEAR 2009/2010

Figure 4.7 presents representation of female PhD. students among university STEM fields. Equal gender share is visible in Physical-mathematical sciences. Over 30% share of female PhD. students is presented in field of Civil engineering, geodesy and cartography and in special technical fields. Over 20% share of female PhD. students have fields of electrical engineering and mechanical engineering and metal working 31 Project Motivation – promoting positive images of science, engineering and technology (SET) in young people under gender perspective is one example of promoting exchange between partner countries in Europe about factors which influence the main image of SET under the gender perspective, in order to attract more women into field of SET. Project Motivation - http://www.motivation-project.com/ (2009)



production. Lowest share of female students among PhD. students is in the field of informatics and computer science (12%), which is higher than in at Bachelor and Master level (7%). Focus on women in research as a gender equality agenda is justified from two different perspectives: Research and development is a particular segment of work, which constitutes one of the growing impact on the development of society and lack of representation of women in this area by restricting participation to influence and corporate governance in connection with the need to increase the effectiveness of science and developments in the European Research Area is a low representation of women in this sphere impoverishing society and wasting talents. Figure 4.8 presents evolution of female workers according to type of occupations. The proportion of women among scientific and professional knowledge workers decreased slightly since 2002, but in 2009 share of women is still above 50%. Among legislators, scientific and professional workers share of women rose since 1994, but in year 2009 there are only about 30% of women in such occupations.

Source: SO SR, Slovstat (2010) FIGURE 4.8 EVOLUTION OF THE PROPORTION OF WOMEN AMONG MEN BY OCCUPATION (2009, 2002, 1994

IN %)

The figure 4.8 below displays the evolution of share of women researchers from 1997– 2008.

Source: Eurostat (2010) FIGURE 4.9 SHARE OF WOMEN RESEARCHERS, SLOVAKIA 1997-2008

According to Report on the State of Gender Equality in Slovakia 2009 by Government Council for Gender Equality the Women with higher qualifications (DrSc., CSc., PhD., Dr., Prof., Doc.) operating in research and development account for approximately 30% of all researchers with higher qualifications. Although over 10 years, the proportion of women increased by more than 4%, but still number of women with advanced research qualification compared with men is disproportionately low.32

32 Report on the State of Gender Equality in Slovakia 2009 (p.39). Online at: www.gender.gov.sk (2009)



5 Qualitative Study

Under project’s research objectives, there was developed a set of contextual questions which was aimed mainly on career choice/status of people who work in the field of ICT, or in related occupation area. Open questions were invented more or less subjectively with regard to the area of the PREDIL study. The intention was to obtain general insights of ICT teaching/studying/career representations from the point of view of ICT teachers, ICT university students and ICT professionals; for an analysis of representations from a gender perspective, and aggregate this segment for further comparison with representations that would come out from the analyses of focus group (secondary school students of 15+ age) in following empirical study which is analysed in the chapter 6.

5.1 ICT teacher focus group, self reflective tools and interview

There were identified 12 secondary school teachers of informatics (8 women and 4 men) who were willing to cooperate in the quantitative study. They were appealed to answer questions (see Annex 10) on students’ usage of IT. No unexpected revelation has emerged. Concerning perception of gender issues, the main remarks were that e.i. boys have generally better understanding for ICT (downloading, ppt presentations) and they use their computer to play, meanwhile girls use computers mainly for practical reasons (find information related to their home work, school tasks, etc.) and chat. Group of ICT teachers of both genders consisted of 1 primary, 8 secondary and 3 university teachers of Informatics.

Differences observed in the use and performance between male and female students in Informatics

There are differences generally in the use of hardware and software. Boys are more skilled with hardware and installing of new programs and products on PC, playing games, chatting. Girls are more focused on solving problems and exercises using ICT. It depends also on the attitude towards technology Girls are more precise, boys experiment, but it is not a rule. Girls learn easier, boys more often know the curriculum or they think they know it and do not pay attention during the class. Boys are more interested in using ICT, but it is changing in girls as well today. Girls are more thoroughgoing and precise. Girls are less interested in various software applications, web pages, Photoshop, etc. as boys are. Girls try to memorize the curriculum, boys are more practical.

How to motivate female students to study/ follow career in the ICT field?

According to the majority of opinions it is about doing more projects and contests with girls while using motivation methods in teaching. Active participation is seen as essential. Among incentives the teachers state also diversifying of teaching with interesting roles, extending the lesson with the practical examples such as installations of operating system, new systems used in schools and so on, explanation of the advantages and perspective of these occupations and would try to disprove the myth that informatics is for men. There were also opinions that there are so many software applications exclusively for girls that if they would be creating and managing them, they might become dominant in ICT. It is also about ICT popularization and explanation of what can be done using ICT and what ICT is.



Opinions about the cause of low female representation in ICT field?

According to teacher opinions, there is smaller interest of women in preferring male dominated jobs which is mostly connected to their prejudices. Another thing is that women have some kind of fear from technology or technical sciences. ICT is considered as technically oriented field, women are more oriented on social sciences. Other perspective is that women in generally are discriminated through attitudes like “women are not able to work with IT” is sometimes notable in classes. Women's lack of motivation, lack of technical knowledge and thinking in majority of female population, as well as difficult conditions and new tasks for employees in firms present barriers. ICT field is seen as too masculine of overly technical language. In some aspects there is dichotomic understanding of ICT by male and female students.

Observing patterns in using software between male and female students

Boys are seen to be more interested in computer games (RPG and strategic games particularly), 3D modelling, and girls are interested in social networks, in online communication in general. However students are seen to develop their habits individually to a large extent.

Student representations of a possible career path in the field of ICT

Majority of teaching staff think that students’ representation of possible career path in the field of ICT is mostly connected to well paid positions but they do not have an idea about possibilities in IT professions. Younger students often think that only computer maniacs can work in ICT sector. Students think there are opportunities for work from home, that ICT is interesting but very demanding on knowledge. Generally it can be said that they think ICT is a good choice and a challenge for them.

Assessing present curriculum of Informatics as a secondary school subject

According to a half of teachers, curriculum of Informatics is adequate but some would suggest more practical work as development of web applications. Other think there should be new knowledge integrated because of the pace of IT sector progressing very fast. More emphasis could be paid on teaching algorithms and programming. From the view of a university teacher, students that passed subject informatics at secondary school according to the curriculum, they appear to be not ready entirely to study ICT at university. Other opinions on curriculum were that it is out-to-date and that there should be radical changes (especially within the teaching of programming languages).

Encouraging other teachers to implement ICT at other subjects as informatics

Teachers of informatics would encourage the teachers of other school subjects in showing them advantages and usage of ICT in teaching process, such as easier work using interactive blackboard, web applications, education software, how to enrich the class and motivate the students, keeping pace with the era, doing inspiring workshops, personal meetings, advice or illustration of example, use of electronic materials for teaching, using Open Source Learning Management Systems like Moodle (www.moodle.org) for student testing, installation of new useful programs, by providing tools as subject methods.



Role of digital curricula in the 21st century classroom

Digital curriculum and teaching with ICT application is a part of the modernization of education and contribution to development of information society. An example is a new portal Planet of Knowledge, which is second year developed as a support tool for teachers of mathematics and other subjects in an unconventional way, using interactive teaching multimedia applications. According to most of opinions, the digital curriculum is a great thing for instant gaining of information about human, student or candidate. Teacher use to be in favour of personal skills verification of student’s 'talent' in digital form. Concerning the role of digital curricula, it is perceived similar to the non-digital, with the difference that digital may take form of more interactive and imaginative.

5.2 ICT university students focus group and interview

There were 4 female students of teaching degree in combination with the subject of Informatics from all levels of university studies who have participated in interview. In this subchapter there are presented the main findings from the survey. Questions aimed at university students and their study choices are presented in Annex 11.

Opinions about earning potential with a degree in the subject of informatics

According to all students, IT students have a prospective future. Earning potential is seen as being high, but it depends not only from study discipline but also from prior learning and further education. But concerning further IT teachers, one opinion was “I do not count on high salary because my department is focused on teaching and I do not want to do it after I finish school, especially because of low teacher salary.” In general the Department of Informatics is perceived as having obviously good future. IT students seem to be glad from choosing IT department, because they can be employed not only as a teacher. A female student thinks that Informatics as a field is not enough appreciated in Slovak education.

Reasons for decision to take on studies in the ICT field

All students have a degree in subject informatics for future career position while work with PC is seen to be important in almost every job. All students stated that they enjoyed and were good at ICT at primary/secondary school. They would motivate female students into ICT sphere motivate by various kinds of initiatives at primary and secondary schools, doing more projects aimed at ICT and gender, encouraging them through Web 2.0 applications. They will have number of opportunities because the demand on the labour market is high. For one female student the main reasons were connected to the Internet, which has inspiring effect and enables to pursuit a given personal career choice.

5.3 ICT professional focus group and questionnaire study

In September 2009, a small questionnaire study with a focus group of ICT professionals was conducted in Slovakia. A group of 11 respondents – ICT professionals; were contacted by phone or via email with a



request to participate in the given questionnaire survey. The oldest respondent was 41-years old, the youngest 26-years old, totally 7 women and 4 men had participated. It has to be noticed that this questionnaire was invented 1 year before the testing stage of PREDIL online questionnaire survey of secondary school students analysed further in the chapter 6. The main objective of this questionnaire was to explore few insights into the ICT career representations directly from ICT professionals from a gender perspective in Slovakia. The focus group was identified as employees of international IT corporations that have branch offices located in Slovakia. The idea was to compare representations from the thesis ‘How is it to have career in ICT or to work in related field?’; with how do the youth perceive ICT field as their career paths (in this report also from the gender point of view). The questionnaire consisted of 23 questions (3 half-closed and 20 open questions). Questions were aimed to challenge mainly motivation for an ICT career choice, general ICT competences, pros and cons for working in the ICT sector, etc. (see annex 9 for the English version of questionnaire). Although methodologically not a standard approach (e.g. from the point of questionnaire methodology, 20 open questions are overwhelming), identified group of ICT professionals who tried their best to cooperate in with filling in some of the questions. ICT professionals showed interest in gender issues, whether men or women; though this issue is not regarded in Slovakia as priority. It can be explained by different opinions on gender aspect by citizens, education and training, social status, or by a regional labour offer that differs significantly between urban cities with developed sector of services (outsourcing ICT services); or just by a fact citizens in general do not consider gender issues to be important. Other reason is also political priority resulting from different regional socio-economical and cultural contexts across EU countries. Further tables present analyses of responses.

Degree received (in the field of)

Men Women

without university degree, 3 IT Business – finance specialization studies, 2 economics, quality control – enterprise management, management, informatics and English language teaching

Decision for studying informatics

Men Women interesting study field, future is digital

I did not study informatics, incidentally, originally I wanted to study economics; I was always interested in it

Decision to work in the field of ICT

Men Women good work conditions, because I have a university degree in this field

large stable company with finance related positions in which accounting doesn’t form a large part; I had not many choices, foreign employers take on board people without experience (my case) or graduates; because of interesting job offer; I can work in the field in which I am interested



Present work position

Men Women help desk – online support; IT technician, intern auditor of the systems of information security; programmer (propose database, write services and scripts), IBM web supporter

Dell IT administrator; IT analyst, AT&T, IT network specialist; assistant Asus; IT manager; office administrator

Competences in programming languages

Men Women

Killix, Java, HTML, PHP, Pascal, C2, Delphi no such competences, Pascal, Delphi

Pros resulting from being working in the ICT team

Men Women professional background; further education and increase of professional competences; contact with new technologies; opportunity to keep learning

colleagues; flexibility; up to certain extent working under my own management; salary; flexible working hours, young team; young colleagues; good working atmosphere; opportunity to work in IT sector; relatively smooth job

Cons resulting from being working in the ICT team

Men Women Away from hometown; bureaucratic procedures of employer

improve benefits; long working hours especially during the closing period; too many expectations from management is not equal to financial assessment; big company; a lot of processes; not much space for individual work and creativity; not directly related to my studies

How would you motivate women to be more interested to work in the field of ICT

Men Women Good social conditions; financially good, benefits in occupation

Introduce more flexible hours including more part-time positions; enable home office when required; don’t know as nobody has motivated me; remove gender prejudices; equal access to salaries in this sector; presentations on benefits of IT related jobs on the primary and secondary levels of education



5.4 Summary of qualitative study

Teachers see differences between boys and girls in use of hardware and software. Boys are more skilled with hardware and installing of new programs, girls are more precise, boys experiment. Boys seem to be more interested in ICT more than girls. Girls try to memorize the curriculum, boys are more practical. Teachers would motivate students to study ICT fields by active participation, extending lessons with the practical examples such as installations of software, explanation of the advantages and perspectives of these occupations and try to challenge the myth about informatics. There are so many software applications exclusively for girls that if they would be creating and managing them, they might became dominant in ICT. Teachers think that reasons for low representation of females in ICT fields are that women have some kind of undefined fear from technology or technical sciences and they consider ICT as technically oriented field, women are many more focused on social sciences. There is smaller interest of women in preferring male dominated jobs which is mostly connected to their prejudices. Teachers think that present curricula of informatics at secondary schools should have more practical work such as development of web applications. New knowledge should be integrated, because of very fast pace of progress in IT sector. There should be radical changes especially in teaching of programming languages. Digital curriculum and teaching with ICT is part of the modernization of education and contribution to development of information society. Interviews with teachers included 4 male and 8 female teachers of mainly secondary schools, but also university academics and 1 primary school teacher. Students of informatics, either future teachers or IT professionals seem to be fully satisfied with their study choice and have no doubts about their future work placement. Students of ICT teaching study field feel they would be able to find a good job also outside the field of education. From this point of view, the field of informatics has its added value since possible career choices of graduates from this field are more diversified as at future teacher graduates of other study fields. Several pros and cons from IT professionals are quoted, such as flexible working hours, financial assessment and professional growth, young colleagues, good working atmosphere or opportunity to keep learning, in contrast to little space for creativity or gender wage gap. Our focus group assesses ICT mainly as a tool of better explanation, communication channel and visualization of subject matter. Respondents stated following reasons for employment in ICT sector: large stable company with good financial benefits, foreign employers take on board people without experience or graduates, interesting job offer, work in interesting field, good work conditions. They would motivate more women on take on career path in ICT field by more flexible hours including more part-time positions, enabling home office, removing gender prejudices, equal salaries in sector, presentation of IT related jobs on primary and secondary levels. Preliminary inquiry addressing 11 IT professionals show no significant differences between 7 women and 4 men in their motivation to work in IT sector.



6 Quantitative Study

6.1 Pilot testing phase, paper version

On December 21st, 2009 SK PREDIL team conducted a pilot testing phase in three secondary schools (3rd year students, age 17-18): Business secondary school (13 students), State gymnasium (13 students), Religious gymnasium (12 students) in Ružomberok, through initial questionnaire on paper.

Boys Girls Total

Business secondary school 4 9 13

State gymnasium 6 7 13

Religious gymnasium 2 10 12

12 26 38 FIGURE 6.1PARTICIPATING SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN PILOT TESTING PHASE, PAPER VERSION

Business secondary school http://www.oark.edu.sk/index_en.html

The students have the most IT classes from all of the stated schools. Apart from IT classes, they also use computers in Accounting class and Administration and correspondence classes, which is totally 5 hours a week. Business secondary school also has most of computer rooms. Students were using software for their particular fields of study at two other classes per week.

State gymnasium http://www.gymrk.sk

There was the least number of IT classes per week from the visited secondary schools in Ružomberok. IT classes are compulsory only in the 1st and 2nd year of study. In the 3rd year there is an optional programming class (Pascal), where there are mainly boys. In the final year there is an option of Computer project class. Changing curricula are different every year. There was a least number of computer rooms. ICT is sometimes used at classes of foreign languages, biology, physics and project class.

Religious gymnasium http://gsa.edupage.org

Similar to the state gymnasium with optional programming classes starting in 3rd grade. Only one girl from 10 was attending optional programming class and she was interested in continuing in IT studies. Students have possibility to use computers also outside of classes, during the break in corridors of school building. Computers are sometimes used in math, foreign languages, biology classes as well in chemistry, physics, history, religion and projects classes.

Introduction to questionnaire

In each school the questionnaire was explained in details at the beginning of class (overall explanation lasted less than 5 minutes). In the first section there were added particular applications or programmes to groups (Social networks – Facebook, Pokec) so that students can comprehend a given question. According Social networking is a common activity that students experience both at school and within their leisure time.



6.2 Pilot testing phase, online version

Online pilot testing phase was carried out at the same secondary schools in Ružomberok where the first paper version of questionnaire was tested: Business secondary school, State gymnasium, Religious gymnasium from February 8th – 19th 2010. In total questionnaires were tested for their validation at three occasions. 59 students from the state and religious secondary schools in Ružomberok had participated. This was in addition to the paper version of questionnaire with further 38 students in the three secondary schools in Ružomberok.

Boys Girls Total

Business secondary school 7 20 27

State gymnasium (4rd year) 5 3 8

Religious gymnasium (3rd year) 8 16 24

20 39 59 FIGURE 6.2 PARTICIPATING SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN PILOT TESTING PHASE, ONLINE VERSION

Online Pilot Testing no.1, State gymnasium, Ružomberok, 2010-03-08 Students logged in the Slovak PREDIL website http://predil.ku.sk and were guided in Project menu to item Online questionnaire. Explanation about pilot online testing took 5 minutes. Students were asked to tell if they comprehend well questions. In 5 minutes students seemed to comprehend completely the methodology and were completing the questionnaire. There occurred few difficulties with some open questions taking them longer time to answer. In 20 minutes, all students had finished the questionnaire and 3 more students finished the questionnaire in more than 12minutes.

Online Pilot Testing no.2, Business secondary school, Ružomberok, 2010-03-17

The testing was realized in two computer classrooms at the same time. As previously at the state gymnasium, students were redirected to the online questionnaire from the PREDIL project SK website. Students had no problems with filling out the questionnaire. Open questions took students longer time to answer. Most difficult questions to answer were the ones about Open Source and Freeware Software as class consisted of girls mainly. In number of cases the online questionnaire froze, but after refreshing the browser participants continued in filling the questionnaire at the same screen. No problems were observed.

Online Pilot Testing no.3, Religious gymnasium, Ružomberok, 2010-03-19

The same methodology used as before. No problems in filling out the questionnaire were observed. In few cases the online questionnaire froze on the internet, but after refreshing the browser participant continued in filling the questionnaire at the same screen.

Conclusion

A number of open questions was not finished by students, as they found them difficult to answer or did not wanted to give own opinions on this matter. All the questions in the Slovak online questionnaire were kept in order to have comparable data from partner countries at least from a part of the segment of students. Cooperation in online questionnaire testing phase was good thanks to teachers of the subject Informatics.



6.3 Online questionnaire results from the quantitative survey

The PREDIL project has launched a large quantitative study for better understanding of ICT representations of students in secondary school within and beyond the PREDIL partner countries. The questionnaire consisted of open and closed questions (see Annex 12) that were developed by the PREDIL consortium since April 2009 to March 2010. The validated online questionnaire was implemented by project partner University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszow using Lime survey3. For the online questionnaire quantitative study around 100 secondary schools across Slovakia were selected from the list of secondary schools33. Participating schools had been contacted by phone and email since April 2010. Online questionnaire study in 9 European languages was conducted from May to June 2010. Teachers played a key role in the study as they guided students in taking part at this study. Following message was presented to students at the PREDIL project Slovak website with the link to online questionnaire: Testing through the online questionnaire is carried out across the European Union in the area of gender inequality, between boys and girls in the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICT). The online questionnaire consists of 27 questions and is divided into the following screens:

1. A note on privacy information 2. General information about a student 3. Experiences about Information-Communication Technology/Computing, experience at home and

at school in this school year 4. Opinions about Information-Communication Technology/Computing in school and Information-

Communication Technology related careers 5. Attitudes 6. Internet and free software

Before the data cleaning process the study sample consisted of 1321 respondents. The data set was cleaned using simple rules: Responses were excluded from the survey on the following grounds:

• Date of birth not between 1990 and 1995 • Less than 70% of the questionnaire completed, in the section Use of software at home and at school.

If a school name was missing, it was deduced from the IP address.

Source (FCFOS): Maps.Google.com. FIRUGE 6.3 MAP OF PARTICIPATED SECONDARY SCHOOLS ON THE PREDIL ONLINE SURVEY IN SLOVAKIA

33 Map of selected schools online at: http://predil.ku.sk/index.php/en/map-of-secondary-schools-sr



Figure 6.3 presents location of participating secondary schools within Slovakia. Secondary schools with at least 20 respondents are listed in the figure below.

Name of secondary school Male Female Total

1 Cirkevné gymnázium Pavla Ušáka Olivu v Poprade 13 37 50

2 Cirkevné gymnázium sv. Mikuláša v Starej Ľubovni 18 35 53

3 Gymnázium Antona Bernoláka v Námestove 38 94 132

4 Gymnázium Duklianskych hrdinov Svidník 56 81 137

5 Gymnázium Franitška Švantnera Nová Baňa 44 57 101

6 Gymnázium Ladislava Sáru Bratislava 26 61 87

7 Gymnázium P.O.Hviezdoslava Dolný Kubín 30 28 58

8 Gymnázium Park mládeže Košice 23 88 111

9 Gymnázium sv. Andreja Ružomberok 11 15 26

10 Gymnázium sv. Františka Assiského Levoča 21 18 39

11 Gymnázium v Tvdošíne 14 21 35

12 Gymnázium v Ružomberku 34 40 74

13 Gymnázium v Turzovke 21 30 51

14 Obchodná akadémia Hlohovec 5 18 23

15 Obchodná akadémia Ružomberok 8 19 27

16 Spojená škola Obchodná akadémia Svidník 9 24 33

17 SPŠ Spišská Nová Ves 20 1 21

18 Súkromná obchodná akadémia Štúrovo 9 15 24

Other schools with less than 20 respondents 11 18 29

TOTAL 411 700 1111

FIGURE 6.4 PARTICIPATING SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN PREDIL STUDY, SLOVAKIA

6.3.1 General information about respondents

From above mentioned secondary schools that participated in the PREDIL quantitative study in Slovakia the sample consisted of 411 male (37%) and 700 female students (63%) after data cleaning. There were 302 students from cities (above 30 000 citizens), 588 from towns (up to 30 000 citizens), 201 from villages (up to 1000 inhabitants) and 20 students left the field blank. 984 respondents were from gymnasiums (general secondary schools), 106 from business secondary schools (obchodné akadémie) and 21 from technical vocational secondary school. From the establishment point of view the secondary schools were of 3 types: public (901 students), religious (180 students) and private (30 students).



FIGURE 6.5 RESPONDENTS ACCORDING TO GENDER, TYPE OF SCHOOL AND RESIDENCY

Below figure 6.6 displays share of secondary school students according to age.

Date of Birth 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995

Number of students 51 128 220 405 245 62

Percentage 4,6 % 11,5 % 19,8 % 36,4 % 22,1 % 5,6 %

FIGURE 6.6 AGE PROFILE OF RESPONDENTS

6.3.2 Experiences about ICT/Computing, at home and at school

How to read following graphs The following legend is adapted from the Durham University project partners’ report The UK National Context. The symbol codes are as follows A solid black square – students who say they often use social networks at school



A grey square – students who say they sometimes use social networks at school A white square – students who say they never use social networks at school Black triangle - students who say they often use social networks at home A grey triangle - students who say they sometimes use social networks at home A white triangle - students who say they never use social networks at home There are a number of things to look for.

• If a symbol falls on the dotted line, then males and females have identical patterns of use. • If a symbol lies above the line, then a higher proportion of girls are represented. • If a symbol lies below the line, then a higher proportion of boys are represented. • If the symbol is close to the origin, then the frequency is low. • If the symbol is far away from the origin, then the frequency is high.

Students were asked 18 questions about use of ICT at school and at home. The following 3 categories group the questions:

• Using packages (word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, graphic arts); • Educational (doing research for school, educational software, download data, creating web pages,

programming), • Social (chat, forums, blogging, social networks, playing games, e-mail, VOIP, surf the web).

Using packages

• Word processor - use at home more often in both girls and boys, then at school • Spreadsheet– use at school is notably higher than at home. Boys report higher use than girls, on

the other hand, in comparison to word processor much less use. • Presentation – reported considerably higher use at home then at school, where girls are leading.

Almost as high as use of word processing. • Database –little use either at school or at home, similar within both genders • Graphic arts – use at home is higher than at school, reported only slightly higher use by girls

Within this category there is slightly higher use of word processing, presentation and graphic arts at home than in school. On the other hand, spreadsheets are used at school more often than at home. There is very little use of databases in general and graphic arts at school. Boys report using spreadsheets more than girls and girls report using presentations more than boys.



FIGURE 6.7USING PACKAGES: WORD PROCESSOR, SPREADSHEET, PRESENTATION, DATABASE AND

GRAPHIC ARTS

Educational • Education software – use at school is a bit higher than at home. There is almost no difference

between boys and girls. • School research – use at home is much higher than at school. Generaly girls do reserach for

school slightly more. • Programming – overal use is very low with slightly more boys in general than girls doing

programming. • Create web pages – neither boys or girls create web pages either at school or at home. On the

other hand, number of boys and girls stated that they would like to learn how to create webpages. • Download data – very often use at home and little use at school. Boys tend to download data at

home slightly more than girls. Dowloading data and school research is carried out much more at home than at school. On the other hand, there is a bit higher use at school than at home. Programming and creating web pages are activities rarely done by the students. There are little differences between genders, girls do slightly more reseach for school and boys do programming and download data slighly more often than girls.



FIGURE 6.8 EDUCATIONAL USE: EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE, SCHOOL RESEARCH, PROGRAMMING, CREATING

WEB PAGES, DOWNLOADING DATA



Social • Surfing the web – lot of use at home, medium use at school with little differences between genders • E-mail– lot of use at home, less use at school. Girls use slightly more often email than boys at

school. • VOIP (voice over IP) - almost no use at school, but at home. Boys use VOIP slightly more often. • Chat – very high use at home, occasional use at school, overally girls tend to use it slightly more

often than boys. • Forum – some usage at home and little usage at school. Boys use forums at home much more. • Blogging – very little use at home and at school. Overally boys use blogging slightly more than

girls. • Playing games – one does not play games at school. At home boys play games much more often

(50%) than girls (13%). • Social networking – very high usage at home, less use at school. 91% of girls and 84% of boys use

social networks at home often, followed by 13% of boys and 7% of girls using social networks at home sometimes.

As expected, social activities are commonly present as leisure activities at home and of some use at school. The biggest differences between genders can be observed in playing games where boys are leading. Girls use email, chat and social networks slightly more than boys. On the other hand, boys use slightly more VOIP, forums and blogging than girls.



FIGURE 6.9 SOCIAL USE: SURFING THE WEB, EMAIL, VOIP, CHAT. FORUM, BLOGGING, PLAYING GAMES AND

SOCIAL NETWORKING



FIGURE 6.10 SOCIAL NETWORK ACTIVITIES

From the range of social network activities, the most often is used messaging (97% of girls, 94% of boys), sharing photos (84% of girls, 73% of boys), sharing music (68% of girls, 57% of boys) sharing information (67% boys and girls), sharing music (68% of girls, 57% of boys), updating status (64% of girls, 49% of boys), sharing videos (50% of girls, 63% of boys), organizing / attending events (50% of girls, 45% of boys), active in groups or causes (50% of girls, 42 % of boys). From this, slightly higher use by girls than boys in sharing photos, sharing music, updating status can be observed. In addition boys play games and share videos more than girls.



As stated in the figure below, regular use of ICT in school subject is only at the classes of informatics and projects. Some use is reported in geography, biology, physics and foreign languages class.



FIGURE 6.11 ICT USE IN SCHOOL SUBJECTS

6.3.3 Attitudes towards ICT and gender In the following figure 6.12 on the right side, there can be seen comparative representational form of three questions on attitudes regarding ICT and gender. On the left side there are same data represented in scatter diagrams that are comparing proportion of boys (horizontal axis) with proportion of girls (vertical axis)

• Student attitudes to superiority of boys (boys better at ICT than girls) - considerable gender differences can be observed as 71% of boys and 49% of girls agree, 14% of boys and 37% of girls disagree with superiority of boys in ICT.

• Student attitudes to parental influence (as motivation effect in ICT) – both genders (74%) agree that family effects motivation in ICT, 17% of students disagree.

• Student attitudes to treatment in ICT class of boys and girls – 71% of male and 80% of female students think that the treatment is equal between genders at ICT classes. 16% of boys and 4% of girls think that girls are treated better, in contrary and 11% of girls and 6% of boys think that boys are treated better.

Stereotype attitudes can be observed in boys and majority of girls as they see boys better at ICT.



FIGURE 6.12 ATTITUDES: BOYS BETTER THAN GIRLS, FAMILY EFFECTS

MOTIVATION IN ICT, TREATMENT OF BOYS AND GIRLS



6.3.4 Career intentions Results from multiple choice questions according to gender are displayed below so for this reason answers add up to more than 100%. Top career intentions of boys displayed in figure 6.13 are in Engineering and Technology (34%), Mathematics and Informatics (31%), Business Studies and Management Sciences (22%), Communication and Information Sciences (17%) and Natural Sciences (17%). Career intentions of girls are in the fields of Medical Sciences (29%), Languages (28%), Natural Sciences (25%), Business Studies and Management Sciences (24%), Art and Design (24%). The most visible gender difference in figure 6.14 within career paths can be observed in the field of Engineering and Technology with 34% of male and only 8% of female students interested.

FIGURE 6.13 UNIVERSITY STUDY CHOICE DISCIPLINES

FIGURE 6.14 UNIVERSITY STUDY CHOICE -DISCIPLINES



FIGURE 6.15 UMIVERSITY STUDY CHOICE ACCORDING TO SCIENCES

Looking at the results from broader spectrum of academic disciplines, it can be said that male students are more interested in Applied Sciences; whereas girls more incline to Humanities and Social Sciences, Commerce and Pure Sciences.

6.3.5 Internet and free software

The Slovak PREDIL team chose additional category in the questionnaire which resulted in complementary information on the use of internet and free software. In figure 6.16 can be observed some gender differences in main reason for connecting to internet: social networks (51% of girls, 31% of boys), downloading data (4% of girls, 16% of boys), searching information for school (15% of girls, 8% of boys), searching information for hobbies (8% of girls, 17% of boys).

FIGURE 6.16 MAIN REASON FOR CONNECTING TO INTERNET

Figure 6.17 presents daily time spent on Internet where in both genders most frequent use is between 1-3 hours. Around 25% of girls reported using internet less than 1 hour per day. Over 30% of male students and almost 20% female students spend 3-4 hours online each day.



FIGURE 6.17 DAILY TIME SPEND ON INTERNET IN HOURS

As displayed in figure 6.18 only less than 20% of female students can name 1 Freeware or Open Source Software. Moving to male students’ knowledge of free software is much higher with 35% knowing Open Source Software and 51% Freeware Software. According to this results number of categories with list of available free software under Open Source Licence and some under Freeware Licence are suggested at PREDIL project website34.

FIGURE 6.18 KNOWLEDGE OF OPEN SOURCE AND FREEWARE SOFTWARE

6.3.6 ICT and gender word cloud representations The participants of the quantitative study were asked to describe girls and boys good at ICT in three words and results are presented below in the form of “word clouds35”. The figure 6.19 displays ICT boy representations of boys and girls. Boys describe ICT boys in terms of being intelligent, clever, handy, gambler, smart, hacker, programmer, maniac, etc. Girls describe ICT boys in terms of being intelligent, handy, clever, educated, maniac, gambler, technically oriented, etc.

FIGURE 6.19 BOYS AND GIRLS DESCRIBE ICT BOY

34 Open Source and Freeware Software: http://predil.ku.sk/index.php/en/useful-software 35 Word clouds were created through online tool Wordle. Retrieved from: www.wordle.net



FIGURE 6.20 BOYS AND GIRLS DESCRIBE ICT GIRL

Figures 6.20 displays ICT girl representations of boys and girls perception. Boys describe ICT girl as being intelligent, clever, skilful, with glasses, good, having knowledge, smart, educated, gambler, nice, etc. Girls describe ICT girl as being intelligent, handy, clever, educated, etc. Because of gender stereotyping about ICT sector in Slovakia, girls have problems imagining ICT girl representations.

FIGURE 6.21 BOYS AND GIRLS OPINION ABOUT ICT STUDY

Figures 6.21 presents opinions about ICT study between boys and girls. Boys have the following opinions about ICT studies: good job, good work, about studying, programming, computers, etc. Girls have the following opinions about ICT studies: better job, good work, future skills, good knowledge, etc. Figure 6.22 presents opinions about ICT career between boys and girls. Boys think that ICT career is: new, good paid work, salary, job, programming, interesting, useful, etc. Girls have the following opinions about ICT career: good salary, good work, know information, new, good skills, etc.

FIGURE 6.22 BOYS AND GIRLS OPINION ABOUT ICT CAREER



6.4 Summary of quantitative study

In using packages boys report using spreadsheets more than girls and girls report using presentations more than boys. In the educational part little differences between genders can be observed, girls do slightly more reseach for school and boys do programming and download data slighly more often than girls. In the social part the biggest differences between genders can be observed in playing games where boys are leading. Girls use email, chat and social networks slightly more than boys. On the other hand, boys use slightly more VoIP, forums and blogging than girls. Within social networks there can be reported slightly higher use by girls than boys in sharing photos, sharing music, updating status can be observed. In addition boys play games and share videos more than girls. Use of ICT in school subjects is regular only in classes of informatics and also projects, followed by some use in geography, physics, biology and foreign languages classes. In students’ attitudes to superiority of boys in ICT considerable gender differences can be observed as 71% of boys and 49% of girls agree, 14% of boys and 37% of girls disagree with superiority of boys in ICT. Student of both genders agree (74%) that family effects motivation to ICT. Regarding treatment of boys and girls in ICT class 71% of male and 80% of female students think that the treatment is equal between genders at ICT classes. Stereotype attitudes can be observed in boys and majority of girls as they see boys better at ICT. Top study fields for boys are Engineering and Technology, Mathematics and Informatics, Business Studies and Management Sciences, Communication and Information Sciences and Natural Sciences. Intentions to study at university for girls are in the fields of Medical Sciences, Languages, Natural Sciences, Business Studies and Management Sciences, Art and Design. The most visible gender difference can be observed in the field of Engineering and Technology with 34% of male and only 8% of female students interested. Results from additional section introduced by the Slovak PREDIL team (within PREDIL consortium) show that there are some gender differences in main purpose in connecting to internet: social networks (51% of girls, 31% of boys), downloading data (4% of girls, 16% of boys), searching information for school (15% of girls, 8% of boys), searching information for hobbies (8% of girls, 17% of boys). Still, main reason for going online is social networking. Most respondents spend 1-3 hours daily on internet. Our findings show that less than 20% of female students can name 1 Freeware or Open Source Software. Male students’ knowledge of free software is higher with 35% knowing Open Source Software and 51% Freeware Software. Girls, but also boys need to gain more knowledge about freely available software alternatives for gaining interest in work with software applications that they could use in their future career in digital era. Participants of the quantitative study were appealed to describe girls and boys good at ICT in three words. Word cloud analyses of these open questions pointed out that the male students describe boys good in ICT in terms of being intelligent, clever, handy, smart, on the other hand as gamblers, maniacs, etc. Girls describe ICT boys in terms of being intelligent, handy, clever, educated, and also as maniacs, gamblers, technically oriented, etc. Boys describe ICT girl as intelligent, clever, skilful, having glasses, being good, having good knowledge, smart, educated, nice, being gamblers, etc. Female students describe girls good in ICT as intelligent, handy, clever, educated, etc. Probably because of gender stereotyping about ICT sector, girls have fewer ICT representations about girls as boys do. Concerning opinions about studying in the field of ICT between boys and girls, the boys consider potential ICT studies in terms of having better opportunities for a good job, of studying. They think that studying Informatics is mainly about programming, etc. Girls think they could benefit from opportunities in job possibilities, future skills, good knowledge, etc. The main message about ICT career between boys and girls was that boys perceive an ICT career as: being “in”, well paid, good job, a lot of programming, being interesting, useful, etc. Girls have similar opinions about ICT career: opportunities for good salary, job, information, good skills, etc.



7 PREDIL Conference and Workshop Proceedings

7.1 Conference organization

Slovak and English website of the PREDIL project and conference online at: http://predil.ku.sk/ All presentations from the conference participants are available to view and download in Pdf format.

FIGURE 7.1 PREDIL CONFERENCE AND WORKSHOP WEBSITE (SK, EN)

On the main site there is available the Book of Abstracts in the PDF format.

Ertl B.; Kikis-Papadakis, K., Laš, L.; Nemec, P. PREDIL Conference and Workshop. Spišská Kapitula 7-9. September 2010. Book of Abstracts. VERBUM – Catholic University in Ružomberok Press, Ružomberok. ISBN 978-80-8084-601-5

7.2 Conference presentations and posters

In the context of the PREDIL project, the team from the Faculty of Education of Catholic University in Ružomberok, has had several presentations about the project in general and on issues of gender and ICT at school education. The following section presents abstracts of conference presentations and posters.



Gunčaga, J.; Majherová, J. Contribution of ICT for achievement of educational objectives in mathematics and informatics. Catholic University in Ružomberok, Faculty of Education, Slovakia. IN: Book of Abstracts, p. 13.

ABSTRACT

In today’s teaching of mathematics and computer science, there is an aim on students gaining competences for the work with information on the higher level. This means an ability to connect different areas of mathematics and informatics or to work with various representations of given problem. We identified reasons for integration of ICT in mathematics education with focus on application in the inter-subject relationships. The new Slovak curriculum ISCED 3 points out the importance of digital competencies in the field of mathematics and computer science. Didactics of mathematics also highlights aspects of visualization and simulation of processes with the help of computer. The options of didactic- mathematical program packages allow students to work with the models of mathematical objects. We used the modelling on the lessons of algorithms and programming. The important part of the teaching is the specification of the educational goals. We have implemented the experimental teaching at the high school and assessed the development of the cognitive process of pupils according to the revised Bloom's taxonomy.

Nemec, P. Laš, L. Findings from the PREDIL Quantitative Study in Slovakia. Catholic University in Ružomberok, Faculty of Education Slovakia. IN: Book of Abstracts, p. 32.

ABSTRACT

The contribution will provide a snapshot to quantitative study held in secondary schools (state, private and religious), aimed at the mapping of ICT representations of male and female students of the age group 15-19 years in context with the PREDIL’s research objectives. Among other findings a research methodology, which includes a school selection process and means of including them in the online questionnaire will be presented. In addition, a number of supplementary questions have been used in Slovakia in order to determine and compare it with a previous research on Internet use, and to discover students’ knowledge of Open Source and Free software. The research sample after data-cleaning counts for more than 1000 inputs, which were analysed by the statistical software. Important stress will be also placed on the use of online social networks as they are becoming growing important parts of our daily lives and could be used extensively in learning based environment and as motivational tools. As an output, the main findings and generalization will be presented focusing on gender, age, type of school, social, geographical and overall aspects.

Palásthy H., Popracová B. Development projects of students of high school. Catholic University in Ružomberok, Faculty of Education, Slovakia. IN: Book of Abstracts, p. 43.

Poster ABSTRACT

The game is one of the fundamental phenomena of human life, the most common childhood phenomenon. It can be considered a form of human activity, a dimension of life. In general, the game is considered a type of activity that provides entertainment, distraction, cheerful and satisfaction and self-realization is a single man. There is activity on a warrant does not contain the sense of responsibility. In the article the authors deal with the game as an appropriate activity for the learning process as well as programming games in high school. Keywords: game, development projects, activity, Imagine



Nemec, P. Laš, L. Spectrum of Indexes Related to the PREDIL Study. Catholic University in Ružomberok, Faculty of Education, Slovakia. IN: Book of Abstracts, p. 45.

Poster presentation ABSTRACT

Both domains, gender and ICT frequently resonate nowadays throughout the EU member countries and institutions. Under the goals of social inclusion, the digital literacy development is expected to improve the education qualification structures in EU regions. The poster will display some issues of ICT and gender through PREDIL's objectives, in comparison to studies on digital literacy conducted in Slovakia. The studies are based on regional classification of digital literacy and imply the Digital Literacy Index. Other indexes presented will put the issues of digital literacy into a deeper context from the point of view of the digital gap. On the other side, some indexes that provide gender specifications will be analyzed. Moreover the poster will present the issues of PREDIL's project study in Slovakia.

Kútna, A. Use of ICT in teaching geography. Catholic University in Ružomberok, Faculty of Education, Slovakia. IN: Book of Abstracts, p. 44.

Poster ABSTRACT

Information and communication technology provides outstanding tool for providing most recent information and also fact, that pupil can choose right information which he needs. By using Information and communication technology we can improve teaching of geography, which can became didactic and interesting for each pupil. It will be not limited only for explaining of facts. Teacher, who is using appropriate facilities in reasonable way, is contributing to make positive atmosphere in class. Keywords: ICT, geography, educational programs, questionnaire

Palásthy, H.; Palásthy, J.; Bednáříková (Kútna), A. Using the Internet to Create Learning Materials. Catholic University in Ružomberok, Faculty of Education, Slovakia. IN: Book of Abstracts, p. 49.

Workshop ABSTRACT

Rapid innovation in information and communication technologies creates a new dimension to the existing methods and forms of teaching. We live in a period characterized by the introduction of e-learning practices in education. The combination of classical learning and ICT teacher draws on experience and benefits of computer technology. Effective way of teaching is project teaching, in which we can use some progressive teaching methods as problem teaching, cooperative teaching and discussion. The mere implementation of the project form on lessons is not fixed and therefore do not restrict teacher´s creativity and ways of implementation of the lesson. Education will become more attractive, more efficient, targeted, and communication with students will become simpler. The workshop will be given extracts of options that allow us to ICT technologies.



CONCLUSION

Not long ago, before the global economic crisis, Slovakia was referred by international media as economic tiger with the fastest economic growth in the region supported by a number of foreign investments. These investments were done mainly in car manufacturing industry but many of present international corporations are in the field of ICT36 and have set up their service branches in Slovakia. Available data on average monthly salaries for years 2009 and 2010 from the Statistical office of SR presents information and communication field as the most lucrative. As the ICT sector is concerned, we can see relatively high presence of women mainly in low skilled positions like clerical work, call centre support and in manufacturing. In these jobs salaries tend to be lower in comparison to more attractive ICT positions. In this respect high skilled IT positions are dominated by men. This is caused mainly by stereotypical views of IT professions as predominantly male, which results in lower uptake of these types of university degrees by women in comparison to men in Slovakia. Women represent 7% of Bachelor and Master IT students and around 12% of PhD students, which is lowest among university study disciplines according to the most recent data (2010) from UIPŠ. As an occupational choice is concerned there are 9 female applicants per 100 applications for ICT position according to biggest Slovak job portal Profesia.sk. There exist ‘digital’ disparities across the Slovak regions, although the digital divide is narrowing due to investment in informatization and successful diffusion of IT into all spheres of life. Qualified ICT labour force is concentrated in large cities37 where IT companies are based (e.g. Bratislava, Košice, Žilina..). There is high demand for qualified ICT labour force in Slovakia. Therefore it is a reasonable argument for promoting equality in digital literacy in Slovakia, so that more women could be attracted into STEM and particularly to IT related disciplines for the sake of regional development and preservation of regional qualification structures needed. Especially in times of global negative externalities that hold growth or even lower salaries and increase prices, it is important to keep high quality labour force in the regions, to support industries with high added values and to promote partnerships between universities, private sector and innovation centres, as well as to comprehend how important the potential of women in this regard is. The leading role should play all types of media in presenting shift in gender role stereotype images. The PREDIL quantitative research38 was conducted across Slovakia (2010) at secondary schools, mainly in general secondary schools (gymnasiums), business secondary schools (academies) but also in one technical secondary school. The Slovak PREDIL team approached all together 100 secondary schools with positive responses and have collected over 1100 filled in online questionnaires after data cleaning

36 Further future investments in the field of IT can be expected as growing number of companies that in order to lower expenses and increase profits are looking for outsourcing options within EU borders where inexpensive and skilled labour force is available. 37 The ‘brain-drain’ phenomenon is accelerated by high unemployment rate, rising costs of living and other socio-economical barriers. It results in migration of individuals with technical skills, talent and knowledge from economically less-developed regions into more developed regions or cities and causes negative transformation of a given regional qualification structure. If there is no ICT labour force in a given region, there is no opportunity for ICT sector to be moved/developed/promoted there. 38 Further analyses of results from quantitative study on the EU level from 6 project countries (Slovakia, France, Switzerland, France, Poland, UK) with at least 250 respondents are presented in the Comparative Analyses Report developed by Durham University partners. Analysis of textbooks on gender-balanced representation of man and women in online and offline information resources on ICT (such as study materials for teachers and students) is presented in a comparative report made by the Bundeswehr University partners.



from 18 schools with at least 20 respondents. The subject Informatics plays a minor role in Slovak curricula but it is taught as a separate subject that focuses mainly on ICT basics and Office suite, and can continue as an optional subject programming in gymnasiums. From analyzed results there cannot be seen any major differences in use of ICT between boys and girls, apart that boys play at home games more often than girls. There were also some minor insignificant differences (around 10%) in use of free time at home as girls tend to do more often presentations and research for school while boys tend to use more often spreadsheets and forums, do more programming and download data more than girls. As school environment is concerned there are only some minor insignificant differences (around 10%) as girls tend to use email and social networks more often and boys tend to do more programming and use spreadsheets more often. As social networking is becoming global epidemic online phenomena of 21st century, our findings show that over 95% of secondary school students use them often or sometimes at home. We have looked further at differences of use of available supporting applications and we have again found no major but only some minor gender differences. On social networks girls tend to update their status more often, share music and photos more and they are more active in groups or causes. On the other hand boys tend to share more often videos and play games. There was interesting finding in the main reason for connecting to internet as around 50% of girls and 30% of boys stated social networks as the main reason, followed by chat and discussion forums for both boys and girls, downloading data and searching for information for hobbies by boys and searching for information for school by girls. Daily time spent on Internet by both genders was mainly between 1-3 hours. Creation of specific interest groups, causes, pages and games on social networks like Facebook should be used as information dissemination channel aimed at teenagers, for future inclusion of women in the growing ICT field. As future career choice is concerned there are significant gender differences as top favourite university degree choices for boys are engineering and technology, math and informatics, followed by business studies. Girls choose for their future careers medical sciences, languages, art and design, business studies, natural and social sciences followed by humanities. This indicates also that boys have clearer picture about their future career as students could choose multiple answers and presented responses are with at least 20% share. Applied sciences are a male dominated field choice of study and women plan to choose more often pure sciences, humanities and social sciences for their university degree. How to attract more girls into STEM and particularly to ICT careers is a very complex question and has to be looked at from many different angles starting at an early age in both genders from toys39 used and games played, continuing with after school activities and hobbies, and finally by changing dull image of IT computing male careers, presentation of successful female role models and by giving girls more personal examples of jobs that take into account social aspects. Implementation of knowledge gained from projects and initiatives at secondary and primary schools will result in greater encouragement of girls to enter gender atypical career paths. Use of digital curricula and ICT technologies on daily basis in education process should be encouraged and supported. When subject informatics is concerned Open Source software alternatives should be explored on larger scale, while allowing students to choose between different types of freely available applications each year. In the fast pace of digital era and gigantic growth of online IT companies, there is a need for Slovakia and whole EU to use human resources to full potential in order to compete as a major global player in this important field that supports innovation and further creation of jobs also in other industries. International certification in ICT must also play the key role. By year 2010 over 7,6 million ECDL certificates40 have been received across European continent by successful digitally literate Europeans. This number includes over 26 thousand people of all ages and backgrounds in Slovakia. ECDL certification, together with

39 Barbie Computer Engineer (2010). Online at: http://www.barbie.com/vote/ 40 ECDL (European Computer Driver License) Slovakia (2010). Online at: http://www.ecdl.sk/



English language certification should be included in secondary school curricula for our young generation of adults to be prepared to compete with other knowledge-based societies in the global digital era of 21st century. It was not possible to obtain some types of national data for the purpose of comparison with national data of PREDIL project partners. On the other side, a lot of related information, e.g. about digital literacy is available thanks to studies carried by IVO and other institutions. To conclude, it has to be said, that legislation framework is in place, ICT infrastructure is constantly being developed and various initiatives are running. It is important to gain more from this potential. The more attention is being paid to education and training, the more it is possible to succeed in the global competition, in keeping pace not only within the EU but also with rising economies in Asia. The key potential of Slovakia lies in its human resources; therefore women can contribute and amplify potential of competitiveness and progress of the country in the new millennium.



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ANNEXES

No. Annex Source

1 Labour market indicators: Slovakia. Employment in Europe (2010), European Commission

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=738&langId=en&pubId=593 (FCFOS)

2 Gender Gap Index 10 profile Slovakia (WEF, 2010)

http://www.weforum.org/pdf/gendergap/report2010.pdf (FCFOS)

3 Gender Equity Index World and Slovakia (Social Watch, 2009)

http://www.socialwatch.org/node/11561 (FCFOS)

http://www.socialwatch.org/node/497 (FCFOS)

4 Specific vocational guidance to challenge traditional career choices available and Gender equality policies or projects in higher education in 2008/2009 (EURYDICE, 2010)

http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/thematic_reports/eu_press_release/120EN_HI.pdf (FCFOS)

5 ICT profile Slovakia (EU, Brussels, 2010) http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/digital-agenda/documents/countryprofiles.pdf (FCFOS)

6 Networked Readiness Index profile Slovakia (NRI, WEF, 2010)

http://www.weforum.org/pdf/GITR10/GITR%202009-2010_Full%20Report%20final.pdf (FCFOS)

7 Legal Provisions on development of information society in Slovakia

PREDIL Team Slovakia

8 Legal Provisions on gender equality in Slovakia PREDIL Team Slovakia

9 Questionnaire IT professionals Slovakia PREDIL Team Slovakia

10 ICT teachers interview PREDIL Team Slovakia

11 Undergraduate & Postgraduate Degree Choice Interview IT University Students


12 Online Questionnaire Secondary School Students PREDIL Project Team EU

13 PREDIL quantitative study results from the part “ICT Use at Home and at School


14 Additional information PREDIL Team Slovakia



Annex 1 (FCFOS): Labour market indicators: Slovakia. Employment in Europe. (EC, 2010).



Annex 2 (FCFOS): Gender Gap Index profile Slovakia (WEF, 2010)



Annex 3 (FCFOS): Gender Equity Index World and Slovakia (GEI 72) (Social Watch, 2009)



Annex 4 (FCFOS): Specific vocational guidance to challenge traditional career choices available and Gender equality policies or projects in higher education in 2008/2009 (EURYDICE, 2010)



Annex 5 (FCFOS): ICT profile Slovakia (EU, Brussels, 2010)



Annex 6 (FCFOS): Networked Readiness Index profile Slovakia



Annex 7: Legal Provisions on information society in Slovakia

Relevant legal provisions (EN,SK) Description

(pieces cited from the website of the Ministry of Finance of the SR or particular summaries)

Time Frame

Information Society Strategy 2009-2013

Stratégia informatizácie spoločnosti na roky 2009 - 2013

Apart from the effort to reflect the new areas and trends of ICT development, this high-profile strategic document for the development of information society has also been inspired by a need to streamline and update the existing strategic documents the timeframes of which have been mostly expired. At the same time, it has become necessary to clearly define the key areas of information society development, emphasise mutual linkages, and put in place a framework for the new, partial strategic documents covering different areas of information society development, which either have been or are being prepared..

2009

The concept of using software products in public administration

Koncepcia využívania softvérových produktov vo verejnej správe

It is a document whose purpose is to define a framework strategy for the acquisition, employment and operation of software products in an environment of public administration, building on the objectives of public administration in the coming years in accordance with the requirements and recommendations.

2009

eGovernment Strategy of the Slovak Republic

Stratégia informatizácie verejnej správy

The Government of the Slovak Republic undertook in its policy statement to modernize the public administration through greater efficiency and the roll out of e-Government capabilities. The intention is to build a modern public administration, which the citizens will be satisfied with, which will fulfil its tasks in the most effective way, which will be transparent and minimally burden citizens, businessmen and other public bodies..

2008

The National Concept of eGovernment

Národná koncepcia informatizácie verejnej správy

The document: defines the framework of eGovernment for the administration service processes to be efficiently digitalised throughout the entire public administration structure; principles for the activities of public administration entities in ICT application to follow a concept resulting in the digitalisation of administration service processes, provision of efficient public eServices, and to support a government program resolution with respect to public administration modernisation; the architecture of integrated PAIS for public administration to provide the public with all types of information, communication and transaction eServices via various access channels, and to also establish conditions for their efficient provision..

2008




(pieces cited from the website of the Ministry of Finance of the SR or particular summaries)

Time Frame

National Strategy of the SR for Digital Integration

Národná stratégia Slovenskej republiky pre digitálnu integráciu

In accordance with the priorities of the EU the document calls on government, local authorities, third sector organizations to address and implement specific actions and measures in the areas of digital integration. Opportunities oriented towards digital inclusion as many people at risk of digital exclusion in the information society have been grouped into five main areas which are touched on. This document reflects need to address the digital inclusion of socially disadvantaged groups of citizens.

2008

The Concept of Informatics and Informatization of Education

Koncepcia informatiky a informatizácie školstva

The aim is to bring closer the Slovak education system to modern European schools preparing students for the knowledge society over the years with a view to 2013. The EU considers information technology as crucial in implementing a strategic plan to become the most competitive country in the world. The SR has long been seen as not keeping pace with this challenge. It is therefore necessary to identify strategic objectives to complete basic infrastructure and to monitor trends in the development of information and communication technologies for the process of informatization in education.

2007

Road Map for Implementation of Electronic Government Services

Cestovná mapa zavádzania elektronických služieb verejnej správy

It was developed through the Strategy for Information Society in the SR. The Government approved the conclusions of the Competitiveness Strategy of Slovakia until 2010. This is a comprehensive proposal. It will build eGovernment in Slovakia conceptually through the introduction of electronic services. It contains a timetable for implementation of all activities.

2005

Information Society Strategy within the Conditions of the SR

Stratégia informatizácie spoločnosti v podmienkach SR

It is implemented through action plans, ie. specific and binding timetables for activities associated with the process of the informatization of society. Action plans contain commitments to tasks and a list of institutions responsible for their implementation. Information Society Strategy contains annexes: ICT infrastructure, informatization of public administration, education, electronic commerce and business research and development of safety and protection of digital environment

2004

Policies for Informatization of Society in the SR

Politika informatizácie spoločnosti v SR

It follows from results of the initiative of eEurope and is a key document in the field of informatization of society. One of the priority objectives of this policy is to develop and promote long-term strategy of information society in Slovakia and its implementation through short-term action plans and medium-term programmes.

2001

Apart from these legislations, the Ministry of Finance of the SR presents at its official website also further relevant legislations connected to the process of information society development; National Sustainable Development Strategy from 2001 (Národná stratégia trvalo udrťateľného rozvoja), the Competitiveness Strategy of the SR until 2010 from 2005 (Stratégia konkurencieschopnosti Slovenska do roku 2010), National Reform Programme from 2005, 2006, 2008 (Národný program reforiem SR).



Annex 8: Legal Provisions on gender equality in Slovakia


(Summaries cited from the ministry website of or particular summaries)

Time Frame

National Action Plan for Gender Equality for the years 2010 – 2013

Národný akčný plán rodovej rovnosti na roky 2010 –

2013

The Plan proposes the creation of a new model for the functioning of legislative and institutional provision for the implementation of gender equality based on comparative analysis. In view of the extremely range of areas affected by the implementation of equal opportunities and the continuing low level of enforceability of the right to equal treatment, a part of the activities in the Plan are dedicated to providing additional information and raising awareness of the potential of all actors.

2010

National Strategy for Gender Equality for the years 2009-2013

Národná stratégia rodovej rovnosti na roky 2009-2013

This strategy presents the public interest and the political will to implement gender mainstreaming in public policy at all levels and at all stages of implementation. Placing gender issues at the centre of policy will require changes in the way policy is made and implemented, a new organisational culture and cooperation between participants at all levels. The objective of the strategy is to incorporate the question of a policy’s significance for men and women into the implementation of the policy at all levels and degrees of management.

2009

Law no. 365/2004, On Equal Treatment in Certain Areas and Protection against Discrimination, amending and

supplementing certain other laws

Zákon č. 365 2004 Z.z. o rovnakom zaobchádzaní v niektorých oblastiach a o ochrane pred diskrimináciou a

o zmene a doplnení niektorých predpisov

This Act regulates the application of the principle of equal treatment and provides means of legal protection, if there is a violation of this principle. Respect for the principle of equal treatment lies in the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of sex, religion or belief, race, nationality or ethnic origin, disability, age, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, colour, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

2004



Annex 9: ICT Teachers Interview

1. Do you see any differences in use and performance between male and female students in subject

Informatics? If yes, wherein? (Could you state some examples, please)

2. How would you motivate more female students to study/ follow career in the ICT field?

3. What do you think is the main cause of low female representation in ICT field?

4. Do you encourage female students to study ICT?

5. Do you observe any patterns in using software between male and female students?

6. What do your students think about a career path in ICT sector?

7. Do you think that after-school activities can attract students into ICT career path?

8. How do you assess present curriculum of Informatics as a secondary school subject?

9. How would you encourage your colleagues to implement ICT in their classes?

10. What kind of role plays digital curricula in 21st century classroom?

Interview s učiteľom informatiky

1. Vidíte nejaké rozdiely v používaní IKT a pri výkone medzi študentmi a študentkami v predmete

Informatika? Ak áno, v čom? (Mohli by ste uviesť niektoré príklady, prosím.)

2. Ako by ste motivovali viac študentiek k štúdiu / nasledovnej kariére v oblasti IKT?

3. Čo je hlavnou príčinou nízkeho zastúpenia žien v oblasti IKT?

4. Podporujete študentky k štúdiu IKT?

5. Pozorujete určití pracovní návyky pri používaní softvéru medzi študentmi a študentkami?

6. Čo si myslia študenti o kariérnej dráhe v IKT?

7. Myslíte si, že mimo školské aktivity môžu prilákať študentov ku kariére v IKT?

8. Ako hodnotíte súčasné osnovy stredoškolského predmetu informatika?

9. Ako by ste povzbudil svojich kolegov k implementácii IKT pri vyučovaní?

10. Akú úlohu podľa vás zohráva digitálne kurikulum v triede 21.storočia?



Annex 10: Undergraduate & Postgraduate Degree Choice Interview IT University Students

1. Do you think that your earning potential will be high with a degree in this subject?

2. Do you need a degree in this subject for your future career?

3. Did you enjoy subject ICT at primary/secondary school?

4. Were you good at subject ICT at primary/secondary school?

5. What is the main reason why you decided to take on studies in your field?

6. How would you get more female students to study in the ICT field?

Výber vysokoškolského učiteľského/študijného odboru informatika u univerzitných študentov

1. Myslíte si, že váš zárobkový potenciál bude vysoký s titulom v tejto oblasti?

2. Potrebujete akademický titul z tohto predmetu pre svoju budúcu kariéru?

3. Mali ste radi predmet informatika na strednej škole?

4. Boli ste dobrý v predmete informatika na strednej škole?

5. Aký bol hlavný dôvod pre výber vášho študijného odboru?

6. Ako by ste (čím, akým spôsobom) pritiahli viac študentiek do študijného odboru IKT?



Annex 11: Questionnaire IT professionals

1. Gender � male � female

2. Year of birth:

3. Did you receive university degree in the field...?

� Informatics � other field: ...................................... � without university degree

4. If you have graduated from the Informatics, why have you chosen this field?

5. Why did you decided to work in IT sector?

6. Do you master any of the programming languages? If yes, which one?

7. How many years experience do you have in IT sector?

8. Do you work in � private sector � public administration � other

9. Did you undergo work mobility in IT sector abroad?

10. How many times have you changed employer in your professional career in IT sector?

11. Present work position

12. How long have you been working for present employer?

13. Are you satisfied with your financial assessment?

14. What are the pros and cons in your work?

15. Do you have enough free time, or do you devote your free time to work in any way after work

hours?

16. Do you take part in further education while at work? If yes, does your employer demand it or you

participate from your own will?

17. Would you like to work in IT sector also in the future? If no, why?

18. Are you satisfied with your career growth?

19. Could you estimate percentage representation of men and women in your work team?

20. Do you see any fundamental gender differences at your workplace?

21. What are your ambitions in career growth in IT sector?

22. Would you like to start business in ICT sector?

23. How would you motivate women, to be more interested to work in the IT field?

Thank you for your time.



Annex 12: Online Questionnaire for Secondary School Students

VŠEOBECNÉ INFORMÁCIE O RESPONDENTOVI / TKE

Muž �� Žena ��

Rok narodenia:

Ročník:

Názov školy :

Typ školy: �� Gymnázium

�� Stredná škola s technickým zameraním

�� Obchodná akadémia

Škola: �� Štátna �� Súkromná �� Cirkevná

Miesto bydliska:

�� mesto nad obyvateľov

�� mesto do 30 000 obyvateľov

�� sídlo do 1000 obyvateľov

Chceme vedieť čo si myslíte o informačno-komunikačnyćh technológiach / Informatike a o spôsoboch ich využívania v škole.

Frekvencia využívania informačno-komunikačných technológii (IKT)

1.1 Ako často využívate IKT v škole a doma v tomto školskom roku (Prosím zaškrtnite)

MS – Microsoft Office OO – Open Office

ČA

ST

O

NIE

KE

DY

NIK

DY

Chc

el/a

by

som

sa

naučiť

Textový procesor ŠKOLA

(MS Word, OO Writer..) DOMA

Tabuľkový procesor ŠKOLA

(MS Excel, OO Calc..) DOMA

Prezentácie ŠKOLA

(MS Powerpoint, OO Impress..) DOMA

Databázy ŠKOLA

(MS Access, MySQL, OO Base..) DOMA

Práca s grafikou ŠKOLA

(MS Picture Manager, Photoshop, Corel, Gimp..) DOMA



Surfovanie na Internete ŠKOLA

DOMA

Sťahovanie dát ŠKOLA

DOMA

Chatovanie ŠKOLA

DOMA

Fóra ŠKOLA

DOMA

Blogovanie ŠKOLA

DOMA

Email ŠKOLA

DOMA

Tvorba webstránok ŠKOLA

DOMA

Hranie hier ŠKOLA

DOMA

Edukačné programy ŠKOLA

(k predmetom) DOMA

Hlasová komunikácia cez Internet ŠKOLA

(Skype, Google Talk, Jajah..) DOMA

Programovanie ŠKOLA

DOMA

Vyhľadávanie informácii do školy ŠKOLA

DOMA

Sociálne siete ŠKOLA

(Facebook, Pokec. MySpace, Twitter, Second Life, Tagged, HI5, Unister...)

DOMA

Ak ste uviedli v časti “Sociálne siete”, že ich využívate “často” alebo ”niekedy”, mohli by ste bližšie

špecifikovať, aké druhy aplikácií alebo nástrojov využívate pri sociálnych sieťach (vyberte koľko

potrebujete).

� písanie správ � zdieľanie fotografií � zdieľanie hudby

� zdieľanie videa � hranie hier � zdieľanie informácií

� aktívny v skupinách � aktualizovanie svojho statusu (tweeting)

� organizovanie /zúčastňovanie sa podujatí � ďalšie...(Prosím špecifikujte)



1.2 Ako často v škole používate vy alebo učiteľ počítač v nasledujúcich predmetoch v tomto školskom roku? (prosím zaškrtnite)

Neštudujem Často Niekedy Nikdy

Informatika

Slovenčina

Matematika

Cudzie jazyky

Biológia

Chémia

Fyzika

Dejepis

Náuka o spoločnosti

Ekonómia

Geografia

Etika

Náboženstvo

Estetika

Projekty

Telesná výchova

Iné (Prosím špecifikujte)

2.1 Názory na IKT v škole a na kariéru spojenú s IKT

Čo by ste poradili učiteľom aby pomohli študentom naučiť sa o počítačoch/IKT?

Napíšte 3 slová ktoré vystihujú dievča, ktoré je dobré v počítačoch....

Napíšte 3 slová ktoré vystihujú chlapca, ktorý je dobrý v počítačoch....

Napíšte aspoň jednu pozitívnu vec na vysokoškolskom štúdiu informatiky...

Napíšte aspoň jednu pozitívnu vec na práci v oblasti informatiky.....

O aký typ vysokoškolského štúdia mate záujem? � Poľnohospodárstvo � Právo � Umenie a dizajn � Matematika, informatika � Obchodný odbor a manažérske vedy � Lekárske vedy � Učiteľstvo � Prírodné vedy � Inžinierstvo, technológie � Spoločenské vedy � Geografia, geológia � Komunikačné a informačné vedy � Humanitné vedy � Iná oblasť štúdia (Prosím špecifikujte) � Jazyky � Nechcem ďalej študovať (na vysokej škole)



2.2 Postoje

Niektorí ľudia si myslia, že chlapci sú úspešnejší v používaní počítačov? Čo si myslíte vy?

� súhlasím � nesúhlasím � nemám na to názor

Prosím, uveďte dôvody.

Myslíte si, že rodinné faktory (ekonomická situácia, rodinná tradícia, apod.) majú vplyv pri voľbe kariéry u chlapcov a dievčat?

ÁNO NIE

Prosím, uveďte dôvody.

Myslíte si, že na hodinách technických predmetov (matematika, informatika...) je rovnaký prístup k dievčatám a chlapcom?

� k chlapcom lepší, viac s nimi komunikujú � rovnaký � k dievčatám lepší, viac s nimi komunikujú

Prosím, uveďte príklad.

3.1 Užívanie Internetu

Z akých dôvodov sa najčastejšie pripájate na Internet?

� hľadám informácie potrebné pre štúdium � hľadám informácie týkajúce sa mojich záľub

� chatovanie, diskusné fóra atď � nevyhľadávam informácie, surfujem pre zábavu

� sťahujem softvér, hudbu, filmy, obrázky, apod. � vytváram/spravujem web stránku, publikujem

� sociálne siete (Facebook, Myspace, Pokec…), � pripájam sa z iných dôvodov _______________

Kde najčastejšie používate Internet?

� doma � v škole � u priateľov/príbuzných

� všade cez mobilný internet � v internetovej kaviarni/herni � v knižnici

� na inom mieste _______________

Koľko času počas dňa trávite priemerne na Internete?

� menej ako 1 hodinu � 1-2 � 2-3 � 3-4 � 4-5 � viac ako 5 hodín denne

3.2 Dodatočné otázky

Napíšte meno 1 softvéru pod open source licenciou (voľne dostupný, šíriteľný, modifikovateľný softvér so zdrojovým kódom). ______________________

Napíšte meno 1 freeware softvéru (voľne dostupný a šíriteľný softvér) ______________________



Annex 13: PREDIL quantitative study results from the part “ICT Use at Home and at School”



Annex 14: Additional Information

Statistics on-line • UNECE – United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (statistics in the field of gender

differences in Europe and North America) http://www.unece.org/stats/gender/web/

• WIDNET – Women in Development Network (statistics in the fields of health, education, employnment, decision making participation) http://www.focusintl.com/statangl.htm

• GDI – Gender-related development index – Rank of Slovakia in the world by OSN http://hdr.undp.org/statistics/data/indicators.cfm?x=227&y=1&z=1

• GEM – Gender empowerment measure – Rank of Slovakia in the world by OSN http://hdr.undp.org/statistics/data/indicators.cfm?x=238&y=1&z=1

• WB – database of the World Bank http://genderstats.worldbank.org/

Women, science and technology • Excellence and Innovation – Gender Equality in Science, EC

http://www.goodfood-project.org/www/Gender/gender%20equality%20in%20science.pdf • National Contact Centre - Women in Science is project of the Institute of Sociology,

http://www.zenyaveda.cz/html/index.php?s1=1&s2=5&s3=2&lng=12 • EC, CORDIS; National Policies on Women and Science in Europe

http://cordis.europa.eu/improving/women/policies.htm • Gender Advisory Board, Gender, Science and Technology Gateway

http://gstgateway.wigsat.org/ • WIGSAT: Women, Technology, Society

http://www.wigsat.org/ • Development, Technology and Gender – Mainstreaming

http://gstgateway.wigsat.org/gen/genmain.shtml

Related links • Institute of Information and Prognosis of Ministry of Education Slovakia

http://www.uips.sk/ • Council of Europe, recommendation on media education

http://www.radaeuropy.sk/?736 • Office for National Statistics, data on internet access

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=5672 • ITU - International Telecommunication Union

http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/connect/gblview/index.html • Internet World Statistics, Slovak profile

http://www.internetworldstats.com/eu/sk.htm • IT News, Infoware (with SITA, TASR)

http://www.itnews.sk/tituly/infoware • Gender Mainstreaming Slovakia

http://www.gender.gov.sk/index.php?sID=3b08405a8d765135f3cbc17651613c25 • Slovak IT portal

http://www.informatici.sk/ • Ministry of Education Slovak republic, Informatization of Slovak education

http://www.minedu.sk/index.php?lang=sk&rootId=1316

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