Comenius Institute takes over the management of EDUpoints

EDUpoints educate teachers and inspire them to bring innovations in education to Slovak schools. Their establishment was initiated by the Pontis Foundation in 2017, and thanks to cooperation with local organizations or municipalities, they gradually expanded across Slovakia. “We wanted to create a space where people from the pedagogical community would learn about educational innovations, be inspired by them in teaching, and thus develop skills necessary for life in the 21st century in students,” explains Norbert Maur, senior program manager of the Pontis Foundation. 

EDUpoints also contribute to connecting various stakeholders in education at the regional level – local authorities, teachers, future teachers, university educators and local entrepreneurs. Activities take place both live and online, which, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, proved to be a suitable tool for supporting and connecting teachers. Over seven years, more than 200 workshops, discussions, or demonstration lessons were held for over 15-thousand participants. Today you can find EDUpoints in Zvolen, Trnava, Komárno, Lučenec, and Prešov. 

Currently, their management is being taken over by the Comenius Institute of the Živica non-governmental organization, which has been dedicated to supporting and educating pedagogical workers for many years. “We consider education to be one of the top priorities in our country. Asking the Comenius Institute, which has been working with teachers for a long time and with which we have been cooperating since the inception of EDUpoints, was therefore a clear choice,” says Norbert Maur. 

EDUpoints already show great results. An example can be seen in Lučenec, where there has been a significant increase in literacy in the region. “We brought together 5 primary schools from our district in a unique literacy project and approached Tibor Hujdič, a promoter of children’s reading, as a lecturer for cooperation. 40 primary school teachers from five schools have been meeting with Tibor Hujdič every other week, learning where to find new books, trying out strategies in groups, and then directly in the classes with their students,” describes EDUpoint coordinator Zuzana Sojková. As she adds, more than half of the teachers saw progress in their students during the course of education. A significant change was noticeable, especially among those who had previously struggled with reading and comprehension, as they quickly adopted new learning strategies. “Even weaker readers experienced success in class and were able to complete tasks given during the lesson. Gradually, teachers also realized that it’s not enough to teach children only the reading techniques but it’s important for them to understand the content of the text being read and to be able to work with the acquired information. Class libraries, which we promoted in schools based on cooperation with the Land of Readers project, are also very popular,” says Zuzana Sojková. This school year, 13 schools in the district have already enrolled in the project. 

The Comenius Institute plans to continue and expand educational projects for teachers in cooperation with the Pontis Foundation into other areas of teaching. 

“Our goal at the Comenius Institute is to provide practical and up-to-date education for teachers even in regions where teacher education is not broadly available. Therefore, we welcome the opportunity to support and connect EDUpoints across Slovakia, providing quality education for every teacher interested in professional growth. I see EDUpoints as a strengthening element for regional teacher support centers, which serve for the professional growth of educators in regions,” says Zuzana Labašová, Director of CEEV Živica and program manager of the Comenius Institute. 

The Pontis Foundation also continues to support education through support for civil organizations dedicated to this topic, through the Impact Lab program.