At the first parliamentary session of 2011, the government managed to push through its initiative to have English language teaching as a compulsory subject from elementary school level.
The government managed it with its slim majority in parliament and so overthrew the veto of President Ivan Gasparovic from last year. Coalition MPs thus rejected the president’s demand to enable pupils to choose for themselves which foreign language they wanted to study.
The revised Schooling Act does not specify when the new system will start to be applied, however. It also does not make English a compulsory part of school-leaving exams.