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Mikolaj Recommends that Pupils Sing Anthem Before Classes Begin
Thursday 19 November 2009 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, November 19 (TASR) - Students should sing the Slovak national anthem every morning prior to their classes, Education Minister Jan Mikolaj (Slovak National Party/SNS nominee) said in response to a proposal drawn up by his party colleagues who aim to bolster patriotism by adopting a law.
"We've prepared a strategy for how to raise national awareness," said the minister. Statehood symbols, which should be installed in classrooms according to the legislation along with the anthem mean "awareness of oneself, who and to which nation belongs," said Mikolaj.
"There has to be a knowledge of history and a perfect knowledge of one's mother tongue," he added, claiming that support for patriotism in school children is under way in other countries as well.
According to Opposition KDH party MP Martin Fronc, enforcing some things by law is not the right path. "Older people still remember when classes used to begin by singing the (Communist) labour anthem," added former education minister Fronc.
According to him, whether this draft will be passed in Parliament or not is dependent on political trades within the governing coalition. "So many incredible things have already been approved in Parliament that on can't assume whether it will be passed or not," he added.
(The lyrics to the Slovak national anthem - Lightning Over the Tatras / Nad Tatrou sa blyska - were written by Janko Matuska in 1844 and the melody comes from a ancient folk song called She Dug a Well. From 1918 until the countries split in 1993, it was the latter half of the Czechoslovak national anthem - ed. note].
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