Teacher Katarína: Jarovnice Elementary School is the largest Slovak school attended only by Roma. More than a thousand of them come here. During the pandemic, the school passed one of the most difficult tests of its functioning. During the school closure, workers in the community distributed thousands of worksheets, but faced the indifference of parents to their children's school results. Digitization was unthinkable. Pupils often live in shacks or shabby brick houses without running water with illegally connected electricity. This is a school where up to 90 percent of first-year children come without preschool education. Pupils have very poor hygiene habits and a language barrier, and this is fundamentally reflected in their education from the very beginning. Because there is a big difference when a child comes to school "straight from the settlement" and a child from kindergarten. The child also already understands, communicates, has hygienic habits, easily manages the first year. The children are assisted by Roma school assistants from the local community, who make interpreters. "For the first months, we teach most freshmen only in Slovak and basic hygienic habits," says Katarína Kandráčová, a teacher with 19 years of experience in Jarovnice primary school number 192. The poorest children will catch up with this outage for years.
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Life in a time of pandemic

Stories of different people during a pandemic
author

Boris Németh

professional photographer, .týždeň
Boris Németh (1979) He studied photography at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. He completed his post-graduate studies in 2011 and currently works there a as part-time teacher of photojournalism. He has worked at .týždeň magazine as a photojournalist since 2006, while exhibiting in Slovakia and abroad. He has worked with documentary and photojournalism in several authorial cycles and series. Awards and grants: 2017 – The Best of Photojournalism – Honorable mention Magazine Story Opener, Honorable mention Magazine Recurring Feature or Series, The Best of Photojournalism, Slovak press photo (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019), Slovak press photo, Bratislava, Slovakia, 2015 - Open society foundation, Open society foundation, Bratislava, Slovakia, Journalism Award (2011, 2013, 2014, 2016), Open society foundation, Bratislava, Slovakia, 2011 – Photographer of the year, Central European House of Photography, Bratislava, Slovakia, Czech press photo 2009, 2011, 2018, Czech press photo, Prague, Czech Republic, 2009 – Nomination World Press Photo – Joop Swart Masterclass, World Press Photo Publications: Premeny Slovenska (2012), Premeny Slovenska - 1150. výročie príchodu sv. Cyrila a Metoda na územie Veľkej Moravy (2013), Na ceste (2013), Identity - Premeny Slovenska (2016), Homeland (2016), Europe (2018), Krajina (2018), Hey Slovaks! (2018), Jar, ktorá zmenila Slovensko (2018), Bratislava - Košice a späť (2020). Collections: Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia, Central European House of Photography Bratislava, Slovakia, Gallery of Rimavská Sobota, Slovakia, VÚB Foundation, Bratislava, Slovakia. borisnemeth.com