The national curriculum (State educational programme, Štátny vzdelávací program) characterises the subject for instance as follows:
“The mission of a compulsory elective course is to educate a personality with its own identity and value orientation, in which respect for human being, to life and to nature, cooperation and prosociality take a prominent place.” (State educational programme, 2015)
Themes of ethical education for high school include Communication, Human dignity, Ethics of sexual life, Family relations, Philosophical generalisation of ethical principles aquired so far, Ethics of work, Ethics and economics, and Healthy lifestyle. (State educational programme, 2015)
The national curriculum (State educational programme, Štátny vzdelávací program) of the subject ethical education is available (in Slovak language) on the website of The National Institute for Education in Slovak Republic (Štátny pedagogický ústav) under the educational field Human and values.
The schools and teachers have certain room for concretisation of the realisation of the course in their school educational programs.
Ethical topics are taught also under the compulsory subject civics. The subject civics is focused on introducing various social sciences and humanities. Therefore, the introduction to ethics is just one part of the subject. This means that less than one hour per week is dedicated to ethics (in total around 5-10 hours per course). Civics is attended by around 12.000 students per year between 17 and 18 years of age. The subject is graded and the final exam is internally assessed.
The national curriculum characterises the subject as “designed to help pupils to orient themselves in social reality and their inclusion into various social relationships and bonds.” (State educational programme, 2015)
The subject civics is focused also on an introduction to philosophy. Therefore, it has the potential to teach students the basics of philosophical ethics too.
The national curriculum (State educational programme, Štátny vzdelávací program) of the subject civics is available (in Slovak language) on the website of The National Institute for Education in Slovak Republic (Štátny pedagogický ústav) under the educational field Human and society.
The schools and teachers have certain room for creating concrete conditions for the realisation of the course in their school educational programs.