Registration for the Digital Pupil is completed – EUR 350 contribution for the purchase of a new computer or tablet can be claimed by the pupils until the end of November

• October 11, 2023
• Andrew

Within the current calendar year, thenational project Digital Allowance for Slovak pupils (Digital Pupil) allowed more than 152 thousand primary and secondary school pupils to receive a financial contribution for the purchase of new digital equipment. The Digital Coalition (DK) implementing the project is talking about a huge success.

Registration for the Digital Pupil was launched between February and September this year. During this period, more than 150 thousand pupils and their legal representatives applied for a contribution to the purchase of a new computer or tablet. To date, more than 66 thousand students already have their new equipment at home thanks to a digital pupil. In the current calendar year, all early year pupils in secondary schools (in the school year 2022/2023 and 2023/2024), including those in the fifth year of eight-year-olds, pupils from low-income households and in material need, as well as pupils with special educational needs coming from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, were entitled to the allowance in the current calendar year. “I have great pleasure that the interest of pupils and their families in the Digital Pupil’s allowance has been so strong. I strongly believe that this aid will ensure that our pupils are more autonomous, digitally competent and better prepared for the challenges of studying today’s digital era”, said President of DK, Mário Lelovský. 

Registration for the Digital Pupil was open until 30 September 2023. At the current stage, the verification of the entitlements of pupils already registered for the allowance and the continuous transmission of SMS messages on the outcome of the verification of pupils’ data in the various national registers are still ongoing. He is currently entitled to a contribution of 103 thousand registrations, mainly from groups of early year pupils in secondary schools (in the school year 2022/2023 and 2023/2024), including those in the fifth year of eight-year-olds, pupils from households in material need, as well as pupils with special educational needs coming from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. “Verification in the group of households with an income of less than 60 % of the median income is more administratively demanding and therefore ask pupils and their legal representatives for patience. We assume that all groups of pupils should receive an SMS message from the Digital Coalition by the second half of October at the latest,”explains Lelovský. 

DK’s priority was to ensure that all pupils had enough time to apply the allowance at the shops. It is for this reason that DK, in cooperation with the Ministry of Investment and Regional Development of the Slovak Republic (MIRRI SR), decided to extend the deadline for the contribution to 30 11. 2023. ‘The contribution may be applied to any of the more than 500 digital shops involved in the project,’ explains DK President Mário Lelovský.  A complete list of establishments and all necessary information can be found by the pupils and their legal representatives on the website www.digitalnyziak.sk , where at the same time all registrants can check the current status of their registration or ask for the SMS message to be re-sent if necessary.