There is a strong focus on summative student assessment in the Slovak Republic. The reliability of final examinations at the upper secondary level (Maturita) has been strengthened with the introduction of an external written component. National assessments are administered at the end of lower secondary schooling and mainly serve the purpose to certify student achievement and help inform selection of upper secondary school. A competency-based curriculum has been introduced since 2008 and implementation has been problematic due to a lack of clarity on the minimum content standards and a lack of guidance, tools and training for educators. In this context, there is room to give more support to teachers, to develop models to assess skills and competencies and to phase in student assessment criteria linked to the standards in the national education programmes.