letopis sazu 2011

Again, we called attention to the deplorable destruction of national culturalheritage. We regret that we were not successful in dissuading the city authoritiesfrom the project of construction of a garage under the Vodnik Square, or instopping the demolition of the Kolizej. Similarly, we were unable to prevent thehighly controversial cancellation of construction of the new National UniversityLibrary after the project of the Academy member, architect Marko Mušič, hadbeen approved. SASA repeatedly warned the previous government of the intolerablemoves of its bodies, unfortunately without success.We continued our endeavours in the area of primary and secondary education.In the organization of SASA’s Section Three we had a successful consultationon teaching the natural sciences. Preparations are underway for a conference onteaching of technical sciences. Planning for a conference on art education has alsobegun. We hope that in the foreseeable future we will also do something similarfor the humanities and the social sciences. These efforts seem to be well receivedand beneficial; I think that in this way the Academy fulfils an important part ofits mission. Among other things it is involved in the ALLEA project on modernizationof teaching science in Europe. In this project our Secretary-General, Dr.Andrej Kranjc is a member of the core group.It is an accepted fact that humanity has sunk into a global crisis, not onlyeconomic and environmental, but also a crisis of values. More and more pervasively,the realization is dawning that for a solution at both global and local levelsas well the revival of ethical values is necessary. Particularly painful is their lackin the school system, where their absence causes long-term ill effects. At the Academy,some time ago, we decided to support efforts to re-introduce ethical contentsinto the Slovenian educational system at all levels, from preschool to university.With the cooperation of the Žiga Zois Institution, institutions of civil society andthe Chancellery of Ljubljana University we designed a project Competence buildingin teaching and education for the culture of knowledge, values and ethics frompreschool level to university. Part of that project is also the establishment of theInstitute for Bioethics at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Ljubljana.The Presidency at its yesterday’s meeting agreed that the Academy should acceptpatronage over the project and the Institute. There is also an initiative to establisha Foundation for collecting financial resources for both.Last year, the Academy was also called to help in resolving complicationswith the Slovenian Science Institute in Vienna. Let me remind you that SASA isits cofounder. Various conflicting ideas and interests led to unnecessary and difficultto understand disagreements (occurred) between government officials andthe Institute. This was also reflected in disordered funding. We believe that theInstitute, despite difficulties and modest resources, functioned in a commendableway, and we will endeavour to resolve the misunderstandings despite recentworsening of tensions. We hope to preserve the hard earned good name of the27