Dr Srečko Zakrajšek from Ljubljana

Proposer: Dr Zoran Jelenc

Srečko Zakrajšek, a secondary school teacher with a doctorate in chemistry, has developed his educational and professional imagination in various fields. In light of the culture of lifelong learning we wish to emphasise his creativity in the learning process, since he is distinguished by the footholds with which he is able to arouse curiosity. He proceeds from the conviction that absolutely anyone can succeed. He knows how to seek out the strong points in a person and to strengthen pupils' self-images. Since he is aware that for many people chemistry is a boring school subject, he knows how to enrich it with a broader presentation of natural science and ecology, and through issues that affect everyone. He links his teaching very closely to the use of electronic media. In his contact with pupils and in the class, he makes successful use of dialogue. Nine years ago he set up the School Basketball League (ŠKL) and introduced it to Slovenian school gyms. He is convinced that the consciousness of spirit and physical health are inseparable, and also that people must have the opportunity to train and achieve top results in sports at the only time this is possible, in other words in their youth. The ŠKL does not just involve basketball but a range of activities that satisfy the wider needs of adolescents: getting together to attain positively orientated goals that can only be achieved through cooperation, responsibility and perseverance. The pupils train, compete, organise, promote, report, edit web news, take photos and videos and more. Abundant opportunities are ensured for them to test their talents, and in doing so they become unwittingly ‘infected' by the culture of lifelong learning. He also successfully links sports activities to his subject - chemistry - by letting the pupils know what processes are going on in their bodies during sports practice. Dr. Srečko Zakrajšek has written numerous professional articles, textbooks and books, he is editor of the magazine Chemistry in School (Kemija v šoli) and Waste Management (Gospodarjenje z odpadki) and author of the website http://www.minet.si/kemija, which is the best website on chemistry as indicated by its high number of visits (30,000 users a month).