SLOVENIA & EDUCATION
Cassandra Cuellar
The education system in Slovenia consists of five areas: pre-school education, elementary education, secondary education, further vocational education, and higher education. During the 2002-2003 school year, there were 809 operating elementary schools and 143 secondary schools in Slovenia. A total of 176,258 students were enrolled in the elementary schools and 103,177 were attending secondary schools. In the elementary schools, there was one teacher for every twelve students.
During the past few years, the Slovenian school system has seen a number of changes and reforms. The aim for reforming the Slovenian school system was to ensure that as many people as possible realize their right to education in hope that the people of Slovenia are able to achieve a higher educational level in the future. The curriculum from pre-school to secondary school was under reform for three years and is now complete. One of the main reforms involved compulsory education. In 1999, compulsory basic education lasting nine years began to be implemented. By 2003, all of the elementary schools adopted the new compulsory education system. The nine-year program is divided into three periods each lasting three years. The first two periods, a total of six years, consist of elementary education where the class teacher teaches all subjects. The last three years consist of lower secondary education where the teachers specialize in individual subjects. Children are six years old when they first enter school.
After completing basic education, nearly all students (98%) go onto secondary education. Secondary education includes vocational schools, technical school, and grammar school/high secondary school. Enrollment in the shorter programs of vocations education is open to children who have completed either elementary schooling or the compulsory basic education program adapted for children with special needs and those who attended elementary school for eight years without necessarily completing it successfully. These shorter programs usually last two-and-a-half years and are completed by a final exam. A secondary education option for students who have successfully completed elementary education is to enroll in a secondary education technical program. These programs last four years and end when the student passes the policna matura, which is a final examination encompassing four subjects. Upon completion of a secondary education technical program, students can either seek employment or go on to further or higher education. Students who pass an exam in one of the general subjects can go straight on to university.
After completion of secondary education, students can continue with post-secondary vocational education or move on to higher education and do academic studies or professionally oriented studies. If a student decides to stay in Slovenia and go on to university education, he/she has three options for school choices. The three universities in Slovenia are: the University of Ljubljana, the University of Maribor, and the University of Primorska. During the 2002-2003 academic year, there were 59,032 students enrolled at the University of Ljubljana, 24,182 students at the University of Maribor, and 4,738 students at the University of Primorska.
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