12 Jan 2022, 15:49 PM

10% of Primary, 16% of Secondary Pupils Self-Isolating

STA, 12 January 2022 - One out of ten primary school children and 16% of all secondary students are self-isolating with a total of 1,431 classes being taught remotely due to coronavirus infections as of Tuesday, Education Ministry data available on the tracker site covid-19.sledilnik.org shows.

As many as 936 classes at primaries and 495 classes at secondary schools were quarantining on Tuesday, the total number being three times that of the figure before Christmas holidays.

A total of 19,651 primary pupils and 12,808 secondary students were isolating on Tuesday.

Only at primaries 1,068 infections were confirmed in pupils and an additional 406 in staff. At secondary schools, where the vaccination rate is higher, 379 infections were confirmed among students and 84 among staff.

At kindergartens, 171 classes numbering a total of 2,446 kids were isolating. On Tuesday, 74 infections were confirmed in kindergarten children and 235 in kindergarten staff.

Before Christmas holidays, as of 23 December, 372 primary and 52 secondary school classes were quarantined.

Gregor Pečan, the head of the Headteachers of Primary and Music Schools, said the situation was getting critical, suggesting for winter holidays to be moved forward to coincide with the peak of the 5th wave.

Pečan's school saw three teachers sent into quarantine only on Tuesday. "If that happens in two more classes, we can shut down years 5 to 9 because there will be no staff to give lessons," he told the STA.

He says the main problem is the new rule under which the teacher is ordered to self-isolate if they were in the same classroom with an infected pupil for 15 minutes, up from the previous rule of 45 minutes.

Since epidemiologists expect the 5th wave of infections to culminate in two weeks, Pečan suggested considering moving winter school holidays from the end of February to the end of January.

Radio Slovenija has reported the Ljubljana Secondary School for Pharmacy shifted fully to remote classes on Monday and the Ljubljana Secondary School of Economics is moving online on Thursday.

Nives Počkar, the head of the Association of Secondary School Teachers, also told the radio further schools would have to be closed due to infections and quarantine orders.

Slovenia reported a record 7,420 coronavirus infections for Tuesday.

05 Jan 2022, 12:46 PM

No Plans for Distance Learning, About 1% of Children Not Attending Classes Because of Testing, Masks

STA, 5 January 2022 - Education Minister Simona Kustec is aware that with Covid infections rapidly rising in the country, the situation at the end of this week or the start of next will be hard, but she does not expect schools to switch to distance learning.

The Education Ministry's stance is that instruction should take place at schools in person in a safe manner, and she hopes that strictly adhering to protective measures will result in schools and kindergartens being able to proceed with in-person education, Kustec told the press in Ljubljana on Wednesday.

She said that medical experts will be asked to propose tightening anti-coronavirus measures before proposing closing schools.

"We are aware that difficult days are coming and that some schools could have problems due to their staff falling ill with Covid or having to quarantine. If need be, only individual schools would switch to distance learning."

Kustec said that the ministry was following the situation very closely, and was constantly in contact with the National Institute of Public Health.

She also said that around 1% of the school population did not come to school as their parents opposed rapid testing or mask wearing in classroom. As for grading these children, she said they cannot be graded at the moment because they do not come to the classroom.

Kustec commented on the Advocate of the Principle of Equality's finding that the ministry had violated a ban on discrimination by not awarding a special-needs student an assistant for the period of home schooling while she had had one while in classroom.

The minister regretted this had happened, saying the case concerned "a very difficult individual story". She added that similar cases should be addressed in a humane manner to find optimal solutions, saying she could comment in more detail only once she receives a report she asked for.

Kustec meanwhile declined to answer a question about her future political career or whether should she stand in the general election in the spring, saying she would limit herself to topical issues at the news conference that was dedicated to achievements of Slovenia's EU presidency.

16 Dec 2021, 17:06 PM

Fake Waldorf School in Bled School Shut Down

STA, 16 December - A school in the lakeside town of Bled has been closed mid school year, hence leaving 33 pupils without classes. They are now home-schooled. The school was operating without approval and did not meet the required conditions, the web portal 24ur.com has reported. It also promoted itself as a Waldorf school despite not getting Waldorf certified.

The plan for the school, named Radost Življenja (Joy of Life), had been long time in the making and in early 2020 it started to materialise. After facilities and staff were already secured and pupils enrolled, it transpired that the school had problems in obtaining approval to actually operate.

Its application to be accredited was denied by the Education Ministry, as the school was not in compliance with state standards, the ministry said.

The school was also beset with financial problems as unpaid bills had been piling up. It was shut down on 19 November, 24ur.com said on Wednesday.

Parents who enrolled their children in the school knew that the educational institution was not yet approved at the time, the ministry added. The parents had been granted a home-schooling status, under which parents may either educate their child at home themselves or are helped at this activity by someone else.

The latter is not required to meet any conditions, however the home-schooled children must pass an assessment carried out by the primary school in which they are enrolled. If they fail to do that, they are no longer allowed to be home schooled.

Seeking assistance after being denied state approval, the Bled school's head teacher Valentina Erznožnik contacted the Livada primary school in Ljubljana, which was willing to enrol the former's pupils.

Goran Popović, the head teacher of the Ljubljana school, explained that Joy of Life had not been the only school under which children were enrolled in Livada and home schooled at the same time. Such pupils have their exams at the end of the school year, he added.

The Bled school promoted itself as a Waldorf school, however it seems that it did not obtain a relevant certificate to do so.

Iztok Kordiš, the director of the Ljubljana Waldorf School, does not consider the Bled school to be worthy of Waldorf status. The Joy of Life school had called itself a Waldorf institution before it was actually opened without even familiarising itself with the procedures needed to be implemented to become such a school, he said.

"We have to look after quality and the Waldorf name. Not everyone can just think of it and become a Waldorf school," he told 24ur.com, adding that the Bled school had been doing everything its own way and acting as if it had it all sorted out.

22 Nov 2021, 16:28 PM

Most Schools Following COVID Rules

STA, 22 November 2021 - Slovenia's Education and Sport Inspectorate carried out 121 inspections in November to find 11 cases of irregularities in compliance with measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus, Chief Schools Inspector Simon Slokan said on Monday. One school was temporarily shut down for non-compliance.

Slokan reiterated that "the introduction of self-testing in schools is a specific situation that we have not seen before". Since the self-testing measure came into force last week, the inspectorate carried out 43 inspections and found major non-compliance in five cases.

"These five schools did not arrange self-testing for children, they failed to obtain parental consent, and did not properly arrange distance learning for children without consent," Slokan explained.

The inspectorate issued verbal warnings to those schools and urged them to take immediate action. They were later subjected to re-inspections, and it was mostly found that they have started addressing their issues.

Only one school failed to follow the inspectorate's warnings, and the inspectorate ordered by decree that the whole school switches to distance learning until 3 December or until irregularities are resolved.

The Education Ministry confirmed to the STA that the school in question was a private school in central Slovenia, but added that more information could not be disclosed.

Meanwhile, the inspectorate found that 38 out of 43 schools made excellent preparations for the implementation of the measures. Slokan also reiterated that head teachers and school staff are not the ones who set the rules, but have a responsibility to respect and implement them.

Threats, protests and unnecessary pressure from parents are only bringing unrest - with the children feeling the brunt of it, said Slokan, reiterating his call for parents to be held accountable. He believes that the common goal of everybody is quality education.

"The inspectorate will continue to ensure that everyone entering a kindergarten or school complies with all required measures, because this is the only way to ensure a safe and stimulating space for all and that lessons can continue to take place in schools," concluded Slokan.

17 Nov 2021, 12:38 PM

Primary, Secondary School Students Start Self-Testing in School if Not Vaccinated, Recovered

STA, 17 November 2021 - Primary and secondary school children who have not been vaccinated or recovered from Covid will be required to self-test in school three times a week starting from Wednesday in what the authorities say is an urgent measure in order to keep schools open amid a severe outbreak of the disease in the country.

The children and youths who will not self-test will be required to switch to remote schooling. If they come to school without consent forms signed by their parents, the schools have been instructed to call the parents to come and pick them up, and to notify social services.

Self-testing on school premises is mandatory for all school children, except for those with special needs, who will self-test at home. This is despite a last-ditch attempt by headteachers and the teachers' union to allow the youngest children to self-test at home as a transitional measure.

The call came amid severe opposition by some parents who have threatened schools to take legal action. A form threatening a reprimand and a criminal complaint against teachers over self-testing has been circulating on social networks.

Commenting on that, Branimir Štrukelj, the head of the SVIZ trade union, said that the Education Ministry had assured them the teachers would have their legal protection paid for. The union too would provide legal protection for its members should they face lawsuits.

If due to massive objections to self-testing a school should find itself in a position where it could not organise classes in person, the ministry has instructed for head teachers to propose for the whole school to switch to distance learning.

Responding to calls for children up to the age of 11 to be allowed to self-test at home, Health Minister Janez Poklukar and Education Minister Simona Kustec said the measure was absolutely required in order to keep schools open.

"We have two groups of the infected peaking. One is the 5 to 15-year-olds and the other is those between 24 and 45 years of age. Most infections happen in the family; between school children and parents the virus is spreading unchecked. We need to stop this to be able to cope with the situation in healthcare," said Poklukar.

The children who test positive will need to self isolate until they get back their PCR test results. Until then their classmates will continue with classes in person. Only if the PCR result is positive they will be ordered to quarantine as well.

Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković, who was among those supporting the call for the youngest pupils to be allowed to self-test at home, has said that a PCR testing point will be organised at Stožice sports complex for all students of Ljubljana primary and secondary schools who get a positive self-test.

04 Oct 2021, 12:57 PM

Teaching Profession Dominated by Women, But Less So at the Top

STA, 4 October 2021 - More women than men work in education-related professions in Slovenia and the situation is getting more imbalanced still. Ahead of World Teachers' Day, Statistics Office data show that the higher the level of education, the less disproportionate the share.

The number of women in education is increasing - in the 2020-2021 academic year the figure rose by 7% compared to four years ago.

The share of women working in kindergartens is 97%, in primary school 88% and in secondary school 66%.

In the latest school year, there were almost 19,500 primary school teachers, up by 1% year-on-year, as the number of pupils also increased to some 193,160. The ratio of teaching staff per pupils was 1:10.

Nearly 6,340 teachers taught in secondary schools in the 2020-2021 academic year, also slightly up compared to the previous year as the total of students also rose. The ratio of teaching staff per students was 1:10.

Meanwhile, tertiary education is slightly more of a domain of men as the share of male experts working at tertiary education institution is 53%.

In total, 5,669 experts worked there in the previous academic year, down by almost 2% year-on-year. Most of them had PhDs - 82% among the men and 72% among the women.

The situation in education-related professions is likely to remain gender-imbalanced as more female students than the male were enrolled in teacher education programmes in the past academic year (87%).

Overall, most teachers in the 2020-2021 school year belonged to the 30-49 age group (57%).

Public spending on education in 2019 totalled EUR 2.38 million or 4.9% of GDP, up on 2018. The largest share of these funds was allocated for primary education.

01 Oct 2021, 12:48 PM

Another Academic Year Starts Under COVID Restrictions (Feature)

STA, 1 October 2021 - The beginning of October marks the start of a new academic year, once more impacted by Covid-19, as in-person lectures, seminars and exams being reserved for those meeting the recovered-tested-vaccinated rule. There will be no traditional university welcome for new students either.

In line with the guidelines of the Education Ministry and the National Institute of Public Health, which higher education institutions also helped form, lectures will take place at faculties, subject to the recovered-vaccinated-tested condition.

For staff and students, weekly self-testing at their respective institutions will be sufficient to meet the testing requirement.

However, if the situation deteriorates, universities will have the autonomy to impose additional measures.

The tests will be free of charge for students and can be obtained from any pharmacy on presentation of an ID, an enrolment certificate and a health insurance card. For foreign students, the first two will be sufficient.

Students who work in addition to their studies will also be obliged to self-test with the employer they work for, while students on clinical training in healthcare are subject to the same self-testing conditions as other students.

Meanwhile, the enrolment process is still ongoing at the universities of Ljubljana, Maribor, Primorska and Nova Gorica.

The universities and other higher education institutions have offered 18,520 places for the 2021/2022 academic year, with 11,890 new students admitted in the first enrolment period.

A new dental medicine study programme is opening in Maribor this academic year, while the number of places has been increased at both medical faculties, in Ljubljana and Maribor, at the Faculty of Computer Science in Ljubljana and at the Faculty of Education in Primorska.

The number of foreign students continues to rise, having more than doubled in the last four years to 11%. Most foreign students study at the university in Ljubljana.

The final data on the number of students studying at Slovenian universities this academic year will be announced in October, as the second application and enrolment period runs until 30 September.

Due to epidemiological measures, mass events for welcoming newcomers traditionally organised by universities and student organisations will not take place.

The new chancellor of the University of Ljubljana, Gregor Majdič, will only address the new students at the Freshmen Welcome event remotely, via video-link.

Majdič, who was recently elected chancellor of Slovenia's largest and oldest university for the 2021-2025 term, believes the social role of the university needs to be strengthened, along with cooperation between faculties and with research institutes, and that the society's confidence in knowledge and science needs to be restored.

"In autumn, the first challenge will be to carry out the study process safely. More than 85% of University of Ljubljana staff have been vaccinated, which is something we are very proud of," he said.

"It is certainly our wish and our intention that the study process this academic year takes place at the faculties, with direct contact between professors and students," Majdič added.

Despite the lack of welcome events, students will be briefly introduced at the start of the year to a whole range of possible activities to stay healthy, entertained or gain additional knowledge, experience and other useful information.

01 Oct 2021, 10:32 AM

Growing Number of Foreign Students Choose Slovenian Universities

STA, 1 October 2021 - Slovenia has become an attractive studying environment for foreign students, judging by the growth in their numbers, a trend recorded at all Slovenian universities. While foreign students represented 4.5% of all students in the 2017/2018 academic year, they accounted for 11% of a total of some 65,000 students in the 2020/2021.

Most students from abroad study at the University of Ljubljana, which is the oldest and largest Slovenian university, with some 40,600 students.

The number of foreign students at the university rose from 2,476 in 2017/18 to 3,653 in 2020/21, which makes foreigners account for 9% of all its students.

At the University of Maribor, the country's second oldest and second largest, the figure was up almost 24% in the 2020/21 academic year 1,463 from 2019/20.

This was 10.5% all the 13,950 university students that studied in Maribor the last academic year.

However, it was the University of Primorska which enrolled the most foreign students in relation to the total number of its students in the last academic year.

The share stood at 12% in the 2017/18 academic year, but rose to 15.5% in 2020/21.

Education Ministry data shows that in 2020/21, 7,681 students from outside Slovenia studied in Slovenia: 2,154 from the EU and 5,527 from third countries.

Foreign students studying here that year came from 121 countries, the majority from Europe, up from 93 in 2016.

Most students from other European countries are from the countries which emerged in the area of the former Yugoslavia - Serbia, North Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro.

07 Sep 2021, 14:01 PM

Union Claims Slovenian Medical Schools Discriminate Against Non-EU Students

STA, 7 September - Mladi Plus, a union representing students, pupils and the jobless under 35, has accused the Ljubljana and Maribor medical faculties of turning down all non-EU citizens who wanted to get enrolled with a vague explanation, alleging "discrimination based on nationality". The STA is awaiting the medical schools to respond to the allegation.

Mladi Plus, or Youth Plus, said on Tuesday that some places at Slovenian faculties are annually reserved for ethnic Slovenians without citizenship and foreign students.

It said the non-EU candidates had been promised at open days that the Ljubljana and Maribor universities would accept all of them if they met entry requirements.

But at the end of August, when it was already too late to apply to study at other faculties, they were told their applications would not be even considered.

The explanation was that all the places had been reserved for Slovenians without Slovenian citizenship, which the trade union said had never happened before.

The union finds problematic the fact the candidates, who had turned to it for help, had received the news when it was too late to apply at other faculties.

The number of rejected candidates is 123, of whom 101 at the Ljubljana faculty, said Youth Plus, which is affiliated with the country's largest trade union association, ZSSS.

It also said the chancellors and deans do not respond to invitations for a meeting with the candidates, while university services said the rejected candidates had the right to appeal.

The trade union said that foreign students represent almost 10% of all students studying in Slovenia, of whom more than half come from the Western Balkans.

02 Sep 2021, 13:11 PM

Home-Schooling Becoming More Popular in Slovenia (Feature)

STA, 2 September 2021 - Home schooling appears to be ever more popular in Slovenia with the number of kids taught from home spiking by 75% last year, which is attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic and measures related to it.

In the past school year 687 children were schooled at home, most of them the youngest children in the first two years of primary school.

The number of first formers taught from home rose by 75% to 126, from 72 in the 2019/2020 school year as the number of second formers rose by also as much, to 106, from 61 the year before.

Data for the school year that started yesterday will be available after 10 September as parents have time until 31 August each year to opt for home schooling, but a new rise is expected.

Lara Romih, the head of the Parent Councils' Association, believes the reason for the surge is that some parents opted for home schooling because they oppose vaccination and testing of their children.

More generally, the association attributes increased popularity of home instruction to classes being held remotely during the Covid-19 outbreak and often disrupting the family's daily routine.

Talking with the STA, Romih said the association had noticed parents wanting to home-school their children have been joining into various initiatives, mainly on social networks.

In the run-up to the new school year, there was an increase in queries on social networks about the terms of home schooling.

The Institute for Development of Home Schooling, a non-profit promoting home schooling, has currently 2,292 followers on its Facebook site.

Home schooling has been legalised in Slovenia since 1996, but has not been practised until 2004 when first cases were recorded by the Education Ministry.

The ministry says that under valid legislation primary schools cannot deny pupils the right to home schooling, but they can if the pupil fails to pass exams at the end of the school year.

To home instruct their children, parents only need to notify the respective primary school by the start of each new school year, without needing to state their reasons for it.

However, the requirement is that home-schooled pupils attain at least the level of education standard afforded by state school, which is tested by exams.

These are held from the end of May Day break until ten days before the new school year with the level of attainment assessed by a three-member exam panel appointed by the headteacher of the primary the pupil is enrolled in.

In the first three grades, home-schooled pupils are tested in maths and the Slovene language, or in areas with the Italian or Hungarian minorities in Italian or Hungarian.

A foreign language exam is added in the fourth to sixth form, with exams in several more subjects added in the final three years of primary school.

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