STA, 29 March 2021 - As Slovenia is headed for a circuit-breaker lockdown as of Thursday, with kindergartens and schools shutting down as well, some headteachers are surprised with the government's decision, while others are prepared for the shutdown. All of them, however, said that remote schooling and closed kindergartens are stressful for the children.

With the British variant of the new coronavirus driving the incidence of Covid-19 in Slovenia, all non-essential services, baring several exceptions, will have to close between 1 and 11 April, while the industry has been asked to allow as much work from home as possible.

While schools for special needs children will remain open, this will not be the case for kindergartens, primary and secondary schools.

Several headteachers have told the STA on Monday that this had taken them by surprise, because the government advisory group as well as the government had said in the past that schools and kindergartens would be the last to close.

Mojca Kirbiš, the head of Maribor schools headmasters' club, told the STA that the decision taken by the government and experts needs to be respected, adding, however, that the developments are taking a toll on schools.

"All of us, teachers and students, are tired of the constant changes... We've barely returned to classrooms and established a normal rhythm but now the system is being changed again," said Kirbiš, also adding that there are no guarantees schools would reopen on 12 April under the model in place at the moment.

Several headteachers also pointed to problems regarding national competitions, some of which have been scheduled for the week slated for lockdown. Moreover, the competitors will not have an equal footing this year, they fear.

Rudolf Planinšek, the headteacher of a Kranj primary school, does not expect too many problems with the process of organising remote schooling, but is worried about grades. Remote schooling widened the gap between good and poor students, he said.

"There will definitely be some problems, but we'll overcome them somehow," he is confident. If students will be allowed to return to classrooms on 12 April, the school year will be a good one, he believes.

Irena Sivka Horvat, the headteacher of an Izola primary school, also believes that the lockdown, planned for only a week and a half, will not have an adverse effect on the grades.

She hopes that students will be able to make up for the lost time once the situation normalises, adding also it was yet impossible to say to what extent the knowledge of children had been effected.

Nevenka Kulovec, the headteacher of a Novo Mesto primary schools, believes the lockdown is a good decision if it will buy time for vaccination. It does however undermine the school's programme, but they will adapt, she said. Grades have gotten worse, students are poorly motivated and their ability to learn has declined, she said.

In secondary schools, remote schooling will cause the most stress to the finishing classes who are about to take the matura school-leaving exams that start in a month. "What if something like this happens during matura?" said Herman Pušnik the headteacher of a Maribor secondary school.

While secondary schools will close completely, kindergartens and schools will have to provide urgent childcare for kindergartners and pupils up to third grade.

Kindergartens are still awaiting instructions from the Education Ministry to learn whether childcare will be provided only to children of parents in critical infrastructure or to others without childcare as well.

They hope to receive this information as soon as possible, so as to be able to organise work and meals for the lockdown period, Romana Epih, the headteacher of the Medvode kindergarten told the STA.

Tea Dolinar, the headteacher of Kranj kindergartens, echoed this position. There is not enough time, she said, but her team is already used to such fast and stressful transitions and will make it work.

Dolinar also pointed to the stress the closures put on the children, with many small kids perceiving the return as if they are coming to the kindergarten the first time. A similar sentiment was expressed by several other headteachers the STA has talked to.

Silvija Komočar, the headteacher of a Brežice kindergarten, meanwhile said that the situation is nothing new and that the kindergarten already had a lot experience with urgent childcare and was well prepared. She also said that the closures were stressful for the children.

Meanwhile, the umbrella association of pedagogical workers has called on the Education Ministry to finally take action and establish a policy that would minimise the negative effects of the closures.

After a year of extraordinary circumstances, the ministry should finally establish a task force to communicate with the government advisory group so as to ensure that restrictions are truly proportionate.

STA, 24 March 2021 - Primary schools have been told by the Education Ministry to prepare for a hybrid model of classes involving alternative weeks for some pupils, should the coronavirus situation worsen.

The model, dubbed C1, foresees for classes to continue in-person for years one to five, while the rest of primary pupils would be in school every other week alternating with remote learning.

According to the online edition of the newspaper Večer, year eight to nine pupils would be in school the first week and year six to seven the next.

In a circular sent to schools, the ministry said the guidance did not mean yet that the C1 model would be in fact applied, but it was just to inform them of the potential scenario should the situation worsen.

The government is conducting its weekly review of coronavirus measures today amid expectations it could tighten restrictions as coronavirus transmissions have been increasing fast in recent days.

Year one to three primary pupils returned to school in mid-February, followed by other pupils. Secondary school pupils from year one to three have had alternative weeks classes for the third week now, after they had remote classes only since mid-October.

STA, 22 March 2021 - Nation-wide exams for primary school children in years six and nine were cancelled last year due to coronavirus, but they are planned to be held as usual this year. The exam is taken with a pen and paper, and it will be no different this year. But to test the option of taking it online, a special pilot project is being launched today.

From Monday to Friday, more than 40,000 pupils in forms six and nine at 441 primary schools will be taking the exam online - on a computer or a tablet - to get the ropes.

Every school has been assigned the day and several slots to carry out the e-trail exam, with the majority of kids to take it in a computer classroom at their school.

Up to 5,000 pupils will be sitting for the exam simultaneously, for which reason schools have been divided into two approximately equally large groups.

The pilot project is designed to test how the network works if used by several thousand pupils at the same time and which problems may emerge, Darko Zupanc, the director of the National Examinations Centre, said on Friday.

This should allow education authorities to see whether it would be possible for the exam to be simultaneously taken at all primary schools, or also at home.

Kids will be able to use various online tools to do the assignments, while they will have a chance to retake the exam on their home computer later on the same day.

The electronic exam will not be graded because it is not meant to test knowledge, so children will get no test results.

At the end of the exam, they will have to answer several questions on their examination experience.

Zupanc said the data obtained from this pilot project should facilitate development of systemic tools for exams and grading with new technologies, especially in case of distance learning.

The national exams for primary schools were introduced 20 years ago and were last year cancelled for the first time.

However, they are not compulsory and have no bearing on the pupils' final grades, but there is also an idea to introduce them for children in third form.

The exams are not meant for schools to compare how well their pupils are doing in comparison with other schools, but for individual schools to evaluate their own work, the head of the national commission for the nation-wide exams in primaries, Janez Vogrinc, said on Friday.

The exam is taken in three stages; children in year six will this year take it in their mother tongue on 4 May, maths on 6 May and the foreign language on 10 May.

But Slovenian Headteachers' Association president Gregor Pečan believes that in the given situation, the national exams for primaries should not be held this year at all.

A month and a half after primaries reopened following a four-month closure, gaps in knowledge are starting to emerge, he said at today's government Covid briefing.

Pečan also recalled that the exams had been cancelled last year while pupils had been distance learning only for approximately two months.

"The majority of headteachers and other educators maintain that what is needed more is peace and support to rectify the situation as soon as possible."

Although admitting not everything was as gloomy as some see it when speaking of "a lost generation", he said "very good planning will be needed to restore the situation this year and in coming school years to get the generations to the level we want".

For the same reason the headteachers are against organising various competitions for primary school children, urging "immediate suspension" of competition activities, which he said were now fully underway.

Pečan also touched on today's launch of testing whether national exams could be taken online, saying the information he had showed there were many problems.

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STA, 26 November 2020 - As schooling continues remotely in Slovenia, the education minister has decreed measures that in effect reduce the number of required school marks this school year. Primary schools are advised against assessing pupils' work while classes are held online.

Under the decree signed by Minister Simona Kustec, the currently two assessment periods are being merged into one running from 1 September this year to 24 June 2021 for primary, secondary and music schools. For final year primary pupils it ends on 15 June 2021.

Assessments in primary school will be done in class. During remote classes teachers can also mark pupils individually.

However, recommendations issued by the National Education Institute that have been sent to schools along with the new rules, suggest primary schools should leave written or oral exams for when pupils return to school.

"Pupil's work for classes that are on the curriculum up to two periods a week, need to be assessed at least twice during the school year," the decree reads.

Pupils will need to get at least one mark for classes on subjects that come up less than twice a week, and at least three for subjects such as maths where there are more than two periods a week.

Pupil's work in music classes needs to be marked at least three times per the assessment period, but not all marks should be based on written assignments.

Secondary schools need to adjust assessment rules to the single assessment period.

The government has extended remote schooling for another week because the country is yet to see a meaningful improvement in the coronavirus situation.

Classes moved online for secondary school pupils and primary school pupils from the sixth grade on on 19 October, a week ahead of the autumn break, and the other pupils switched to distance learning after an extended two week break.

In its circuclar to schools, the Education Ministry said that "if everyone makes the effort and we improve the epidemiologic situation in Slovenia" return of at least part of pupils to class is likely from 7 December.

"We are in talks for pupils up to the third grade and all special needs children involved in adjusted programmes to return to schools first," the ministry said, referring to primary schools.

STA, 30 October 2020 - The autumn holidays will be extended for a week for the pupils of primary schools in Slovenia, the government spokesman Jelko Kacin told TV Slovenija on Friday. Remote schooling will resume in secondary schools, and kindergartens will continue providing only urgent daycare. All other restrictions remain in force as well.

Primary and secondary schools have holidays this week and primary schools pupils will remain at home next week due to the epidemiological situation in the country.

The extension aims to limit contact and hence stem the spread of coronavirus, government spokesman Jelko Kacin and Education Minister Simona Kustec said on Friday.

Kustec said the decision was informed by messages from primary school head teachers, who reported many coronavirus patients in the ranks of the teaching staff. The one-week extension will give them time to recover and reorganise.

Head teachers at secondary schools, on the other hand, proposed that classes continue remotely since they are well prepared for remote schooling.

Kustec said the missed primary school classes will be held through the remainder of the year and an extension of the school year was not currently on the table.

Since the start of this week kindergartens have been providing daycare only for children whose parents work and cannot secure daycare.

Since kindergartens are officially run by local communities, mayors have been given discretion to keep them open in the event of urgency, and this system remains in place for now.

More than 90% of kindergarten children stayed home or were put in other forms of care this week.

Universities switched to mostly remote classes at the start of the academic year and classes will continue according to the guidelines that they have put in place.

Kustec said the move was designed to "contribute to the situation calming down". "We need optimism and the feeling of normalcy," she said.

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STA, 28 August 2020 - Slovenia's health authorities have recommended that all primary school children wear face masks in corridors and shared premises as the new school year starts next week. The relevant minister has suggested that the government will respect any new recommendations the National Public Health Institute (NIJZ) may give.

The most recent recommendation from the NIJZ is an upgrade to the earlier recommendation that only students of the age of 12 and older were to wear face masks in shared premises in school.

The NIJZ has decided for the move because "the average daily number of confirmed cases in local transfer in the last seven days in the country exceeded 20", says Friday's press release.

It has also recommended that children up to and including the age of five do not use masks in shared premises in kindergartens, and that children aged 6-11 use them in healthcare institutions and in public transportation.

Children aged 12 and older should use face masks in accordance with the government ordinances valid for adults.

The NIJZ told the STA that these were recommendations for next week, and that instructions for the use of masks in schools would from now on be made weekly based on the epidemiological risk assessment.

Education Minister Simona Kustec told the STA earlier that as the epidemiological situation had deteriorated somewhat on Thursday, she would not be surprised if the NIJZ provided additional guidelines before the start of the new year. "If it does, we will simply need to respect them," she added.

The ministry has already informed primary schools and music schools about the new recommendations.

STA, 27 August 2020 - Slovenian primary and secondary school students will start the new school year in classrooms on 1 September, the government decided on Thursday after assessing the current epidemiological situation.

The decision means all students will start instruction in class, though they will have to observe guidelines issued by the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ).

Schools and teachers are ready, Education Minister Simona Kustec told the press after the government session.

Slovenia has had several possible scenarios for return to school depending on the extent of the coronavirus epidemic and the one confirmed now is known as model B.

It involves social distancing for pupils from different classes, regular washing of hands and regular ventilation of classrooms.

Classes are recommended to be divided into smaller groups, if possible.

Face masks will not be obligatory in classroom for pupils, whereas teachers will have to wear them if an adequate distance could not be maintained.

STA, 17 April 2020 - Nation-wide primary school exams have been cancelled due to the coronavirus situation, the Education Ministry announced on Friday. This is the first time the exams for sixth and ninth grade students have be cancelled since their introduction 20 years ago. Headteachers have welcomed the decision.

The decision not to hold the exams as schools are closed and children learning at home was taken on the basis of an assessment made by key education stakeholders, Minister of Education, Science and Sport Simona Kustec said in a release.

Nevertheless, the nation-wide tests will be made available online for teachers and students to reinforce what students have already learned.

Sixth graders take exams in mathematics and Slovenian (Italian and Hungarian for minority members in bilingual areas) as well as in a foreign language, which is English or German. Ninth graders also take the exams in maths and mother-tongue plus in a third subject which varies.

The exams, which are not compulsory, are taken in early May. This year's exams for third garde students, which were introduced in the 2017/2018 year, were cancelled already last month.

A decision to hold Matura - the school-leaving exam for secondary school students - has already been taken recently. But Kustec said in an interview for the newspaper Dnevnik, which will be fully run on Saturday, that it will be held in a somewhat changed format.

Students will write the Slovenian language essay on 1 June instead of 5 May, which is a major difference from the standard schedule.

Just like every year, however, secondary school students in their last year will end school on 22 May and all the others on 24 June.

The minister, however, was unable to say earlier this week when kindergartens and schools could reopen, stressing it would depend on an expert assessment that this could be done safely.

The government has already started to relax some of the restrictions imposed after the epidemic was declared on 12 March, but schools are very unlikely to reopen soon.

In his first reaction to the news, the head of the Association of Primary and Music School Headteachers, Gregor Pečan, said that while schools were yet to be formally notified of the decision, which he expects today, he is "grateful that common sense has prevailed".

"I absolutely agree the primary school national exams are cancelled, because it would be impossible to provide for credible exams in this situation," he said in a statement for the STA, adding it would make no sense to hold them for their own sake.

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STA, 29 January 2020 - The number of students with special needs in primary and secondary schools in Slovenia has been rising in recent years. Almost 7% of primary school students and even more secondary school students have been formally recognised as having a disability that qualifies them for special treatment. Opinions on the reasons why this is so vary.

Data from the Education Ministry show that in the 2015/2016 school year, 5.91% of primary school students had an eligibility decision guaranteeing special treatment based on their disability; in this school year the share rose to 6.97%, which means 13,075 students.

A similar trend can been seen with secondary school students, where the ministry has been keeping records since 2010/2011. In the last decade, the share of special needs students almost doubled from 3.36% to 7.27% (5,331 students).

By far the largest share of eligibility decisions issued by the Education Institute, are for learning disabilities. For primary school students this share is at 40% and for secondary school students at over 50%.

These statistics have prompted the Education Ministry to open a debate on whether any changes are needed in the current system.

There have been questions as to whether there are indeed more children with special needs, or whether society has only become more sensitive to disabilities.

The head of the department for children with special needs at the Education Institute, Natalija Vovk Ornik, believes the answer is a little bit of both.

She thinks the reasons for the higher share of children with special needs could be medical progress, larger cohorts, the impact of the environment, or a number of other factors.

"One of the reasons is definitely that the diagnostic standards for recognising certain disabilities have changed, and the awareness of both experts and the public about disabilities in general has increased," she said.

She thinks the system is not being abused very often. But there are various types of "pressure" coming from parents as well as daycare centres and schools for a child to receive the eligibility decision and thus additional assistance, she said.

Janja Čolić, a teacher at the Janko Kersnik Brdo primary school, agrees. "Indeed, we are better at recognising children with special needs today. But on the other hand, it also happens that parents and teachers immediately think of additional assistance when a child is not performing well, rather than analysing potential causes in more detail.

"All too often parents are the initiators of additional assistance when they are not happy with their child's grades, as Cs and Ds are no longer acceptable grades in primary school," she said.

Meanwhile, an association bringing together representatives of school councils warns that parents are not to be blamed for the rise in the share of students with special needs.

They note that parents indeed have the right to initiate the procedure but that the final decision is made by a commission of experts and the Education Institute.

They believe the Education Ministry should conduct an independent analysis to determine whether the number of eligibility decisions is indeed too big and then determine why this is so.

They also propose several changes to the decision-making process, most notably uniform criteria.

The Education Institute agrees changes are needed. Vovk Ornik thinks the types of assistance that a child with special needs is entitled to should be determined by law. She also called for changes to the composition of the commission and the conditions for initiating the procedure.

STA, 18 December 2019 - The National Assembly passed on Wednesday a proposal tabled by the opposition Left introducing an extra day of paid leave for the parents of first-graders on their first school day. The law applies to both the private and public sectors.

The head of the Left deputy group, Matej T. Vatovec, said on Tuesday that public sector officials already have the right to paid leave on the first day of school of their first-graders, which puts those working in the private sector and their children in an unequal position.

Deputy groups agreed that this inequality should be done away with and backed the Left's proposal.

Karla Urh of the senior coalition Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) said the first school day was a stressful experience for a child, which was why children should be accompanied to school by their parents, regardless of where the latter were employed.

The coalition Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) and the opposition Democrats (SDS) agreed this was an exceptional day for every child and parent.

There is no excuse for this discrimination between those working in the public and private sectors, they argued.

The opposition National Party (SNS) praised the proposal as "good or very good", while the coalition Social Democrats (SD) noted that schools even expected that children were escorted by their parents on the first day.

The coalition Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) said the unanimous support was an "important indicator of an advanced society guaranteeing equal rights to all".

Aleksander Reberšek of the opposition New Slovenia (NSi) regretted the fact that the proposal had not been backed by the Economic and Social Council (ESS), Slovenia's main industrial relations forum.

Mojca Žnidarič of the coalition Modern Centre Party (SMC) said the social dialogue was "obviously" weakening and that the passage of the bill could be a dangerous precedent for passage of bills without a consent from social partners.

The ESS voiced objections to the proposal last week, saying that employees were free to take one day of leave whenever they want as it was and that parents of children of up to the age of 15 had one extra day of leave.

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