| Education System in Slovenia |
In Slovenia, primary and lower secondary education are on a continuum that lasts for 8 years. For the first 4 years, children remain in one classroom with a master teacher. In year 5 they begin switching classrooms, as their base curriculum of native language, mathematics, a foreign language, physical educations and arts, expands to include 2 specialties in 1 each of physics, geography, chemistry, history, biology housekeeping and craft. This completes the cycle of compulsory education.
There are 3 possibilities to follow at secondary school level. Vocational education lasts 2.5 years leading directly to the labor market. Technical education programs in different themes last for 4, as do the general education courses that lead on to international baccalaureate and perhaps university too.
European Union membership and increasing globalization are new challenges that Slovenia’s vocational education training structures must face. Key strategies include improving the quality of trainers, the roles of social partners, and systems for quality control and guidance.
Post-secondary technical training takes place at higher vocational colleges, where 2-year programs culminate with a diploma thesis and its defense. There are a variety of universities too, of which the oldest, the University of Ljubljana was founded in 1919 and now has in excess of 65,000 students.
It now boasts 23 faculties and 3 academies distributed throughout the urban area, and is regarded as a pillar of academic stability that successfully survived the military and political turmoil of the 20th Century.
