Students in pre-tertiary education and those who completed education at these levels, Slovenia, school years 2017/2018 and 2016/2017

For some years now generations of children entering basic schools have been larger each year and smaller generations born 10 to 15 years ago have been starting upper secondary education. The number of basic school pupils is therefore increasing, while the number of upper secondary and tertiary education students is decreasing. The number of children in kindergartens is increasing despite the smaller generations of new-born children in the last three years, mainly due to the increasing share of children parents include in pre-school education.

Pre-school education 

• In the school year 2017/18, 86,703 children were enrolled in kindergartens, which is 80.3% of all children aged between 1 and 5 years. In the last ten years the number of children enrolled in kindergartens increased by 41% (from 61,359 in the school year 2007/08 to 86,703 in the school year 2017/18).
• Pre-school education was provided by 953 kindergartens and their units, 849 of them public and 104 private. A large majority of children (94.7%) were attending public kindergartens.
• The European strategic goal for education and training 2020 is 95% inclusion of children of that age in pre-school education. Slovenia has not yet achieved that goal but is coming closer each year. 40,206 children aged 4 and 5 years were enrolled in pre-school education, which is 93% of all children of that age. The enrolment rate of the youngest (1 and 2 years of age) increased as well from less than a half of the population in 2007/08 to 64% in 2017/18.

Basic school education

• In the school year 2017/18, 181,301 children were enrolled in basic school program with regular and adapted curriculum, nearly 5,000 more than in the previous year. The number of children in basic education continues to grow since 2010/11 when the population of pupils was the smallest in independent Slovenia (161,046). Smaller generations born 15 years ago are leaving for upper-secondary schools and bigger generations of 6-year-olds are entering. This year’s generation of first-graders is a quarter larger (21,923) than the generation of ninth-graders (17,125).
• Children enter basic education at 6 years of age. However, lately more and more children enter at the age of 7. Five years ago there were 5.7% 7-year-olds among first graders. In 2017/18 the share was 9.5%.

• Compulsory basic education was carried out by 774 basic schools and their subsidiaries and by 48 basic schools with adapted curriculum and institutions for children with special education needs. In the largest school 1,095 pupils were attending classes, in the largest school branch 305 and in the smallest branch only 3. On average there were 334 pupils in independent and central schools and 52 in subsidiary schools.
• In the school year 2017/18 the average class had 19 pupils. This number varies depending on the organizational form of schools. In independent and central basic schools there were on average 20.6 pupils per class, and in subsidiary schools only 10.8 pupils per class. The average number of children per class also varies among statistical regions. The lowest average number of children per class was recorded in basic schools in the Koroška statistical region (16) and the highest in the Osrednjeslovenska statistical region (21.4).
• There were 1,589 repeaters in total (1% of all pupils). Most of them (293) repeated the 6th grade, followed by grades 8 and 7. The fewest pupils (31) repeated the 9th grade.
• In regular and adapted basic education programmes there were 13,996 children with special needs. Most of them (84.5%) were included in regular programmes with adapted implementation and additional professional assistance and represented 6.6% of all pupils in regular basic education programmes.
• In the school year 2016/17 basic school education was successfully completed by 17,448 pupils, 224 of them in basic schools with adapted curriculum.

 
Basic music and dance education

• In the school year 2017/18, 25,806 students were enrolled in basic music and dance education. Among them, 3,142 were in 'preparatory' programmes (pre-school music education, preparatory music school and preparatory dance school), 1,615 were in dance programmes and 21,049 were learning an instrument or to sing.
• A large majority of students are basic school pupils. 13% of all children in basic education are enrolled in music or dance education as well. First-graders in basic education are mainly enrolled in preparatory programmes in music and dance schools and pupils in higher classes are learning an instrument or to sing or dance. About 500 of students in music and dance schools are in kindergartens and 1,200 are upper secondary students.
• One in every four students learning to play an instrument is learning how to play a piano. Other popular instruments are guitar, violin, flute and accordion.
• Gender plays a large role in choosing the specific music and dance program. In the observed period boys were mostly learning to play the piano, guitar and violin as well as the accordion, while girls were interested in the piano, violin, flute or learning to dance ballet. Boys prevailed among students of percussion and brass instruments and girls among students of singing and bow string instruments.

 
Upper secondary education

• In the school year 2017/18, 73,776 students were enrolled in the upper secondary education carried out by 145 public upper secondary schools, 6 private upper secondary schools and 5 institutions for special needs children. The number of upper secondary students continues to fall as smaller and smaller generations exit basic education. We expect this trend to continue for another one or two years until larger generations of 15-year-olds begin to enter upper secondary education.
• Among 20,180 first-year students 18,100 were new entrants, entering upper secondary education for the first time. Others were either repeaters or have changed their study programme.
• 91.8% of all young people between 15 and 18 years of age are enrolled in upper secondary education, 93% if we include those enrolled as adults.
• In upper secondary general programmes 35% of all upper secondary students were enrolled, 60% of them girls. 47% of all students were included in technical programmes (46% of them girls). In vocational education 18% of all upper secondary students were enrolled, 30% of them girls.

• In the last few years the interest in vocational and technical programmes has increased. Compared to 2010/11 the share of students in these programmes has increased by 5 percentage points and decreased by just as much in general programmes.
• Men tend to choose technical and vocational programmes more often than women. Three out of four (73%) male students are enrolled in these programmes, mostly in the technical fields (33% of all male students) and computing (8%). On the other hand, 56% of female students are included in technical and vocational programmes, mostly in the fields of health (12% of all female students), personal services (11%) and business and administration (10%).

• In the school year 2016/17 upper secondary education was successfully completed by 17,530 students. 5,906 students (34%) attained a general upper secondary education, 7,738 (44%) an upper secondary technical, and 3,885 (22%) an upper secondary vocational or short upper secondary vocational education. Due to a decrease in the number of students in upper secondary education, the number of graduates is decreasing as well. Since 2008/09 when there were 21,000 upper secondary education graduates the number has decreased by 17%.

Adult education

• In the school year 2016/17, 1,153 adults took lessons in basic school programme for adults. Two out of three participants were men, a third of whom younger than 18 years of age.
• Upper secondary education programmes for adults were attended by 19,846 participants, over half of them (52%) women. 85% of participants were younger than 26 years. 5% of participants wished to receive a general upper secondary education, 61% of adults were enrolled in technical programmes and 34% in vocational upper secondary programmes. The majority of participants attended programmes in the field of business and administration.