Students in pre-tertiary education and those who completed education at these levels, Slovenia, school years 2019/2020 and 2018/2019

In 2019/20, too, more basic school pupils and fewer upper secondary school students than in the previous years

In the past school year 87,708 children were attending kindergartens, 190,156 were attending basic school and 72,783 were attending upper secondary school.

28 May 2020 at 10:30
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final data

Andreja Kozmelj
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Data inquiry

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

Pre-school education

In the school year 2019/20, 87,708 children were enrolled in kindergartens, which is 82.7% of all children aged between 1 and 5 years. In the last ten years the number of children enrolled in kindergartens increased by a quarter (from 71,124 in the school year 2009/10 to 87,708 in the school year 2019/20). Pre-school education was provided by 966 kindergartens and their units, 851 of them public and 115 private. A large majority of children (94.3%) 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. 39,655 children aged 4 and 5 years were enrolled in pre-school education, which is 94.1% of all children of that age and 6 percentage points more than ten years ago. The enrolment rate of the youngest (1 and 2 years of age) increased as well from a half of the population in 2009/10 to 67.5% in 2019/20.

Basic school education

In the school year 2019/20, 190,156 children were enrolled in basic school program with regular and adapted curriculum, almost 4,000 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 larger generations are staying. The generations of first-graders are larger (this year 21,044) than the generations of ninth-graders (this year 18,084).
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 6% 7-year-olds among first graders. In 2019/20 the share was 11.7%.

Compulsory basic education was carried out by 773 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 1,140 pupils were attending classes, in the largest school branch 342 and in the smallest branch only 3.
In the school year 2019/20 the average class had 19.2 pupils. This number varies depending on the organizational form of schools. In independent and central basic schools there were on average 20.8 pupils per class, and in subsidiary schools only 11 pupils per class. The average number of children per class also varies among statistical regions. It was the lowest in basic schools in the Koroška and Pomurska statistical regions (16.2) and the highest in the Osrednjeslovenska statistical region (21.5).
In regular and adapted basic education programmes there were 13,302 children with special needs. Most of them (81%) were included in regular programmes with adapted implementation and additional professional assistance and represented 5.7% of all pupils in regular basic education programmes.
In the school year 2018/19 basic school education was successfully completed by 17,731 pupils, 271 of them in basic schools with adapted curriculum.

Upper secondary education

In the school year 2019/20, 72,738 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 the generations of young people currently in upper secondary schools are the smallest in the last 70 years. However, we expect this trend to turn since larger generations of 15-year-olds begin to enter upper secondary education.
Among 20,098 first-year students 19,258 were new entrants, entering upper secondary education for the first time. Others were either repeaters or have changed their study programme.
90.6% of all young people between 15 and 18 years of age were enrolled in upper secondary education, 92.8% if we include those 15–18-year-olds who were enrolled as adults.
In upper secondary general programmes 35% of all upper secondary students were enrolled, 62% of them girls. 47% of all students were enrolled in technical programmes (46% of them girls). In vocational education 18% of all upper secondary students were enrolled, 27% of them girls.

Men tend to choose technical and vocational programmes more often than women. Three out of four (74%) male students are enrolled in these programmes, mostly in the technical fields (43.5% of all male students) and computing (8%). On the other hand, 56% of female students are enrolled 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 2018/19 upper secondary education was successfully completed by 17,368 students. 5,906 students (34%) attained a general upper secondary education, 7,927 (45%) an upper secondary technical, and 3,183 (20%) an upper secondary vocational or short upper secondary vocational education.

Adult education

In the school year 2018/19, 915 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 17,118 participants. 75% of participants were younger than 25 years. 4% of participants wished to receive a general upper secondary education, 62% 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.