The Education Ministry has exceeded expectations and goals in the 2004-2008 term, believes Education Minister Milan Zver, who said Tuesday that his ministry's key achievement was to make Slovenian students competitive knowledge-wise at the global scale.
"We can't yet compare the knowledge of current generations with previous generations, but we can be proud of our students, who are among the best in the world in science and mother tongue competences," Zver said as he presented the achievements of his ministry over the past four years.
Free kindergarten for the second and subsequent child, and a halving by 2014 of kindergarten fees for children aged 3-5, were meanwhile labelled by the minister as the added value of the set goals. Cheaper kindergarten has and will have an impact on demographics, he said.
Another achievement that Zver highlighted is warm meals for secondary school students, which will be fully implemented as of the next school year. The relevant law, which was passed by the parliament in April, provides one free warm meal for students each school day.
There was also headway in reaffirming patriotism, including with a reform of the curriculum.
The Education Ministry increased spending for schools and kindergartens, with maintenance funds increasing more than four-fold during the course of this term.
Zver also highlighted the laws adopted in this term, saying they provided for "flexibility, independence and accountability of all stakeholders in the educational system".
Slovenia has a "favourable set of circumstances that define the Slovenian school as good," he said.
More articles from this issue:
Archive
|