ZAGREB, April 25, 2019 - Science and Education Minister Blaženka Divjak said on Wednesday that around two billion kuna had been invested in the curricular reform over the last three years or an average 1.5 million kuna per school for education, textbooks and equipment.

Divjak said this at a national conference on the School for Life experimental programme, which was organised by her ministry and which drew principals, teachers and assistants from 74 schools participating in the School for Life programme.

"We have invested more than 1.5 million kuna per school in the last three years. Schools covered by this experimental programme have also received advance payments and there will be more investments in equipment, education and textbooks," the minister said, adding that it needs to be known that the primary and secondary school systems had been neglected and had not been invested in for a long time.

Asked if schools had been provided with the necessary equipment for the curricular reform, Divjak said that computer equipment had arrived in schools, and that tablets and other equipment bought through public procurement would arrive in two weeks' time.

Speaking of the reform of the system of higher education, the minister said that that reform was slightly different due to university autonomy.

More news about the curricular reform can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, March 21, 2019 - European Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Commissioner Tibor Navracsics and Croatian Science and Education Minister Blaženka Divjak said on Thursday that gifted students should have equal rights and an individualised approach during school.

They were speaking at an international conference held on the occasion of Gifted Students Days in Croatia, organised by Dar, an association caring for gifted children and students in Croatia. The second such conference focused on the best world, European and Croatian practices in working with gifted children and young people.

Asked about the most important kind of help to gifted students, Navracsics highlighted motivated teachers.

Divjak said gifted students should be provided with equal rights and an individualised approach during school, underlining the need to educate teachers to work with gifted children.

The conference was being held under the auspices of Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, who was scheduled to receive the organisers later today.

The parliament speaker's envoy, Sanja Putica, said gifted children were ignored and the law should ensure better working conditions for teachers because of the complexity of their job.

Hungarian Ambassador Jozsef Zoltan Magyar said his country had launched a programme of support for gifted children and students in 2008 when the tax system enabled citizens to set aside 1% of their incomes for what they thought they should support.

Most have donated their money to a gifted children fund, which amounted to 1.5 million kuna in 2009 and is four times higher today. In a country with about ten million people and nearly five million employed, "one in ten Hungarians is the 'father' or 'mother' of a gifted child."

Navracsics said the most important thing was for every child to be included in classes, for education be inclusive, as education and talent were two sides of the same coin.

He said education was the cornerstone of the society of the future and that it must be run in such a way that it took into account that a gifted child could, paradoxically, have more difficulties than other children.

That's why the European Commission's message is that gifted children should be supported and their work and progress monitored, he added.

More news about Croatia’s education system can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, February 8, 2019 - The GOOD NGO on Friday warned that students partaking in the "School for Life" programme will not receive a quality Civic Education but rather a reduced version of an already inadequate programme that has been taught in schools for the past four years as a compulsory subject.

"Even though over the past few days we could read in the media about the introduction of Civic Education in schools and the big changes it will bring, this curriculum has shortcomings, is poorly elaborated and insufficient for the development of civic competencies in students. As until now, it will be taught as part of other subjects, which will not ensure its quality," the NGO said.

It further assessed that the new curriculum adopted last week by the Ministry of Science and Education was yet another step backward.

The new curriculum appears to be more like a draft version. Even though it defines what Civic Education should be, the actual curriculum isn't consistent with that and it looks more like a wish list, GOOD said.

"Instead of the announced revolution in education, this curriculum, which has been carved for three years, is mostly conservative with regard to the concept of the citizen and provides a very narrow and wrong understanding of citizens in a democracy," GOOD said.

Student won't gain the relevant knowledge or skills nor develop values and attitudes required to participate in a contemporary, democratic society and it is in fact just the opposite of the declared desired results of "reforms", to prepare young people for the challenges of the 21st century, the NGO said.

GOOD underscored that a better, more just and advanced society requires an education system that produces empowered and emancipated citizens capable of constructive changes in society based on solidarity, which, it said, is something the new curriculum won't provide.

More news on the education system in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 8, 2019 - The Zadar Police have filed a report with juvenile prosecutors against a 15-year-old male student of a local secondary school who, using a lighter, branded a fellow female and a fellow male student with the letter U. The minor was reported for inflicting physical injuries.

The Science and Education Ministry on Thursday sent an inspection team to the Zadar school. Police said the injuries sustained by the two students were light.

The chair of the parliamentary Committee on Human and Ethnic Minority Rights, Milorad Pupovac of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS), on Friday condemned an incident in a secondary school in Zadar where a student branded his two fellow students with the letter U, telling one of them that "she can now say that she is an Ustasha", and called for a prompt response from the ministries of education, the interior and justice.

"This disturbing act constitutes a breach of the Constitution with regard to ethnic equality and unobstructed exercise of rights related to ethnicity, the Non-Discrimination Act and Article 325 of the Penal Code, which bans any incitement of hate and violence," Pupovac said.

It is clear that school institutions lack the awareness of the nature of the problem and what needs to be done to prevent similar incidents and make students fully aware of what is allowed and what is unlawful, he said.

The most worrying aspect is that there are people in the school system that obviously do not mind incidents of this kind and, on the other hand, people who are afraid of such situations. "This requires additional education to make teachers, students and the public aware that displaying the Ustasha symbols and salute is not and cannot be tolerated," said the Serb minority MP, adding that the incident in Zadar bore witness to how serious the situation in society was in general. "That kind of symbols must not be legal anywhere, especially not among children and students."

Pupovac also said that even though minors were concerned, police should act and not downplay the problem, the more so as parents of students attending the school in question had repeatedly complained about peer violence.

More news about the extremism in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 7, 2019 - The Minister of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy, Nada Murganić, on Thursday commented on an incident in a Zadar high school where a male student on Wednesday, using a lighter, branded a fellow female and a fellow male student with the letter U, saying that the school should have reported the incident to the police, parents and social workers.

Murganić stressed that local social workers would carry out an inspection of the student's domestic circumstances.

She said that this was "an ugly and violent act" towards a fellow student which bore evidence of the need to prevent bringing up a generation of young thugs who deal with their partners in a violent way.

In a message to opponents of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, Murganić said that cases of violence against women were very difficult to deal with once they reached the stage at which a crime had already been committed. "We must identify problems and deal with them much sooner," she said, underlining the importance of prevention and education.

Commenting on the case of a young man who has been found guilty of brutally beating up his 18-year-old girlfriend in Zadar and who will be released from custody on Sunday, Murganić said that the state can and must protect the victim from the threats she was receiving.

Police said on Thursday that they were investigating the incident while the principal of the school where it happened told the media that he had been told at a class meeting that "it was just a game."

More news on the extremism in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, December 15, 2018 - Despite the cold weather, several thousand secondary and primary school teachers and students rallied in central Zagreb on Saturday to draw attention to a difficult safety and financial situation in the Croatian education system and to demand safe schools.

Teachers and students demanded better safety in the classroom, a change of ineffective pedagogical practices, and that assaults on teachers be legally treated as assaults on public officials.

The rally was organised under the motto "For a Safe School" by two teachers' groups and a teachers' union. Those gathered were addressed by several teachers and parents who claimed that Croatian schools today are unsafe both for teachers and for well-behaved children who are subjected to violence by unruly students.

"We don't want to hear any more about prevention programmes and workshops. We want those in charge to finally do what they are well paid for. We demand the status of public officials for all teachers and we want a physical assault on teachers to be treated as it is treated in all civilised countries," Ivan Plantić, a teacher from Vela Luka on the southern island of Korčula, said to applause from the crowd.

Teachers who took the rostrum spoke of humiliating and offensive situations they had experienced in the classroom.

Franjo Dragičević, a teacher at Technical Secondary School in the northwestern town of Čakovec, received particularly enthusiastic applause. He warned that schools in Croatia had become "warzones for deviants who are targeting teachers and pupils who want to learn." He pointed the finger at bad regulation and school heads who do not respond to violence in order to maintain good relations with the ministry and stay in their posts.

Dragičević was nearly dismissed from work recently after an incident in the classroom when he confronted and pushed away a student who allegedly threw pieces of chalk at him. His case triggered an avalanche of reactions from other teachers who had experienced similar situations, culminating in today's rally.

No representatives of the Education Ministry were present at the rally.

More news on the educational system in Croatia can be found in our Politics section.

ZAGREB, November 26, 2018 - Primary and secondary school students in Croatia rarely participate in making decisions and giving opinions on relevant topics, a survey showed.

The results of the survey, entitled "Participation of Children in the Education System", were presented at a press conference on the occasion of Universal Children's Day.

The survey was carried out on the initiative of the Ombudsman for Children by the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences and the Department of Pedagogy at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, covering 2,720 students and 461 teachers from throughout the country.

Project leader Ivana Jeđud Borić said that the survey identified shortcomings in encouraging children's participation in educational institutions in Croatia. She said that it is necessary to develop participatory methods of teaching and treat children as equal participants in decision making because children's right to participate is their basic right.

The survey found that children are not interested in participating in formal bodies because they do not believe they can have any influence. Primary and secondary school students rarely participate in making decisions and giving opinions on relevant topics, she said.

Jeđud Borić said that schoolchildren are much more involved in informal forms of participation. She said that the survey also revealed that a good adult-student relationship, which is a key factor in encouraging participation, is often neglected at the expense of other education outcomes and that schools lack adults who could serve as an example of participation.

Children's Ombudsman Helenca Pirnat Dragičević said that the results of the survey will be used in drawing up new proposals for developing an education system in which children will be able to fully exercise their right to participation.

For more on children in Croatia and their position and status in the Croatian society, click here.

 ZAGREB, November 21, 2018 - Finance Minister Zdravko Marić said on Wednesday that a proposal to ensure free school textbooks for primary school pupils would be further discussed to see its potential effect on the budget.

The proposal has been made by the parliamentary group of Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić's Work and Solidarity Party, the Reformists and Independents, and was discussed at a meeting on Tuesday.

Asked by the press if the proposal was in fact an ultimatum, Marić said he did not see it that way. "We had a constructive discussion on several points concerning tax laws and the budget," Marić said after a parliamentary debate on amendments to tax laws.

A source close to this parliamentary group said on Tuesday they had notified Marić that they would not support next year's budget, which will be put to a vote in parliament on December 3, unless sufficient funding was secured for free school textbooks for all primary school pupils in the country.

The group cited a constitutional provision saying that compulsory education is free, and said that this would ease the financial burden on parents. Estimating the cost of free textbooks at 200 million kuna, they said it was possible to find this amount in next year's budget, which is planned at 140 billion kuna.

Marić said that Croatia had experience with free school textbooks for primary school students both at local and central government levels, adding that central government funding for this purpose had been suspended at one point, after which local government units allocated funds for free textbooks within the limits of their resources. "This measure needs to be further discussed to see its total potential financial effect and how it fits with the bill on textbooks, which is now in procedure," Marić said.

Asked how much this measure would cost the budget, Marić said that the last figure for free textbooks for primary school and the first grade of secondary school was about 400 million kuna. "In any case, we need an update on this calculation," he added.

Asked to comment on the latest HUP Score, which shows that Croatia was economically lagging behind other EU member states, Marić said he had not had time to see details of this index, compiled by the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP), and would do so soon.

He said that in a third round of tax cuts the tax burden had been reduced by 7 billion kuna and that room should be created for further tax breaks. "We control the expenditure side of the budget and all surplus revenues go towards reducing the public debt and the tax burden."

For more on Croatia’s education system, click here.

ZAGREB, November 18, 2018 - Forty-nine percent of students in Croatia want to enrol at general-education secondary schools, as many prefer vocational schools, while only two percent will opt for art schools, a survey shows.

The survey was conducted by the EduCentar website in August and September on a sample of 385 students.

Over 70 percent of respondents said they made their choice of school based on information found online, nearly 60 percent followed recommendations from their friends or acquaintances, while 35 percent based their decision on word of mouth.

About 30 percent of those interviewed cited as their source of information their teachers and a quarter their parents. Printed materials, radio, television and newspapers were used as sources of information only to a lesser extent.

The chief advantage of general-education secondary schools is that they ensure better preparation for university, said 70 percent of respondents, while broader general knowledge they provide was seen as an advantage by 61 percent of them. Half of those surveyed said that the advantage of such schools is that they can delay their decision on an occupation.

About 80 percent of respondents said they see skill acquisition and good employment prospects as the chief advantages of vocational schools. Only 15 percent think that vocational schools provide better preparation for university.

Respondents who opted for general-education secondary schools cited personal interests and desires and a school's reputation as the main factors in their choice of school. As many as 62 percent of those who preferred vocational schools mentioned employment prospects, as opposed to only a quarter of students seeking to enrol at general-education schools. Half of those interviewed said that another advantage of vocational schools is specialisation in a certain field.

For more on education in the Republic of Croatia, with a particular emphasis on schools, click here,

ZAGREB, November 17, 2018 - A new, modern building of the American International School of Zagreb was officially inaugurated in Zagreb's Bundek neighbourhood on Friday.

This state-of-the-art school is attended by 250 students of 36 different nationalities, who acquire competencies based on modern learning methods. One-fifth of the students attending the American International School of Zagreb (AISZ) are Croatians.

The American International School was established in 1966 and 52 years after its establishment it has moved to a befitting campus – the most beautiful school building in Zagreb, in the city's most beautiful park, Bundek, Mayor Milan Bandić said at the opening ceremony.

Opening the new school, US Ambassador William Robert Kohorst thanked generations of American International School employees who over the past 52 years had worked with enthusiasm to help realise the project.

He commended the school's location and thanked the mayor of Zagreb as well as the companies that built the new school building – Teh-gradnja and Projektgradnja – for their professionalism, recalling that the building was built in a record 13 months and cost 14.7 million euro.

The ambassador said that the AISZ was the best school in the country, offering many possibilities to help children develop competencies for jobs of the future.

School director Paul Buckley said that the school offered an innovative international curriculum based on the newest education research and practice. He thanked everyone involved in the new school project – current and former members of the school board – as well as the project authors – Boston architects David Croteau and Jenni Katajamäki of FLANSBURGH Architects and Zagreb architects Vedran Pedišić and Erick Velasco Farrera of SANGRAD+AVP.

He noted that the school had been furnished by Croatian companies. The school director also said that the school could admit 500 students.

The school has three atria, halls that also serve as areas for learning, a running track, a theatre with a music classroom, an art studio, a dance studio, two open libraries, chemistry, physics and biology laboratories with modern equipment, a workshop and many other amenities, he said.

The school provides the best possible education for its students as well as encouraging them to accept differences and love their life and the life of others, said the director.

Mayor Bandić said that Zagreb was a multiethnic and multicultural city, open and safe for all. He said the AISZ was proof of Zagreb's multiculturalism and thanked everyone, including the current US ambassador, as well as his predecessors, for everything they had done to help accomplish the new school project.

Bandić also said that the new school was evidence that "the United States is seriously counting on Croatia", and expressed his gratitude to the USA "for everything it did for Croatia in the critical moments of its history."

Representatives of the parliament, government and the president's office also attended the opening ceremony.

For more on Croatia’s schools, click here.