ZAGREB, 26 Sept, 2021 - Croatian schools still do not offer systematic education about climate change even though transition to a climate neutral economy will create more than one million jobs in the EU in the period until 2030, teachers interested in the topic of climate change have said.

Croatian students acquire most of the knowledge about climate change by participating in projects.

Sanja Turčić Padavić, a teacher at a Rijeka secondary school, says that young people are aware that the new time brings new challenges that will be easier to deal with with green skills but that school curricula make no mention of such education.

Teachers who consider the topic important find a way to include it in their work with students, but there has been no incentive from the Science and Education Ministry, Turčić Padavić says.

"I convey the knowledge I have acquired through the subject I teach. If I were not involved in projects, I would probably not know what to teach about climate change or how," she says.

A study on climate change in the EU, of which she is a coordinator and which is part of the Erasmus+ programme, will be conducted over a period of three years.

It will focus on 243 endangered animal and plant species in three countries. The focus in Croatia is on fauna and based on the study's results, an innovative plan of recovery will be proposed for each of the species.

Several Croatian schools regularly take part in a national reforestation campaign, which is designed to point to the importance of trees in mitigating climate change.

There are also other forms of education, including a workshop organised by the Tatavaka association in July, which also involved members of the Civil Protection who as part of the school curriculum, have been preparing a handbook on how to reduce disaster risks.

Italy is the first country in the world to have officially introduced education about climate change and sustainable development in the school system, owing to efforts by former Education Minister Lorenzo Fioramonti.

Education on climate change received a lot of public attention with the climate marches of  2019, organised by students.

A 2020 survey on climate education in Europe collected 1,101 responses, with 89% coming from education workers. Almost all agreed that school is responsible for climate education, however, 70% said climate education was insufficiently present in school curricula.

Lack of competence and training was cited as the most frequent reason why teachers could not include it in curricula, the second reason being lack of resources.

A small percentage of respondents expressed doubts as to the existence of evidence about climate change being a serious problem.

The importance of education for strengthening the European framework for green competencies has been underlined at this year's EU Green Week.

Today there are initiatives such as UNESCO's education on climate change, eTwinning, Erasmus+, the European Parliament Ambassador School Programme (EPAS), and others.

The Green Deal and the fight against climate change are among priority policies of the European Parliament and special attention will be paid to these topics through activities, seminars and programmes that are organised by the EP Office in Croatia, the Office has said.

EPAS has been implemented in Croatia since 2016 and so far more than 60 secondary schools have attended it.

The European Parliament in 2019 declared a climate crisis, calling on the European Commission to harmonise future legislative and budget proposals with the objectives of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

In June this year the EP approved a new regulation on climate increasing the target reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU in the period until 2030 from 40% to at least 55%.

It also adopted a position on the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 which aims to put under protection at least 30% of land and sea in the EU.

Transition to a low-carbon economy will create more than one million jobs in the period until 2030, which requires retraining and additional training for more than 120 million Europeans in the next five years.

According to OECD data, many countries have already included topics related to environmental protection in their school curricula, however, there is still no comprehensive strategy at the EU level.

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September the 26th, 2021 - The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has seen Croatian schools close their doors for long periods of time and children learn from home via what has since been referred to as distance learning. Online platforms and Zoom classes became the norm for extended periods, and kids were often in and out of self-isolation in their droves as their classmates tested positive for the virus and parents became more and more desperate about things such as child care. That's all about to alter somewhat.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the head of the Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ), Krunoslav Capak, has explained the changes that Croatian schools and pupils are set to face, which should take a weight off the shoulders of not only the education system and the children, but worried parents who, in many cases in the past, exhausted many resources they may not really have had.

“It isn't necessary for whole classes to go into self-isolation, it needs to be determined which kids were in close contact. A document on that topic is being prepared, and most importantly, only those students who sat at the same benches/desks, those within a radius of two metres and those who traveled longer than fifteen minutes with a student who fell ill [tested positive] will be placed into self-isolation,'' explained Krunoslav Capak at a recently held press conference during which the matter was discussed in more depth.

The document will be completed by the end of this week, but it is not yet known when it will take effect, so until then Croatian schools must continue being extra careful as infection numbers remain quite high across the country.

"The assessment should be made by an epidemiologist when they receive information from the child themselves in these cases, and it's going to be a similar thing with preschoolers. It all depends on how long the contact with the positive person has been,'' explained Krunoslav Capak.

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ZAGREB, 6 Sept 2021 - The new school year 2021-22 begins on Monday for almost 460,000 elementary and secondary school students across Croatia, including about 37,000 first graders, and all will have face-to-face classes.

This year again HRK 158 million was earmarked in the state budget for free textbooks for elementary school students.

Science and Education Minister Radovan Fuchs said on Sunday that elementary school students in grades five to eight and secondary school students would have to wear masks if the distance between them in classrooms was less than 1.5 to 2 meters.

However, masks are mandatory in hallways, outside classrooms, and in school transport.

Teachers who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 do not have to wear masks in classrooms, while those who have not been do, Fuchs said on RTL television.

The ministry has issued epidemiological recommendations based on research, the experience of epidemiologists, all stakeholders in the education system and other EU countries as well as in line with those of relevant European and international organizations, notably the World Health Organization.

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ZAGREB, 2 Sept 2021 - Civic Education will be introduced in the second semester of this school year as a pilot project and an extracurricular subject, while in 2022 the programme is expected to be introduced in all schools in Zagreb, members of the city's ruling green-left coalition said on Thursday.

The first semester of the new school year will be dedicated to preparations for the project, adoption of the curriculum for the subject, and teacher training. All of that will be tested in selected schools as part of the pilot project in the second semester.

Schools to participate in the pilot project have still not been selected, they have two weeks to respond to the call and state if their pupils, their parents, and teachers are interested in having that extracurricular activity introduced.

The process will be coordinated by a new task force to be appointed by Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomašević.

The previous city administration adopted a programme for teachers teaching Civic Education but Damir Bakić of the We Can! party said that the programme was inadequate and that it would be improved. Bakić commended the Civic Education curriculum that is implemented in Rijeka, saying that Zagreb intended to copy it.

He also commented on a misunderstanding that ensued after the city department for education said that Civic Education would be introduced at the start of this school year, in line with the programme defined by the previous city government.

Civic Education topic that transcends ideology

"This was not communicated sufficiently clearly and it is possible that some statements were made by the department without sufficient coordination with the city administration," said Bakić.

He dismissed any attempt at turning the introduction of Civic Education in schools into an ideological topic, responding that way to warnings from right-wing parties for parents to be careful about what their children will be learning and to see if We Can! and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which run Zagreb in a coalition, will impose their party ideology on them.

Bakić said that Civic Education was a public good, social value, and a topic that transcended ideology.

Science and Education Minister Radovan Fuchs said on Wednesday that he didn't see any special reason to introduce Civic Education in schools as a separate subject given that it was already taught as a cross-curricular topic.

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March the 22nd, 2021 - As the coronavirus pandemic rages on and an increase in the infection rate in one Croatian county has been duly noted, Primorje-Gorski Kotar schools, at least the majority of them, have closed their doors today.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Croatian county of Primorje-Gorski Kotar currently has the most active cases of infection in all of the country. Due to the upward trend in the number of infected individuals in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County - the local civil protection headquarters had to tighten its approach to combating the pandemic. Today, most Primorje-Gorski Kotar schools will remain closed.

For more than 120 days, this Croatian county has been recording more than 200 newly infected people per day. The number of active cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection exceeded 1,800, and most of those infected are among the local working population - 60 percent of them, and 16 percent of them are local school children, HRT reported.

Mladen Sculac from the Civil Protection Headquarters of the aforementioned county says that they expect that the new measures that come into force today will bring good results.

"Restrictions on classes for students from the 4th to 8th grade of primary school and for secondary schools will come into force, while students from 1st to 4th grade will continue to have their classes live. A proposal was made to the National Civil Protection Headquarters to limit the number of employees at any one time in the workplace or to introduce shift work. We expect that these measures will show good results,'' he said, adding that if these measures don't provide the desired results, then measures will need to be tightened.

"We hope that our citizens and employers will be disciplined in adhering to these measures," said Sculac, adding that the closure of cafe terraces will also happen if these measures aren't properly respected.

The intensified supervision of the operation of such catering facilities is also expected, and the closing of terraces will follow if the measures are violated. The Primorje-Gorski Kotar Police Department inspected 1,274 catering facilities, found 20 people violating self-isolation and issued 9 misdemeanor notices, the State Inspectorate intervened 30 times, and the Civil Protection Office carried out 180 inspections of the current epidemiological measures, reported HRT.

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March the 5th, 2021 - A highly questionable piece of school work aimed at young impressionable Croatian children has been doing the rounds on social media. A religious studies teacher apparently deems it acceptable to ask children whether or not they´d want to travel with a gay man, someone infected with AIDS, a Serbian soldier from Bosnia or a prostitute from Berlin. Yes, you read that correctly.

As Index/Andrea Topic writes, a Croatian religious studies teacher from a primary school near Rijeka handed out papers to children which contain some deeply derogatory terms which are above all unacceptable, but even more unacceptable to put into the hands of young Croatian children.

This religious studies ¨task¨ also problematises "an African woman who is selling leather products", mentions "a Roma person who has just been released from prison", then "an Indian woman with a one-year-old child", as well as "a Croatian tycoon".

Among those mentioned on the list were an abortion specialist, a computer hacker, a Jehovah's Witness, a very successful Hollywood actress from Turkey, an English footballer, a rapper living an alternative lifestyle and a young artist suffering from AIDS.

It is difficult to even know where to begin when it comes to just how wholly inappropriate and offensive such a list is, and to repeat myself, giving such a list to children who nowhere near the age at which such things would enter their heads is almost beyond comprehension.

The question addressed to the eighth graders reads as follows:

¨You´re boarding a train which is going to travel along the Zagreb-India route. The journey will take one week. You are travelling in a compartment with three other people. Imagine getting a list of people you can choose from as companions in your compartment. The people are the following...¨ the religious teacher begins when asking innocent school children to list three individuals they would like to travel on this train with and three people they would not want to travel with at all.

The competent Ministry is now involved.

Sandra Krpan, the principal of the Milan Brozovic Kastav Elementary School, was later made familiar with the offensive content that is still spreading across social media much to the disgust of parents and other users.

"The religious studies teacher did give a textbook out to the eighth grade students. I asked her to provide me with a written statement after a phone conversation. The school's expert associate, a social pedagogue, was involved in the conversation because we consider the content inappropriate, although the religious studies teacher said that the work was given out to teach the children not to hold any prejudices against other people,¨ claims the principal of the school which is located in Kastav.

She added that her institution is absolutely committed to peace, tolerance and respect for diversity.

The translation of the document in full is below:

EURO-TRAIN

You are boarding a train heading between Zagreb and India. The journey will take one week. You are travelling in a cabin with three other passengers. Imagine that you have been given a list of those other passengers and you can choose who you travel with in your cabin. The people are as follows:

A gay man

A Serbian soldier from Bosnia

An African woman selling leather products

A young artist infected/suffering with AIDS

A Roma person who has just been released from prison

A rapper who lives an alternative lifestyle

An Indian woman with a one-year-old

A prostitute from Berlin

An English footballer

A Turkish actress who has become very successful in Hollywood

A Croatian tycoon

A Jehova´s Witness

A computer hacker

A doctor who specialises in abortions

An older monk with a bible in his hands

Your work task: Choose three people with whom you´d like to travel and three with whom you definitely wouldn´t want to travel.

List the reasons for the choice of either being FOR or AGAINST

The task at hand is allegedly there to promote tolerance and this appears to have been backed up by an original document written in English. It was published in 1995 (what we can offer you is the second edition of the manual, published in 2016: link opens a .pdf file) as an education pack by the Council of Europe, aimed at non-adults and their intercultural education. The original of the document which made the rounds in the Croatian media today can be found on the page 80, and it includes a Serbian soldier from Bosnia, an overweight Swiss financial broker, an Italian disc-jockey who seems to have plenty of dollars, an African woman selling leather products, a young artist who is HIV positive, a Roma man (Gypsy or traveller) from Hungary just released from jail, a Basque nationalist who travels regularly to Russia, a German rapper living a very alternative life-style, a blind accordion player from Austria, a Ukrainian student who doesn't want to go home, a middle-aged Romanian woman who has no visa and a 1-year old child in her arms, a Dutch hard-line and aggressive feminist, a skinhead from Sweden ostensibly under the influence of alcohol, a wrestler from Belfast apparently going to a football match, a Polish prostitute from Berlin, a French farmer who speaks only French and has a basket full of strong cheese, and a Kurdish refugee living in Germany who is on his way back from Libya.

A careful reading of the two lists will have you puzzled, obviously. The Croatian list includes "a homosexual" and "a doctor who performs abortions", both obviously missing from the international list from the posted link. Why was it that those two categories were added? If only we knew... And, besides, in an exercise such as this one, what is inherently more interesting than the questions asked is how the answers are received. And we're only left guessing as far as that goes.

The Ministry says it is not their responsibility.

"That is what we teach our students. We´re sorry if these were inappropriate messages to give out to our students. We will inform the Ministry of Education and the Archdiocese of Rijeka about everything and act in accordance with the rules and the law," concluded Krpan.

Index asked the Ministry of Education for a statement, but they said that the control over professional and pedagogical work is carried out by the Agency for Education, and that the catechetical episcopal office takes care of the employment of religious education teachers. They then contacted the aforementioned agency and are still waiting for a response.

The Rijeka archdiocese said they were gathering information on the matter. "We are waiting for the official statement of the said religious teacher and the school. In that sense, we cannot give you any other sort of broader statement," they said briefly.

Article update - some feedback from a reader who went the story in more detail:

Re Index article and TCN translation about the vjeronauk class: The story of the questionnaire about prejudice gets interesting. I took the trouble to scan through the document one of the commenters quoted. This is a document designer to offer a toolkit to teachers and others to expose various prejudices. Clearly well thought out and a lot of work went into it. However, on p 80, the list is somewhat different. It is much  more neutral. For example it does not include 'homosexual' or 'doctor who performs abortions'. Clearly someone has adapted the list for their own purposes.

Here is the list as given in the document:

THE SCENARIO

You are boarding the « Deer Valley Express » train for a week-long ride from Lisbon to Moscow. You are travelling in a couchette compartment which you have to share with three other people. With which of the following passengers would you prefer to share?

1. A Serbian soldier from Bosnia.

2. An overweight Swiss financial broker.

3. An Italian disk-jockey who seems to have plenty of dollars.

4. An African woman selling leather products.

5. A young artist who is HIV positive.

6. A Roma man (Gypsy or traveller) from Hungary just released from jail.

7. A Basque nationalist who travels regularly to Russia.

8. A German rapper living a very alternative life-style.

9. A blind accordion player from Austria.

10. A Ukrainian student who doesn’t want to go home.

11. A middle-aged Romanian woman who has no visa and a 1 year old child in her arms.

12. A Dutch hard-line and aggressive feminist.

13. A skinhead from Sweden ostensibly under the influence of alcohol.

14. A wrestler from Belfast apparently going to a football match.

15. A Polish prostitute from Berlin.

16. A French farmer who speaks only French and has a basket full of strong cheese.

17. A Kurdish refugee living in Germany who is on his way back from Libya.

January the 22nd, 2021 - Following an entire decade (yes, you read it right) of works, one of the most modern Croatian schools is now nearing its final phase. The new smart school is set to open its doors in just a few months.

As Barbara Ban/Novac writes, not long from now, after ten years of works, the students of the Pula Medical School will finally enter their new "smart" school, one of the most modern Croatian schools to have been built. They will be greeted by smart boards, a dental and biochemical laboratory, and specialised chemistry and biology classrooms. The new school will also boast a central control system for all energy sources and lighting that can be controlled by mobile phones, twelve classrooms, a multipurpose hall, a professional kitchen and dining room and much more.

The students deserved the construction of this modern Croatian school after they left their former school in 2010, which was demolished in 2012 because it was deemed unfit for use, and since then the students have been engaging in their studies in the building of the former surgery of the old General Hospital and at the Public Open University. The new school will be able to accommodate up to 450 students, and currently has 350.

Now the works on one of the most modern Croatian schools, which sprang up on the site of the old school in Pula, and is worth 52 million kuna, are finally nearing completion. A few days ago it was visited by the Istria County prefect Fabrizio Radin and the mayor of Pula Boris Miletic. The works on this large public investment didn't stop for even one day, despite the coronavirus crisis and the difficulties in procuring certain materials, equipment, as well as the problems surrounding the labour force. Due to that, the completion of the construction works will be a bit late, but they're still scheduled for spring.

''About 75 percent of construction work is now completed. We expect that part to be finished during the spring of this year. This will be followed by the equipping phase and I believe that despite everything, we're now seeing the end of this investment. Our investment policy in education follows the demands of the labour market. We lack medical staff of all profiles and this is how we intend to solve this problem in the future,'' said Istria County's prefect Fabrizio Radin, who believes that the modern Croatian school's capacities will be filled by the time the next school year rolls around. All the more so as the new Pula General Hospital, which is located just across from the school, is also being completed.

Miletic added that this is one of the most modern and best-equipped schools in the entire country.

''If someone is thinking of enrolling in medical school next year, now's the time to decide. This is all the more important as at the end of it, that person will have a job at the Pula General Hospital,'' said Miletic.

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ZAGREB, 18 January, 2021 - At the start of the second school term in Croatian schools, slightly fewer than 180,000 pupils are attending face-to-face classes according to model A, while 17 schools in Sisak-Moslavina County have been given approval to postpone the start of classes.

According to the data from the Science and Education Ministry, a total of 150,636 pupils in lower grades of primary school and about 29,000 students in the fourth grade of secondary school are attending classes in schools.

Students in higher grades of primary school and in the first, second and third grade of secondary school have online classes.

The start of the second term has been postponed for sixteen primary schools in Sisak-Moslavina County and the Glina Secondary School.

There are 53 schools in Sisak-Moslavina County -- 37 primary schools, 13 secondary schools and three music schools, there are 14,704 pupils and 2,754 school workers. There are also 21 kindergartens attended by 3,489 children.

Following the devastating earthquake that struck the county on December 29, nine of those buildings are unusable, 12 are temporarily unusable, 12 are usable with certain parts of buildings still posing a risk, and 23 are usable without limitations.

December the 11th, 2020 - What might the school of the future look like? Croatian schools, more specifically primary and secondary schools, are set to get a taste of the incredible world of AI (artificial intelligence) thanks to the coming together of Infobip and STEMI.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, The School of the Future is the name of the first STEM programme for artificial intelligence (AI) for Croatian schools, which, as of February 2021, will be implemented by STEMI in cooperation with Infobip, with the support of A1 Croatia. The goal is to open a window into the technological future for Croatian schools and their primary and secondary students by bringing them closer to the world of AI through practical work, thus creating new artificial intelligence engineers, while strengthening the link between the IT sector and education in general.

Back during the summer, STEMI started researching the feasibility of the idea and elaboration, and in October they joined forces with Infobip, one of Croatia's top technology leaders whose engineers will work with Croatian schools and their students in terms of the preparation of digital materials and the development of the environment, so that they can work on their projects from at home or at school.

''The quality of knowledge transfer to the youngest generations - and this is where Infobip has found a great partner in STEMI - is of great importance if we want long-term social progress. AI is one of the main technological directions for Infobip and it's very important to us that the youngest generations learn about the technology of the future from an early age. New leaders and innovators are hiding among those individuals,'' said Izabel Jelenic, the technical director of Infobip.

STEMI presented the project to teachers at the Carnet conference, after which the number of applications for inclusion was much higher than the planned number of Croatian schools. ''The idea is for students to form development teams and, as a first step, study UN sustainability goals, select one of the goals, and explore which problem they can solve with an AI chatbot within that same goal. For example, students can create a bot that will help doctors in medical triage, or in determining the urgency of a case, which can help make the system more efficient, especially in these times when the healthcare system is under enormous pressure, all leading to the goal of achieving the goal of sustainability - Good health and well-being. They'll then be able to further explore the domain of the problem, define the knowledge that the bot must be able to cover, and start implementing that. We believe that Croatian schools should also be places in which the future is imagined and created. That's why we're going to give students the task to imagine what the world will look like in 10-20 years from now, when AI will be all around us,'' explained the director of STEMI, Marin Troselj.

As an educational-technological company, they focus, he says, lies primarily on building a bridge between industry and primary and secondary education.

''Today we live in Industry 4.0. and when we look at World Economic Forum research, the technologies and knowledge that will lead the industry are data analysis, machine learning, web / mobile application development, virtual and augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, etc. These things are extremely underrepresented in all schools around the world. On the other hand, AI will make a similar transformation of both industry and society as electrification did back during the late 19th century. That's why it's extremely important to introduce children from an early age to one of the basic tools in the technology industry, but more importantly, to become aware of the impact of this technology on their very own lives,'' said Troselj. Interested Croatian schools can apply to participate in the School of the Future project on the website until January the 31st, 2021.

''Digitalisation is transforming society and business, and lately it's been the real backbone of every industry. Therefore, it's necessary to teach children advanced skills such as artificial intelligence, in order to be active members of the digital generation from an early age, ready for new jobs that await them in the future.

At A1 Croatia, we've always been focused on the development of digital skills and new occupations such as data analysts, AI and machine learning specialists, robotics experts, and we want to share this knowledge with the community,'' said Jiri Dvorjancansky, the CEO of A1 Croatia.

In addition to the main partner being A1 Croatia, the project was also supported by Croatia osiguranje, Zagrebacka banka, Bosch and Score Alarm. Thanks to the support of these companies, the School of the Future project will be implemented in more than 40 Croatian schools throughout the country. The project is expected to be completed in May 2021.

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Lockdown saw Croatian schools across the country bolt their doors and kids took to online ''distance'' learning at home, but as things gradually return to some sort of normality, or the ''new normal'' as it has become known, there are some changes in the works for Croatian schools on the horizon...

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 1st of August, 2020, Minister Fuchs sent an amendment to the Ordinance on the manner and procedure of determining the conditions for the beginning of the school year for public discussion.

In all two-shift schools, which is the norm in the Croatian compulsary education system, the school hour could well be shortened from 45 to 40 minutes, as 24sata unofficially found out.

This will provide the necessary time between those two shifts for disinfection to be carried out and for the cleaning of the school premises and classrooms. Among other epidemiological measures that need to be in place in order to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, these shifts in Croatian schools will serve to maintain distance between groups of students.

The competent ministry says that they are satisfied with the proposals from the City of Zagreb so far, but the principals of the schools that will accept the return of students still have many questions hanging above their heads. From what exactly the limitations of the number of students per one class will be, to how the issue of teachers who will naturally have their health endangered by the move will be solved. Thinking ahead, questions about their replacements when and if an epidemic breaks out are also necessary to ask.

As stated, last week on Thursday, Minister Fuchs sent an amendment for public discussion to the Ordinance on the manner and procedure of determining the conditions for the beginning of the school year. A part of the rulebook is being changed, according to which the expert commission belonging to the competent ministry should check whether there is a school that students from another school might go to, and provide that school with a work permit.

According to the proposed amendment, "a decision approving the continuation of work in [these] changed conditions may be issued by the Minister without prior appointment and the direct inspection of the expert commission".

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