STA, 21 September 2019 - Some EUR 50 million in payments to University of Maribor professors through freelance contracts is contentious, an issue auditor Ernst & Young highlighted back in March 2017, according to last evening's report by TV Slovenija.

It was very high payments to university professors and the university and its faculties' deals with certain companies that Ernst & Young found rather suspicious.

According to TV Slovenija, some professors received almost EUR 30 million in various fees.

Another EUR 20 million was paid to university staff who were treated as external staff (outsourcing).

Five million euro went to various suppliers connected with the university.

The auditors warned of a number of possible irregularities, including tempered calls for applications, tax evasion and fictitious payments.

They even urged a criminal investigation in some cases, according to the public broadcaster.

To double check Ernst & Young's findings, then Chancellor Igor Tičar commissioned a forensic audit, but before he could present its findings to the university's board, he had to retire.

"In line with the law, my contract terminated as of 2018, and I've had no information about what is going on ever since," he explained.

The audits were then shelved until they have recently been sent to some e-mail addresses, according to TV Slovenija.

Opposition Democrat (SDS) MP Anže Logar, who chairs the parliamentary Commission for the Oversight of Public Finances, said he had alerted the Education Ministry, Court of Audit and police about the case and "now I'm waiting for their answers".

Education Ministry State Secretary Jernej Štromajer said one should get to the bottom of the case to make sure public universities spend funds transparently.

When Chancellor Zdravko Kačič, who was in charge of finances at the university at the time, commented the allegations of irregularities the last time in June, he disputed Tičar and the auditors' views.

"We've decided to do another ... audit and we've asked the Institute for Business Accounting ... to give its opinion," he said.

Kačič was now unavailable for comment for TV Slovenija, which reported that the case would be discussed by the university's board later this month.

The case is also being processed by the Court of Audit and investigated by law enforcement.

TV Slovenija said the Education Ministry was waiting for a report from the university, which it should get by the end of September, before it took action.

STA, 3 September 2019 - Some 25,000 teachers teach at Slovenia's primary and secondary schools, many of whom are complaining about excessive paperwork and low trust. Nevertheless, international surveys do not necessarily always corroborate their claims about being overburdened due to time-consuming paperwork.

Nearly 18,360 teachers taught at primary schools and almost another 6,090 in secondary schools in the 2018/19 school year.

There is no lack of teachers in general, but head teachers can have a hard time hiring staff teaching IT and foreign languages, form teachers and special needs teachers.

Primary school teacher Janja Čolić says the public usually assumes a teacher's day at work ends with the last lesson in the classroom, which is far from truth.

"Planning a short lesson and filling in all related forms can take more time than the very lesson in the classroom," the head of the IATEFL Slovenia association of English language teachers, has told the STA.

She explains that apart from teaching, they have many other tasks to do, such as write reports, be on duty, take part in various projects, or accompany students at camps.

Čolić agrees there is a lot of bureaucracy: "We've tuned into administrative staff."

Former teacher Pavlina Ošlak says the problem are the many reports teachers have to write, when it is sometimes not even clear what exactly they should write.

She is convinced many reports are written for the sake of being written, and doubts head teachers really have to time to read all of them.

Čolić adds it should be reconsidered what really improves the quality of teaching and what is a mere formality.

A 2018 survey by the OECD, however, showed that Slovenian teachers use 8% of a lesson for various administrative tasks, which is in line with the OECD average.

But the Teaching and Learning International Survey also showed they use 50 minutes more a week than the OECD average for administrative tasks in general, that is also outside a single lesson.

Teachers have also been complaining about a lack of autonomy, which they see in excessive interference on the part of parents.

For instance, they have to explain the reasons for a certain teaching method, a low grade, or a disciplinary sanction, says Boris Zupančič, a former Education Ministry employee.

This often leads to lengthy procedures in which a teacher has to defend their decision, instead of being trusted that they have acted to the benefit of the student, he says.

Zupančič thus urges doing more to trust teachers. He believes a national document should be adopted expressing trust in the teachers' expertise and competences.

All our stories on education in Slovenia are here

STA, 2 September 2019 - Among the many primary and secondary schools children can go to in Slovenia, there are also several international schools, which are mostly intended for foreigners. Interest in them has been growing, also among Slovenian children, so this year they will have 600 students.

There are three private international schools: the British International School of Ljubljana, the American QSI International School and France's Ecole Francaise Ljubljana.

They teach curricula from the countries of their origin, at the same time offering curricula taught within the global network of international schools.

The three schools had some 400 students in the 2018/19 school year, according to data provided by the British school.

But there are also several Slovenian public schools offering internationally-compatible courses.

One of them is Danila Kumar Primary School in Ljubljana, which has launched an international department upon the initiative from foreign diplomats and business executives.

Since its first year, 2007/2008, the number of its students has grown from 50 to around 200.

"The figure changes since children get enrolled and leave throughout the year. They are 3 to 15 years old," says Irena Šteblaj, head of the primary school's international department.

She has told the STA they generally accept foreign citizens, while Slovenian students are admitted if they have already studied abroad and intend to go abroad again.

Our Danila Kumar International School usually has children of 36 to 40 different nationalities, says Šteblaj.

She admits some may have problems when they continue schooling at secondary school because of a language barrier.

"Although they study Slovenian two hours a week here, they don't learn it as well as if they went to a Slovenian school."

Three Slovenian secondary schools also offer an international school-leaving exam - known in Slovenian as "matura".

These are Gimnazija Bežigrad in Ljubljana and II. Gimnazija in Maribor, and since last year also Gimnazija in Kranj.

In Maribor, the two-year programme which prepares students in the last two years for the matura exam has been available since 1990.

To qualify for such such a programme, students must have good grades, an average of at least 4 on Slovenia's 1-to-5 scale.

"Classes are held in English, but students also have to attend lessons in their own mother tongue," says II. Gimnazija Maribor headteacher Ivan Lorenčič.

This year 22 Slovenian and 10 foreign students passed the international matura exam at this secondary school.

If they pass the exam, they can continue their studies at any university in Slovenia or abroad.

"But the majority, as many as 60-70%, decide to go abroad, to study mostly science such as chemistry, microbiology, biology and similar," says Lorenčič.

He is proud to say that the students passing the international mature exam at Slovenian secondary schools are at the top of more than 1,300 such schools worldwide.

"This is a result of hard work," he believes.

Meanwhile, a school for children whose parents work for EU institutions was launched in Ljubljana last school year.

In the first year, ten children were enrolled in grades 1 and 2 at the Ljubljana European School, which was founded by the government.

Children can choose between a programme taught in English or Slovenian, which according to headmaster Darinka Cankar depends on the dominant language spoken in their families.

Children also have the option of their mother tongue classes, which means that in 2019/20 the school will also teach French, German, Spanish and Lithuanian.

Forty-six children will attend it this year, the majority of whom are foreign citizens.

All out stories on education in Slovenia are here

The summer holidays are almost over, and next week children will be going back to school in Slovenia, with some feeling relieved, others tentative and afraid of the new, much like their parents.

To put things in some context we visited the excellent Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (SURS), to get the numbers on schoolchildren in Slovenia. Note that, unless otherwise stated, all figures are for the 2018/19 academic year.

Elementary schools and class sizes in Slovenia

Last year 21,945 children entered the first grade of primary school, with this generally happening when the child is 6 years old, although in September 2018 10% of new pupils were aged 7, a significant rise from the 6% seen five years before. Just under a fifth (19.8%) of such 7-year olds have special needs, and most of the others were born in November or December, and thus would have been among the youngest in their classes if joining aged 6.

In total, 186,328 children were enrolled in elementary schools in Slovenia in 2018/19, a rise of around 5,000 on the year before, and up significantly from 2010/11, when just 161,046 children where in such classes.

The average elementary school class had 19 pupils in 2018/19, with the  lowest average number found in the Koroška statistical region (16) and the highest in the Osrednjeslovenska statistical region (21.5). 

Slovenia's changing population mix, 1971 to 2061. Children born 10-15 years ago are part of a smaller cohort than those born more recently. For example, in 2018/19 there were 22,000 first graders (starting age of 6) compared to 17,751 ninth-graders (starting age 15). However, birth rates have been declining again, and in coming years the size of first grade classes will start shrinking. More details on demographics in Slovenia here

RELATED: Public Education in Slovenia: What is School in Nature?

Secondary schools in Slovenia – general, vocational and technical

The number of children entering upper secondary school pupils has been falling, with the 73,110 pupils attending in 2018/19 being some 5,000 fewer than five years before, although SURS expects this trend to reverse next week as a large cohort of 15-year-olds will enter the system. Most first-year students were taking the classes for the first time, with just over 4% needing to repeat the year or having changed their study programmes.

General programmes saw 35% of all upper secondary school pupils in Slovenia in 2018/19, 61% of these girls. In contrast, 46.2% of all pupils were enrolled in technical programme, and 47% of these were girls, while and 18% of all pupils were in vocational education (30% of them girls). Over the last 8 years the share or students going to vocational and technical schools has increased by 5%

Seventy-four percent of male pupils are in technical and vocational schools, especially in technical fields (39% of all male pupils) and computing (11%). In contrast,, 56% of female pupils are in technical and vocational programmes, with the focuses being personal services (13% of all female pupils), health (12%) and business and administration (10%).

An overview of the education system in Slovenia

The following video, produced in 2017 and published by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport (Ministrstvo za izobraževanje, znanost in šport)  introduces the education system in Slovenia, from pre-school to university.

All our stories on education in Slovenia can be found here, while more statistics can be found here

STA, 15 July 2019 - The National Council, the upper chamber of parliament, vetoed on Monday legislative changes that cut state funding for private primary schools, arguing the cut was in opposition to the Constitutional Court decision ordering that funding be equalised with that for public schools.

The veto could spell trouble for the controversial changes, adopted last week in a 42:36 vote after a tug-of-war over the interpretation and enforcement of a 2014 top court ruling.

For the lower chamber to override veto, the changes would require absolute majority, meaning 46 MPs. The repeat vote is expected to be held on Thursday, but Gregor Perič of the Modern Centre Party (SMC), the coalition party that abstained from voting last week, already confirmed today the SMC would not change its mind and could not support the bill.

He said the SMC was not afraid of its decision having political consequences, arguing the party had played with open cards all along.

The councillors who filed the veto proposal argued the changes mean a cut in funds and run contrary to the December 2014 decision of the Constitutional Court that ordered full state funding for publicly approved curricula.

The opponents of the changes claim the legislator introduced an unfair distinction between publicly approved curricula and those that obtained public certification, the latter applying for private schools.

The changes introduce full state funding for the segment of private schools curricula corresponding with the public curricula, but completely scrap state funding for additional programmes, which continue to be covered for public schools.

Until now, private schools got 85% of the total state funding received by public schools. Opponents of the changes say that the cut also affects programmes that are part of compulsory primary education, which runs against public interest.

Education Minister Jernej Pikalo defended the changes today, arguing they were in line with the Constitutional Court ruling.

He said international documents also clearly stated that while the state should enable parents to raise their children in line with their world view, the state was not obliged to fund this.

A special commission of the National Council met ahead of today's vote to reject the veto proposal 6:1, with its chair Branimir Štrukelj arguing that private education caused segregation.

National Council president Alojz Kovšca disagreed, saying this was a political and ideological issue, while some councillors argued there are regions in Slovenia where parents do not have the option to send their child to a private school at all.

The opposition right-leaning parties rejected the changes last week. While the Left backed the coalition to help pass them, the SMC abstained from voting.

All our stories in education are here

STA, 11 July 2019 - Although there are no courses and exams at Slovenian universities during the summer break, several faculties organise a number of activities, with summer schools for students from around the globe becoming increasingly popular.

It is the summer schools organised by the University of Ljubljana's Faculty of Economics and Faculty of Arts that have the longest tradition and attract many students.

The Faculty of Economics launched the 20th Ljubljana Summer School this week, termed Take the Best from East and West.

Interest in it growing, so over 400 students from more than 90 higher education establishments from almost 40 countries are attending.

While the first summer school in 2000 featured 35 students from five countries, the faculty has hosted more than 4,000 students since then.

This year's three-week programme features 30 internationally acclaimed lecturers teaching 25 courses.

The faculty says its summer school is one of the largest summer schools of business and economics in Europe.

Courses, held in English, are also open to Slovenian students and all those who wish to improve their knowledge of various aspects of economics.

While one segment offers graduate and post-graduate courses in business, economic and business law, and business English, the other one focuses on Slovenian culture.

Apart from getting an unforgettable experience, students take an exam at the end of the summer school to get additional credit points they can use at their faculties.

Having just completed the the Faculty of Social Sciences' summer school, Angelika Lomat, a Belarus studying in Poland, says it was an exceptional experience.

The 4th Academia Aestiva Internationalis, which was attended by 20 students from eleven countries, was her first summer school "an experience I'd like to repeat".

"It was an incredible opportunity to meet experts from different areas and share your own experience with students from other countries," she has told the STA.

The Faculty of Arts, or its Centre for Slovenian as a Second and Foreign Language, has organised the Slovenian language summer school for the 38th year running.

More than 100 foreigners from 32 countries could choose a two- or a four-week Slovenian language course to improve their reading, writing and speaking skills.

The faculty's department of Slavic studies meanwhile organised the 55th seminar of Slovenian language, literature and culture.

Since the century of the University of Ljubljana and of Prekmurje's reunification with Slovenia is observed in 2019, the seminar's focus is on 1919 as reflected in the language and culture.

The seminar has brought together students, university teachers, Slavic studies experts, translators and other scholars from 26 countries.

Slovenian language courses are also organised at the University of Primorska, which is based in the coastal town of Koper.

Its Faculty of Humanities has organised the 26th summer course of Slovenian language dubbed Hallo, Slovenia's Mediterranean Calling!, offering not only language studies and an insight into Slovenian culture but also two relaxed weeks at the seaside.

STA, 10 July 2019 - The National Assembly passed on Wednesday the controversial government-sponsored changes to the law on the financing and organisation of education which alter the way in which the state funds private primary schools.

The bill was backed in a 42:36 vote despite criticism, also among some coalition parties, that it falls short of implementing a constitutional court decision on 100% state funding of publicly approved curricula at private primary schools.

It sets down the state fully financing publicly approved curricula at private primary schools, but any publicly approved curricular content considered above-standard (pre- and after-school classes etc) will be exempted from state funding.

Since both programmes are now funded 85%, the new legislation means the amount of public funds received by private primary schools will drop.

The bill has been strongly criticised by two centre-right opposition parties and by parents of the children going to half a dozen private primaries for not providing 100% funding as ordered by the court in December 2014.

It has also been criticised by the government and parliament's legal services, which warned it could be unconstitutional, noting it would worsen the legal position of private primary schools with parents paying more for their children's education.

But the new financing regime will not apply to those who are already in primary school. It will only start applying to those who start primary school in the 2020/2021 school year.

The changes were backed by four of the five coalition parties with the help of the opposition Left and both minority MPs.

The coalition Modern Centre Party (SMC) abstained, while the opposition Democrats (SDS), New Slovenia (NSi) and National Party (SNS) voted against.

Defending his bill after the vote, Education Minister Jernej Pikalo of the Social Democrats (SD) said parliament "draw a clear line between private and public education".

He said this concept had already been set down in the 1995 White Paper on Education, and had now only been confirmed in parliament.

"It is not about whether I'm happy or not. My key task is to try to improve the education system," he said, adding he was not worried about a constitutional review.

Stressing many laws are sent to the Constitutional Court, Pikalo said "this is a normal process in a democracy ... Every branch of power has its own tasks and does its part of the job".

As reflected by the vote, today's parliamentary debate brought no convergence of stances on the legislation.

The Left's Miha Kordiš, however, explained the party had decided to support the bill "because it does not improve the status of private schools".

The party believes that public money should be spent on public schools, and that the Constitution should be changed to draw a clear line between private and public.

Tomaž Lisec of the SDS accused the supporters of the bill of cutting the funds for private primary schools, thus causing discrimination "because of leftist ideology".

Gregor Perič of the SMC said "the bill is far from what we should do".

His party colleague Igor Zorčič added that "if the court said the 85% funding is too low for private schools, we cannot pass a bill which further cuts the funds".

Jožef Horvat of the NSi believes the rule of law is at stake in this case. "If the legislator was not able to change a simple article in four and a half years to implement the court decision, then we have a problem with the rule of law."

He noted that only 0.84% of primary school children go to private schools, so another EUR 300,000 spent on them would be no problem for the national budget.

Aljaž Kovačič of the Marjan Šarec Party (LMŠ) assessed the court decision was not that straightforward as some would like to think, but said the LMŠ trusted Pikalo that the bill implemented it.

Supporting the bill, Maša Kociper of the Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) wondered whether it was reasonable that a mere "nine Constitutional Court judges decide on the most vital social issues".

Matej Tonin (NSi), on the other hand, reiterated his view that the court should first annul the new law and then implement its decision from 2014 itself.

Disappointment was also expressed by the parents of the children going to private schools.

They hope the bill will be vetoed by the upper chamber and then voted down when it is put to a revote in the lower chamber, where it will need at least 46 votes.

Marko Balažic of the United Parents civil initiative warned the bill would introduce elitism, as many parents could not afford to pay the school fee any more.

The school fee for the publicly approved curriculum will more than double, with the cost of the above-standard curriculum also rising, he said.

Balažic said that Prime Minister Marjan Šarec had sacrificed the rule of law for the survival of the ruling coalition.

All our stories on education in Slovenia are here

STA, 1 July 2019 - The parliamentary Education Committee has endorsed, in a narrow vote, a controversial government-sponsored bill designed to implement a 2014 Constitutional Court decision under which the state must provide 100% funding for publicly approved curricula taught at private primary schools.

The committee on Monday rejected all amendments, so the changes to the law on financing education will now be put to vote at a plenary in the form adopted by the government in early June.

Under the changes, the state is to finance fully publicly approved curricula at private primary schools. However, any publicly approved curricular content considered above-standard (pre- and after-school classes etc) will be exempted from state funding. At the moment, both programmes are funded 85%.

This is what the centre-right Democrats (SDS) and New Slovenia (NSi), pushing for full state funding of all services, had tried to change with their amendments.

The amendments filed by four coalition parties, which had acted after the parliament's legal service found the changes rather problematic, were also voted down.

However, unofficial information indicates further changes are possible, as the coalition has not yet given up on trying to come to an acceptable model of financing.

The coalition is apprehensive the bill, if passed as it is, would be sent into constitutional review and found unconstitutional again.

If the state provides no funds for publicly approved above-standard activities which are part of normal daily routine, the overall funds Slovenia spends on private primary schools would drop.

The parliament's legal service believes the lower amount of public funding would encroach upon the legal position of private primary schools.

One of the amendments filed today by the ruling Marjan Šarec List's (LMŠ) had thus tried to raise the funding a bit.

It said the state would fund part of the publicly approved extra-curricular activities such as classes for under- and over-performing students and morning day-care for first graders.

The amendment was a kind of a compromise reached by four coalition parties bar the Social Democrats (SD), which met before the committee session to negotiate a deal.

The SD, on the other hand, insists on the original bill, which was drafted by the Education Ministry, led by Jernej Pikalo from its ranks.

During the debate Marko Koprivc of the SD said the bill was in line with the court decision, and he was happy it would not dismantle the network of public schools.

"For us, it would be absolutely unacceptable to finance public and private schools equally. This would lead to further stratification," he said.

The debate on the committee was expectedly held along partisan lines, focussing on differing views on public vs private education.

SDS and NSi MPs said passing the bill unchanged would be in breach of the court decision.

Jožef Horvat of the NSi criticised the coalition for wanting to "destroy private schools". "The bill contains some very clear signals that private schools are not welcome in Slovenia," he said, adding Slovenia would most probably find itself before the European Court of Human Rights.

The opposition Left, meanwhile, called for changing the Constitution, arguing it is not clear about financing private schools.

Several MPs regretted though that the court decision, made four and a half years ago, had not yet been implemented.

The bill will now be sent into second reading in the National Assembly, which has recently already held a public debate on it.

All our stories on education are here

STA, 26 June 2019 - The parliamentary legal service has issued its opinion on the controversial bill on the funding of private primary schools related to a Constitutional Court decision, saying it is questionable in several places from the aspect of constitutional order, and even unconstitutional in certain points.

The nine-page opinion was issued after the bill passed first reading in the National Assembly last week and as the parliamentary Education Committee was scheduled to debate it again today, but postponed the session after the legal opinion was issued.

Under the bill, private primary schools are to get full state funding to teach publicly approved curricula, with pre-school or after-school classes, which are otherwise a normal part of daily life at school, not financed at all.

In the amendments to the act on the financing of education, which is meant to implement a 2014 Constitutional Court ruling mandating full rather than just 85% state financing of publicly approved curricula at private primaries, any curricular content considered as above-standard will be exempted.

The parliamentary legal service says in its opinion the main shortcoming of the bill is the "strict focus of the initiator on realising very narrowly defined goals".

The government proposes broader and, in certain points inconsistent, changes to the existing education system compared to those demanded by the Constitutional Court, while not providing well argued reasons for this, it added.

The legal service has also made remarks on concrete articles, including the one on the funding of private primary schools, establishing that the proposed amount of public funds for this purpose would actually be lower compared to the current amount.

"The lower amount of public funding thus encroaches upon the legal position of private primary schools," it says, adding that private schools could transfer the burden of financing on the student's parents.

According to the legal service, this worsens the legal position of students and their parents, who could not count on such an initiative from the government in the wake of the Constitutional Court's decision.

It adds that the government has failed to explain what the public interest is that justifies the worsening of the legal position of private primary schools and their students and their parents.

There is also no explanation in the bill as to why the government is abolishing the co-funding of the part of the extended programme which is uniformly specified for all primary schools in Slovenia.

The bill also opens up several questions about compliance with the general principle of equality before the law, it says, adding the proposal that the educational programme of private schools must differ from that in public schools is also disputable.

What is more, the differentiation between publicly approved curricula and curricula that have gained public validity could be disputable from the aspect of the constitutional right to the freedom of expression, and from the aspect of the constitutional prohibition of discrimination based on personal circumstances.

Following the legal service's opinion, coalition parties met to discuss the new development, opting to postpone the Education Committee's session. The committee then put the debate off by a few days.

MP Marko Koprivc of the Social Democrats (SD), who gave the initiative for the postponement, said they had only just received the legal service's opinion, so they had not had the time to study it yet.

Education Minister Jernej Pikalo welcomed the committee's decision to postpone the session, saying it was right the legal service's opinion was studied, "especially if we want to have quality legislation".

Nevertheless, he defended the solution to fund the mandatory part of publicly approved curricula 100% and not to fund any extra activities at all. He insists this is in line with the court's ruling.

However, since last week, the opposition has already filed a number of amendments. The Democrats (SDS) would not just like private primary schools which teach publicly approved curricula to get full state funding, they also propose that private music and secondary schools get 85% of its costs covered by the state.

During last week's parliamentary debate, only the parties of the minority coalition supported the bill, but some of them only under certain conditions. Some of them announced their final opinion would depend on the opinion of the parliament's legal service, so further changes during the legislative seem possible.

Other stories on this bill can be found here, while all our stories on education in Slovenia are here

STA, 6 June 2019 - The government has confirmed a controversial legislative motion under which private primary schools are to get full state funding to teach publicly approved curricula, but what constitutes curricula has been effectively narrowed to the extent that private schools are calling it a betrayal of constitutional commitments.

The amendments to the act on the financing of education implements a 2014 Constitutional Court ruling mandating full rather than 85% state financing of publicly approved curricula at private primaries.

But 100% financing refers only to a narrowly defined mandatory programme, with services such as pre-school or after-school classes, which are otherwise a normal part of daily life at school, not financed at all. Similarly, any curricular content considered as above-standard will be exempted.

The amendments would apply to students who will start school next year, while those currently enrolled would be subject to the financing scheme currently in place: 100% financing of mandatory curriculum and 85% financing of expanded curriculum.

But private schools say that the bill contravenes the landmark Constitutional Court decision since it would affectively reduce financing from 85% to around 65%.

Education Minister Jernej Pikalo said that the proposal was based on the ministry's interpretation of the court's decision that what must be funded was the mandatory programme, and not also the extended programme.

The minister stressed that the primary school act did not define the latter as mandatory, although the state was currently financing it.

Regarding the premise that private schools would not be competitive if they did not provide pre-school or after-school classes, he said that the "network of public schools where all this is organised is available to every parent".

"They meanwhile have every right to enrol their children in a private school," Pikalo said, adding that the state did not want to limit the private initiative in education, "which must be present".

"But every country can decide on their own to what extent it will finance this private initiative and what the entry conditions will be," the minister said at a press conference as he presented the changes.

The centre-right opposition has long been vociferously opposed to the proposal arguing that it actually circumvents the Constitutional Court decision, and even some coalition partners have been reserved.

The Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) said that the motion must not reduce the existing rights of private schools in this respect, while the Modern Centre Party (SMC) will listen to the opinion of the parliamentary legal service.

Brane Golubović, the head of the deputy group of the ruling Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ), said the party believed the minister, adding that "we will examine all remarks from the public debate and make our decisions based on that".

On the other hand, opposition New Slovenia (NSi) president Matej Tonin said on Twitter that the government's proposal actually lowered the financing of private school "to the ridicule of children, parents and the rule of law".