Education in Croatia
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This article is about education in Croatia.
Education is defined as a constitutional right in Croatia: the Constitution of Croatia section 65 defines primary education as mandatory and free, while secondary and higher education as equally available to all.
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[edit] Educational system
Although the Croats have experienced several wars in the century, they have still been able to surpass these impediments and continue on with their established educational system.
Primary and secondary education is essentially free because it is mostly sponsored by the Ministry of Education of the Croatian Government. Higher education is also mostly free because the government funds all public universities and allows them to set quotas for free enrollment, based on students' prior results (usually high school grades and their result at the set of exams at enrollment).
However, due to the low wages that teachers are being paid there are shortages of teachers throughout Croatia. This shortage of teachers has become an ongoing problem due to the numerous amounts of educational programs in Croatia.
Much criticism has been emphasized towards the students' participation rate in the classroom and their implementation of policies. According to Joseph Lowther, the Croatian “shares of education expenditure are 4% of the GDP which is well under the European average”.
Croatia became a signatory to the Prague communiqué (Bologna declaration) in 2001, thereby promising to adjust its system of higher education to the so-called Bologna process by 2010. The first students enrolled under the new setup in the academic year 2005/2006.
In 2005, the Croatian Government decided to start a redesign of the programme of primary and secondary education under the title Hrvatski nacionalni obrazovni standard (Croatian national educational standard). In the school year 2005/2006, a new system was tested in 5% of the primary schools.
[edit] Early childhood education
The early childhood development education is organized in kindergartens, which are not compulsory. Children can be enrolled in the kindergartens at the age of 1.
There are over 450 various kindergartens in the country, most of them are state-run, although there are also private ones. There are many kindergartens integrated with primary schools.
[edit] Primary education
Croatian elementary education consists of eight years, and it is compulsory. Children begin schools at the age of 6 or 7.
The grade schools are split in two stages:
- 1st through 4th grade, being taught by one teacher per class, with subjects such as Croatian, mathematics, visual art (likovna kultura), nature and society (priroda i društvo) and sometimes, English
- 5th through 8th grades, where different teachers teach different subjects, with added subjects such as history, geography, biology, chemistry, physics, and in addition to English, sometimes a second language (usually German or French) etc.
Since the primary school became compulsory (during SFRY?), the literacy rate in Croatia has risen to substantial levels. A large majority of children do manage to complete the grade school.
The grade in which children are first taught foreign languages differs from school to school and also depends on availability of additional courses selected by parents. Some schools teach English as soon as the first grade, but more commonly it is taught beginning with the 4th or 5th grade. The most popular foreign languages are English, German, Italian and French.
People who have completed only primary education are classified as "unqualified workers" (nekvalificirani radnik or NKV) by the employment bureaus.
There are currently around 870 primary schools in Croatia. The public primary schools are under the jurisdiction of local government, the cities and municipalities.
[edit] Secondary education
Secondary education is currently optional, although most political parties now advocate the stance that it should also become compulsory.
Secondary schools in Croatia are subdivided into:
- gymnasiums (with three available educational tracks; jezična gimnazija (with at least three foreign languages required), klasična gimnazija (with a curriculum centered around classics, namely Latin and Ancient Greek) and opća gimnazija (which covers a general education and is not as specific)
- vocational schools
Gymnasiums, schools of economics and schools of engineering take four years. There are also some vocational schools that last only three years.
Secondary schools supply students with primary subjects needed for the necessary work environment in Croatia. People who completed secondary school are classified as "medium expertise" (srednja stručna sprema or SSS).
There are currently around 90 gymnasiums and some 300 vocational schools in Croatia. The public secondary schools are under the jurisdiction of regional government, the counties.
[edit] Higher education
Pupils can enroll into two basic kinds of higher education:
- polytechnic schools (veleučilište), higher level education
- universities (sveučilište), highest level education
The distinction between the programs taught at universities and polytechnics used to be the length of studies and the final classification of the students - but this line is being blurred by the implementation of the Bologna process. Previously, the veleučilište approximately matched the German concept of Fachhochschule.
People who previously completed a veleučilište are classified as having "higher expertise" (viša stručna sprema or VŠS). People who previously completed a sveučilište are classified as having "high expertise" (visoka stručna sprema or VSS). It was also possible to enroll in post-graduate studies and earn the distinctions of magistar and also doktor znanosti (PhD).
Since the Bologna process, the levels of expertise are:
- Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts (prvostupnik)
- Master of Science and Master of Arts (magistar)
- Doctor of Science and Doctor of Arts (doktor)
There are currently twelve public polytechnic schools in Croatia, located in Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Karlovac, Vukovar, Gospić, Knin, Požega, Rijeka, Varaždin, Slavonski Brod and Šibenik; and one private polytechnic in Velika Gorica. There are also nineteen independent colleges (Croatian visoka škola), of which seventeen are private.
There are seven universities in seven larger cities:
- University of Zagreb
- University of Split
- University of Rijeka
- University of Osijek (named "Josip Juraj Strossmayer")
- University of Zadar
- University of Dubrovnik
- University of Pula
Each of the universities in Croatia is composed of many independent "faculties" (Croatian fakultet, meaning college or department). Each independent college or department maintains its own administration, professional staff (also known as a "faculty") and campus. The colleges focus on specific areas of learning: Natural Sciences, Philosophy, Law, Engineering, Economy, Architecture, Medicine, and so on. Although a university's colleges or departments are usually located in the same city as the administration of the university, sometimes they are not. For example, Zagreb University's Faculty of Metallurgy is located in the city of Sisak.
[edit] Other educational institutions
There exist numerous public music schools (primary and secondary) and also public special education schools (or classes within regular schools).
There exist over thirty scientific institutes, the largest one being the Institute "Ruđer Bošković" in Zagreb that excels in physics. Among the other institutes there are for example the Energy Institute "Hrvoje Požar" in Zagreb, the Civil Engineering Institute of Croatia, etc.
The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb is a learned society promoting language, culture, and science from its first conception in 1836. (The juxtaposition of the words typically seen in English as "Arts and Sciences" is deliberate.)
[edit] References
- Bognar, Ladislav. "Country Reports on Education:Croatia:Problems and Perspectives in the Development of Schooling in Croatia" [1] 5 Sep 2007. Ladislav Bognar is Professor at the Pedagogical Faculty in Osijek.
- CIA World Factbook [2]
- Lowther, Joseph. "THE COMPETITIVENESS OF CROATIA'S HUMAN RESOURCES" OECD Economics Department Working Papers. Paris: OECD. 2002. The Quality of Croatian Formal Education: Washington. Obtained via the Croatian Institute of Public Finance 5 Sep 2007.
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