Informative Notice
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Private pre-school education with state-approved programmes
Pre-school education in nurseries is a part of the educational system and is provided in accordance with the principles of:
- democracy;
- pluralism;
- autonomy, professionalism and responsibility of employees;
- equal opportunities for children and parents with respect to differences among children;
- the right to choose and be different and
- the preservation of balance between various aspects of the physical and mental development of children.
The objectives of pre-school education in nurseries are:
- developing the ability to understand and accept yourself and others;
- developing the ability to make agreements, consider differences and participate in groups;
- developing the ability to recognise feelings and encouraging emotional experiences and expression;
- cherishing curiosity, an exploratory spirit, imagination and intuition and developing independent thinking;
- encouraging linguistic development for the effective and creative use of speech, and later also reading and writing;
- encouraging experience of works of art and artistic expression;
- transferring knowledge from different fields of science and from everyday life;
- encouraging physical development and
- developing independence in hygienic habits and in health care.
Applies for SKD:
- Pre-primary education P85.100
Conditions
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Applicants who wish to pursue this activity must register the business activity, and have the appropriate legal status.
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The providers of publicly valid education and training programmes are entered in the register. The register is administered by the ministry competent for education.
For performing education and training, kindergartens and schools must have professional staff with prescribed education, premises and equipment determined by the minister or the chamber that is authorised by the law.
Schools and kindergartens can perform the activity of education after being entered in the register managed by the ministry competent for preschool education or education. A kindergarten or school is entered in the register if the conditions determined for premises and equipment are ensured, if they have valid programme and if they attach the statement that the condition referring to ensuring professional staff with required education will be fulfilled until the start of the activity.
The application for the entry in the register at the ministry competent for preschool education or education is submitted by the management of the kindergarten or school. The application for entry must contain:
- name and company name, head office and identification number of the founder or name and surname, birth date, residence and identification number, if the founder is a natural entity;
- name and head office of the kindergarten or school;
- number and date of the act of incorporation;
- the name of the programme implemented by the kindergarten or school;
- public validity of the programme;
- statement of the managerial authority on ensuring the fulfilment of spatial, staff and equipment conditions of the statement by the management that the condition referring to ensuring professional staff with required education will be fulfilled until the start of the activity.
The management of the kindergarten or school is responsible for the truthfulness of data and statements under criminal and damage liability. If there is doubt on ensuring the conditions, the ministry can request the submission of additional evidence on ensuring the conditions for the implementation of activities in the first year after the registration prior to making the entry in the register.
If special knowledge is required for establishing or assessing a fact and the official person doesn’t have such knowledge, the minister appoints an expert or commission that establishes whether the provider fulfils the prescribed conditions for performing the education activities.
If the provider fulfils the conditions for entry in the register, the minister issues a decision on the entry into the register.
Data changes must also be entered in the register. The provider must send any modification of data entered in the register within 30 days upon their occurrence.
The kindergarten or school is deleted from the register:
- if the publicly valid programme is terminated;
- if a final judgement was issued to prohibit the implementation of the publicly valid programme;
- upon the inspections' proposal, if the school or kindergarten does not act in accordance with the final inspection decision that refers to the provision of conditions necessary for entry in the register;
- if it ceases to exist.
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The name of kindergartens and schools, except kindergartens and schools whose founder is a self-governing ethnic community, must be Slovenian.
Foreign personal names that are part of the name of a kindergarten or school are written in accordance with Slovenian spelling, or with Italian or Hungarian spelling if it involves the name of a kindergarten and school whose founder is a self-governing ethnic community.
In addition to the aforementioned information, the name of a private kindergarten or school must also include a mark that the kindergarten or school is private.
Legal basis
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Education in kindergartens and schools is carried out in Slovenian.
In areas where Slovenians and members of the Italian ethnic community live, and which are defined as ethnically mixed areas, also kindergartens and schools are established where education is carried out in Italian (kindergartens and schools in the language of the ethnic community) pursuant to this Act and a special act.
In areas where Slovenians and members of the Hungarian ethnic community live, and which are defined as ethnically mixed areas, bilingual kindergartens and schools are established where education is carried out in Slovenian and Hungarian (bilingual kindergartens and schools) pursuant to this Act and a special act.
Legal basis
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Schools and kindergartens must have a seal.
The content and shape of seals of private kindergartens and schools are determined in their Articles of Association.
Legal basis
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Kindergartens with 15 groups must have a full-time head teacher. If a kindergarten has less than 15 groups, the head teacher, in order to achieve full work obligation, carries out 1.5 hours of work with children or 2 hours of consultations per week for every two groups less than 15.
In kindergartens with over 17 groups, the head teacher may appoint deputy head teacher who, in order to achieve full work obligation, must carry out 13.5 hours of work with children or 18 hours of consultations per week. For every two groups over 17, the obligation of the deputy head teacher is reduced by 1.5 hours of work with children or 2 hours of consultations per week.
In an organisational unit of a kindergarten with 17 groups, the head teacher is employed full time and carries out 4.5 hours of work with children or 6 hours of consultations per week. For every two groups less, the head teacher, in order to achieve full work obligation, carries out 1.5 hours of work with children or 2 hours of consultations per week.
Head of a kindergarten unit may be a nursery teacher or a counsellor. The head teacher may also authorise deputy head teacher as head of a kindergarten unit, who carries out this work within their tasks. In a kindergarten unit within school and in an institution that is not kindergarten, the head teacher appoints full time deputy head teacher as a pedagogic and organisational head of the kindergarten unit if the unit has at least nine groups or a proportional share if there are less groups. To achieve full work obligation, deputy head teacher carries out 15 hours of work with children or 20 hours of consultations per week. For every two groups more, the obligation of is reduced by 1.5 hours of work with children or 2 hours of consultations per week.
When deputy head teacher is the pedagogical head of several kindergarten units within schools or in institutions that are not kindergartens, they achieve full work obligation when they provide pedagogical management to 20 groups. For every two groups less, deputy head teacher carries out 1.5 hours of work with children or 2 hours of consultations per week.
Legal basis
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Prior to commencing the programme for pre-school children, private kindergartens must acquire a positive opinion of the Expert Council of the Republic of Slovenia for General Education on the suitability of the programme, and publish it in a publication.
Legal basis
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Kindergartens must present programmes they carry out, their objectives, contents and methods of work to parents in a special publication. Private kindergartens must also publish in their publications the opinion of the Expert Council of the Republic of Slovenia for General Education on the suitability of programmes.
Legal basis
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Municipalities may require kindergarten to submit to them information on the number of spots ensured for pre-school children, the number of vacancies available for parents, and the information on the anticipated waiting period which is the period from the enrolment of a child in a kindergarten to the possibility of their inclusion in the kindergarten. Municipalities need such information to establish a publicly accessible record on the situation regarding capacities of kindergartens in their area.
The aforementioned information are submitted by kindergartens regularly or at least once monthly also to the ministry responsible for pre-school education which must establish an information point for users on the situation regarding capacities of kindergartens throughout Slovenia.
Legal basis
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Private kindergartens are entitled to funds from the budget of the municipality if they meet the following conditions:
- if they carry out at least a half-day programme;
- if at least one group of pre-school children are included;
- if they have employees or nursery teacher and assistants provided in another manner to implement the programme in accordance with the law and other regulations, and
- if they are available to all children.
Legal basis
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Organisation and detailed content of life and work are determined by kindergartens in annual work plans adopted by the kindergarten council. Annual work plans also determine
- the organisation and business hours of the kindergarten,
- programmes of the kindergarten,
- education and care of children in educational families,
- allocation of children in groups,
- work of expert and other workers,
- cooperation with parents,
- cooperation with educational,
- health care and other organisations,
- mentoring of trainees,
- activities to integrate the kindergarten in the environment,
- cooperation with schools that educate workers in the field of pre-school education,
- regular training programmes for workers in the kindergarten,
- work programme for expert bodies of the kindergarten, and
- staff, material and other conditions required for education.
The parts of the proposed annual work plan which have financial effects on the budget of the founding municipality, and especially parts regarding the type and number of groups, the number of children in a group, the number of expert workers, and business hours must be harmonised with the competent body of the founding municipality.
Legal basis
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The type and number of groups, and the number of children in a group are determined by kindergartens in agreement with the local community which is the founder of kindergartens. Groups are formed for the duration of a school year prior to the commencement of the school year. When forming groups, it is considered that children who will be at least three years old by the end of the calendar year are part of second age groups. Calendar year is taken into account to determine age ranges. Play area per child is also taken into account when determining the number of children in a group.
First age groups may include:
- a minimum of nine and a maximum of 12 children if the group is homogeneous in terms of age;
- and a minimum of seven and a maximum of ten children if the group is heterogeneous in terms of age.
Second age groups may include:
- a minimum of 12 and a maximum of 17 children if the group is homogeneous in terms of age (3–4 years of age);
- a minimum of 17 and a maximum of 22 children if the group is homogeneous in terms of age (4–5 and 5–6 years of age);
- and a minimum of 14 and a maximum of 19 children if the group is heterogeneous in terms of age.
The founder or the competent body in a kindergarten may determine with a decision a lower number of children in individual groups than described above. It may also determine the lowest number of children when the kindergarten must commence or conclude the business hours of the kindergarten. If a kindergarten unit has only one group, the norm for homogeneous groups may be taken into account when forming heterogeneous groups if up to five children were rejected.
A maximum of seven children from the first age group may be included in a combined group. If four or more children from the first age group are in a group, the presence of the nursery teacher and assistant increases to five hours per day. The norm for combined groups applies if a group includes at least three children from the first age group.
If the first age group includes one or two children who exceed the age range of one year or if the second age group includes four such children or less, the norm for homogeneous groups applies.
Legal basis
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If kindergartens organise activities outside the building and play area of the kindergarten, each group must have at least one more adult assistant in addition to the nursery teacher for better safety. If activities include transport, groups must be accompanied by at least two adult assistants in addition to the nursery teacher.
When learning to swim, ski, skate and other similar activities outside kindergarten, a group may be composed of a maximum of eight children. One of the assistants must be a nursery teacher at the kindergarten the children attend.
Legal basis
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To implement pre-school education and monitor activities, and for statistical purposes, kindergartens keep the following records:
- a record of enrolled children and a record of included children;
- a record of payments;
- a record of children who need counselling or assistance;
- a record of persons who occasionally babysit at the child's home;
- and a record of beneficiaries of co-financing of payments from the national budget.
Personal information is collected directly from the parents of children to who information refers, and from other official records of personal and other information managed in Slovenia by authorised state authorities, bodies of self-governing local communities and holders of public authority.
Legal basis
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The information from records of enrolled children is kept until the children have been included in a kindergarten when it is transferred to records of included children, or until the validity of the waiting list with enrolled children has expired. The information about a child whose parents have withdrawn their application for the enrolment of the child is erased from the record of enrolled children.
The information from records of included children is erased by kindergartens one year after children have left the kindergarten. The information from records of payments and records of social position of families is erased after the purpose for their entry has been met.
Provisions regarding the management, use and storage of databases of personal information also apply to the use and storage of documents on the basis of which personal information has been collected.
Kindergartens may submit information from databases to the ministry responsible for pre-school education for it to carry out tasks determined by law. Kindergartens and local communities may provide the information from their record to other administrative authorities or organisations if they are authorised by law to use such information.
Personal information may be used and published in a manner that does not disclose the identity of persons.
Legal basis
Cross-border/temporary provisions of activity
Zasebne vrtce in šole lahko ustanovijo tudi tuje fizične ali pravne osebe, ki morajo izpolnjevati iste pogoje kot domače fizične ali pravne osebe.