Slovenia is still lagging behind average tertiary educational attainment despite a marked increase in recent years, while it also boasts the smallest gender gap in earnings and high enrolment in pre-primary education, a report OECD has found.
The Education at a Glance 2014 report, covering the 34 OECD member countries, as well as a number of G20 and partner countries, finds that pre-primary education remains a priority in Slovenia, judging by high enrolment rates, high public investment and a high number of teaching hours.
The report notes a sharp increase in the kindergarten enrolment rate; for 3-year-olds the rate rose from 67% to 85% between 2005 and 2012 and that for 4-year-olds from 76% to 89%. The 2012 OECD average for 3-year-olds is 70%.
The student-to-teacher ratio in pre-primary education is one of the lowest among OECD countries, at only 9 students per teaching staff member. Slovenian kindergarten teachers spend 1,314 hours per school year teaching, which is well above the OECD average of 1,001 hours.
On a more down side, Slovenia remains below the OECD average in tertiary educational attainment with the proportion of adults who have attained such education at 26%, which compares to the OECD average of 32%.
Nevertheless, the rate has increased at an annual rate of 4.4% since 2000, when it stood at 16%.
Expenditure per student by tertiary educational institutions in Slovenia has also considerably increased since 2005.
The report also found that Slovenia has the smallest gender gap in earnings of OECD and partner countries with women earning 94% of what men earn, which is markedly above the OECD average of 80%. But Slovenia has a large difference in the earnings premium of a tertiary education between the genders.
Slovenian women are more likely to be unemployed than men. The unemployment rate among women is above the OECD average for every level of education.
Slovenia also has the highest difference in earnings premiums between the older and younger generations.
The report also finds that teachers' pay in Slovenia is considerably below the OECD average.
Source: The Slovenia Times
Photo source: eblencharities.org
