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Eurydice

EACEA National Policies Platform:Eurydice
Teachers and education staff
Slovenia

Slovenia

9.Teachers and education staff

Last update: 27 November 2023

The education, training and working conditions of education staff at kindergartens and schools, as well as academic staff in higher education institutions are specified by common national laws (employment relationships, civil servants, salary system of civil servants, etc.) and sector specific law.

The relevant legislation provides for the qualification of education staff, as well as the elements of field-typical working conditions.

By law, the preschool teachers must have the first cycle degree or equivalent, and the basic school and upper secondary school teachers (with few exceptions) the second cycle degree or equivalent.

The educational qualification requirements for teachers of general subjects in basic and upper secondary school are the same. The ones for teachers of professional and practical subjects in vocational and adult education include relevant requirements for practical experience, proper skills and specific knowledge. All education staff at all must have the relevant pedagogical qualification.

As a standard, the short-cycle higher vocational education lecturers must have the second cycle degree or equivalent, as well as pedagogical-andragogic training. They also must have relevant work experience and must have achieved noteworthy results in the field. It is anticipated that they have in-depth theoretical knowledge research skills: third cycle degree.

The higher education teachers must have the third cycle degree, while higher education teachers in arts, lecturers and lectors the relevant second cycle degree. By law they must have the pedagogical skills for them to be verified.

The education staff at all levels of public education are public employees. Public employees' salaries, labour relations and retirement are provided for in a single national framework. The Employment relationships Act provides for employment, concluding and terminating contracts, single 40-hour weekly workload, types and forms of labour relations, payments, holidays, and so forth. Individual rights from labour relations are subject to negotiations between the government and unions and are regulated by collective agreements. The special law regulates the obligatory pension and disability insurance by virtue of intergenerational solidarity.

School legislation provides for:

  • Profiles of teachers at individual levels of educational system (from preschool to short-cycle higher vocational education)
  • Common educational qualification requirements (level, professional knowledge, command of medium of instruction)
  • Powers of decision on contents of their education as to the subject or subject field of instruction
  • Professional initiation and taking the professional examination
  • Powers and procedures of employment and termination of employment
  • Specific features of working conditions (field of work, teaching time, promotion), and
  • CPD.

The areas are specified in more detail with rules and orders by the minister responsible for education and with support by the relevant council of experts and in communication with the trade union of education.

The legislation also provides for the education staff.

The Organisation and financing of education Act specifies the two at all levels of education from preschool teachers to teachers at higher vocational colleges. Special features of education at relevant levels are specified by the Kindergarten Act and Short-cycle higher vocational education Act.

The Higher education Act specifies academic staff, namely: academic staff titles, educational qualification and requirements for election to title and the relevant procedure, working and pedagogical load, as well as the common right to continuous professional development. The institutions specify greater detail with their internal rules (statutes) the criteria and requirements for election to titles and election procedures, posts, selection of employment candidates, as well as distribution of pedagogical work up to the upper limit as specified by law. On adopting criteria and requirements for election to titles the institutions apply standards of quality as specified by the Slovenian quality assurance for higher education (NAKVIS). All the listed laws apply to the pedagogical-andragogic staff in the adult education organisations that provide officially recognised programmes, as well, namely at separate levels and alongside the Adult education Act.