This Act regulates the requirements for the performance of educational activities and defines the governance and financing of education in the following areas:

The contents and procedures for the adoption of education programs for preschool children and their funding as well as the qualification requirements and work load of educators shall be defined by law.

The stipulations of this Act and the Act regulating the specific rights of the Italian and the Hungarian national minority shall apply to preschool institutions and schools offering education to the members of the Italian and the Hungarian national minority.

The education system in the Republic of Slovenia shall aim at:

Educational activities in preschool institutions and schools shall be carried out in the Slovene language.

Pursuant to this Act and a special Act, preschool institutions and schools offering education and instruction in the Italian language (preschool institutions and schools in the language of the national minority) shall be established in ethnically populated by Slovene nationals and members of the Italian national minority and defined as ethnically mixed areas.

Pursuant to this Act and a special Act, bilingual preschool institutions and schools offering education and instruction in the Slovene and the Hungarian languages (bilingual preschool institutions and schools) shall be established in areas populated by Slovene nationals and the Hungarian national minority and defined as ethnically mixed areas.

At least one fourth of the members shall be professionals employed by preschool institutions, schools and institutions for the education of children and youth with special needs appointed by the Government upon the nomination by professional associations and societies in the field of humanities, social and natural sciences, engineering, arts, the field of school medicine as well as one representative of the Italian and the Hungarian national minority. The representatives of the Italian and the Hungarian national minority shall be nominated by the national minorities.

The Council of Experts of the Republic of Slovenia for General Education shall:

National minorities shall act as cofounders of public preschool institutions or schools providing education in the language of the national minority or bilingual education.

Public preschool institutions, public schools or education institutions for children and youth with special needs may be founded in ethnically mixed areas, areas along the state border, in areas with special developmental problems, in cases when a single school offering a particular education program in the state is being established, and for the education of children and youth with special needs even if the requirements of the preceding paragraphs are not met.

Prior to the appointment or removal of principals, the councils of public preschool institutions or schools shall obtain the opinion of the institution�s faculty and the local community where the seat of the institution is located; if a public preschool institution or school is founded by a national minority, the national minority�s opinion is also required.

The name of preschool institutions or schools - with the exception of those cofounded by national minorities in accordance with Paragraph 4 of Article 41 - shall be in the Slovene language.

Foreign names of persons, forming part of a preschool institution�s or school�s name, shall be written according to the Slovene orthography or the orthography of the Italian or Hungarian languages, respectively, when a preschool institution or school cofounded by a national minority in accordance with paragraph 4 of Article 41 of this Act is concerned.

The state budget shall also provide funding for investments in vocational, technical and other professional secondary schools, gymnasia, schools and institutions for children and youth with special needs, primary schools for national minorities, post-secondary vocational colleges, dormitories for secondary-school students and other schools founded by the state.

The state budget shall also provide the following funding for activities and tasks supporting the performance of educational activities:

In compliance with the criteria and standards, local community budgets shall provide funding for:

Public schools shall be funded in compliance with the criteria and standards determined by the minister. Before determining the criteria and standards, the minister shall obtain the opinion of the respective council of experts and representative trade unions in the field of education.

Special criteria and standards shall be determined for education:

Educators in preschool institutions and schools offering bilingual education and the education in the languages of the minority in ethnically mixed regions shall posses professional qualifications stipulated by this Act and other regulations, a teaching certificate and meet other requirements in compliance with special regulations.

Employees of the preceding paragraph shall have qualifications stipulated by the job specification, shall posses the fluent knowledge of the Slovene language, and - in preschool institutions and schools offering bilingual education in ethnically mixed regions - also the language of the national minority.

In compliance with the law and collective agreement regulating the full-time weekly workload, the weekly teaching load of teachers shall amount to:

In compliance with the law and collective agreement regulating the full-time weekly workload, the weekly teaching load of teachers shall amount to:

Till the adoption of education programs in compliance with this Act and acts for individual fields of education, funding shall be provided for education programs carried out by public schools and schools with a concession as follows:

1. In primary education:

2. In secondary education:

Source: Report submitted by the Republic of Slovenia pursuant to Art. 25 Para. 1 of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
http://www.humanrights.coe.int/minorities/Eng/FrameworkConvention/StateReports/2000/slovenia/slovenia.html#annex2